Poetry Forum Group at eNotes

"Why do you think this resistance exists and what can we do to overcome...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:22:11 PST

"Why do you think this resistance exists and what can we do to overcome the attitude?" You can't be serious... You must really be in a "hey, let's ask what we think is an educated question about some obscure topic and revel in our own intellectually-inspired group of cronies" mood. Poetry is boring. It's just that simple.

The sun rises above the hillcrest,As does the joy of my heart;Rays of...

Sat, 5 Dec 2009 19:01:15 PST

The sun rises above the hillcrest,As does the joy of my heart;Rays of warmth and love,From her I will never depart.Fresh dew upon the grass,Young birds chirp in their nests;I watch her gently sleep,My love to her I silently profess.I enjoy the stillness and calm,Watching as she smiles and dreams;She brings me to stillness and peace,Like that of a slow flowing stream.My heart and soul flow with love,And I smile as I quietly reflect;I’ve been...

I think poetry is all about putting one's thoughts in such a way that...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:41:13 PST

I think poetry is all about putting one's thoughts in such a way that the reader gets emotionaly carried away and imagines or recollects some retrospects in life. Poetry cannot be considered as good or bad . It is just what appeals the reader which makes the poetry popular. Anyhow poets have the liscence to commit mistakes although the language should be flowery and acceptable to the reader. Malini

If prose has "no meter" or "artful construction" why are so many words...

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 21:39:07 PST

If prose has "no meter" or "artful construction" why are so many words in English composed of iambs and how is it that figurative language abounds in the writings of such as Thomas Hardy and many others? I concur with the "line" as the definitive mark of poetry.

Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the most troubling poems. Scholars...

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 01:03:08 PST

Milton's Paradise Lost is one of the most troubling poems. Scholars have even debated on the syntax of his lines. Ask any student where the subject is in the first line and you find it around line 20.

Yes indeed, the 'gettability' of a poem is almost always a difficult and...

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 23:46:37 PST

Yes indeed, the 'gettability' of a poem is almost always a difficult and doubtful proposition. There are many poems in all languages, poems old and new, which we don't really get through. Poems tend to tantalize lexically, syntactically, semantically. Sometimes poems leave us with a sense of genuine discomfort. Good poetry is not translatable, paraphrasable, not even understandable as a whole. It is invariably deviant, and seems to go beyond...

I believe that difference between good and bad poetry is also a matter...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:19:14 PST

I believe that difference between good and bad poetry is also a matter of personal likes and dislikes. Just as all people do not like the same kind of food, not all people like the same kind of poetry. At the most we can say that a good poetry is the poetry which is or will be liked and enjoyed by many people. Coming to the question of good versus bad poetry, I do not consider that bad poetry is exact opposite of good poetry. A poetry may be...

Happy to go through all the posts made so far.......... Is 'not good'...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:33:56 PST

Happy to go through all the posts made so far.......... Is 'not good' poetry 'bad' poetry? Would you agree if I say that the more acceptable divide should be between poetry and that which fails to be poetry? Does 'verse' stand in opposition to 'poetry'? Hopefully looking for more feedbacks.......

Good poetry is musical and flows from the tongue. It sticks with you...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:42:04 PST

Good poetry is musical and flows from the tongue. It sticks with you and makes you re-read it. It knocks you in the head and you react with an emotional response. You just know it when you read it that it's good.

From a literary perspective, good poetry achieves the poet's purpose...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:43:58 PST

From a literary perspective, good poetry achieves the poet's purpose through the effective use of language and literary technique. The purpose, among many possible, may be to explore a truth, recreate a moment, capture a feeling, paint a scene, ask a question, or develop an irony. A really good poem might do all of those at once. So, poetry can be admired from a technical standpoint, just as one can admire a painting for the painter's mastery...

I love poetry that provides powerful imagery. The English Romantics were...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:05:01 PST

I love poetry that provides powerful imagery. The English Romantics were masters of figurative language. Blake, Wordsworth, and Coleridge were among my favorite to read when I was in college and still are. Shakespeare is, in my opinion, the master of English poetry. To take the universal themes he treats, and to do them in iambic pentameter, demonstrates unparallelled mastery of the language. "Not good poetry" is pretentious and labored.

Good poetry is great ideas with the best words that someone remembers...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:00:58 PST

Good poetry is great ideas with the best words that someone remembers after reading. If it doesn't make a lasting impression, it hasn't done its job. I second Coleridge's statement: "The best words in the best order."

I like Coleridge's best words in the best order. In my experience,...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:35:40 PST

I like Coleridge's best words in the best order. In my experience, when a poet says something in a way that I might never have through of, in a way that makes the experience the poet is describing more real to me than it has ever been, then I know I'm reading "good" poetry. This is very clear to me in the plays of Shakespeare. When I read the soliquies of Hamlet, for instance, the experiences he speaks of are presented in a way that...

What is good poetry and what is not good poetry?

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:53:28 PST

When I remember Wordsworth's comment in the Preface to the 'Lyrical Ballads' that 'all good poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings', I wonder what Wordsworth meant by 'good poetry'. If we use the category, 'good poetry', there must be poetry which is not good. I would like to have your observations on this issue.What are the features of 'not good poetry'.

Prose, which is normal discourse has no meter, rhyme, or artful...

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:26:23 PST

Prose, which is normal discourse has no meter, rhyme, or artful construction.

Good poetry is made up of good ideas with the right words.

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:07:19 PST

Good poetry is made up of good ideas with the right words.

Good poetry has to be an honest & authentic communication of a...

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 04:25:37 PST

Good poetry has to be an honest & authentic communication of a sensitive & sensible mind. Since what is said is integrally connected with how it is said, the poet must be able to make a creative use of language. If it is metrical, metrics should be perfectly coherent with semantics.Good poetry is something truly memorable; it moves the reader immediately and leaves lasting impression. It should not be loud or tendentious, but subtle...

The most important test of good poetry for me is that I should enjoy...

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:41:01 PST

The most important test of good poetry for me is that I should enjoy reading, listening and reciting it. If I do not enjoy a poem it is not good for me. I am not making a judgement in absolute terms. A poem that is not enjoyed by me, may be enjoyed very much by others, and therefore it is good for them,but not for me. What exactly contributes to my pleasure in a poem there are three things in descending order of importance. The thoughts...

I am not very fond of poetry, but definitely there are many compositions...

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:27:39 PST

I am not very fond of poetry, but definitely there are many compositions that I like and enjoy very much. I am not very much in favour of describing someones dislike or indifference to a particular poem or even most of the poems as "resistance". It is quite possible that a person is not quite able to understand or appreciate a point being made or an emotion being expressed. In such cases, it is fine to explain the poem as best as you can, and...

Chambers's dictionary defines poetry as the essential quality of a poem,...

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:08:13 PST

Chambers's dictionary defines poetry as the essential quality of a poem, and a poem is defined as a composition of high beauty of thought or language and artistic form, typically, but not necessarily in verse. By this definition the main criteria to qualify as poem is "beauty". Unfortunately beauty is very subjective. As Shakespeare it "lies in the eyes of the beholder". But, I suppose, every poem is beautiful in the eyes of its composer, and...