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Home » Poems & Poetry » Blogs » FORMED or FREE which will it be?

FORMED or FREE which will it be? - Brian Strand's Blog

About Brian Strand
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English experiential poet of open verse& creator of the FOOTLE (singular form)&EMAGI digital reverse ekphrasis.A regular @PS since 2007 ,with 9500+ poems posted&sponsor of 1260 contests ( Amazon books- (500+) reviews)GOOGLE my POETRY BLOGS @https://www.blogger.com/profile/02166493604739619406.Read an Ekphrasis e-book for free @ http://free-ekphrasis-ebook.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

FORMED or FREE which will it be?

Blog Posted:4/6/2017 3:06:00 AM

I read an artistic quote recently which said ' I use oils ,I'm not good enough to paint in watercolours......but one day!

Transporting this to our artform ....' I write in forms , I'm not good enough to write free verse.......but one day'

What do you think , is it true? .. have you found it to be true for your poetic creativity? 

Do you find more self fulfilment in one or the other?

 



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Grahamburglar Avatar
The
Grahamburglar
Date: 4/14/2017 8:50:00 PM
I'm not established enough of a writer to lump myself in one way or the other. I try to use forms, but usually screw up the meter. I try to use free-verse, but then find myself rhyming here and there. The good thing is that I don't really try hard to be one or the other. When I'm writing for myself, I just do whatever...unless I'm challenging myself to use a specific form just for the sake of doing it (or for a contest). -G
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Grahamburglar Avatar
The Grahamburglar
Date: 4/14/2017 8:51:00 PM
I guess I could add, that of my writings, it seems my personal favorites tend to be more free verse(but with occasional, or sporadic rhymes/internal rhymes etc).
La France Avatar
Constance
La France
Date: 4/8/2017 12:35:00 PM
I love both form and free but even in free verse there are some requirements. It's not all willy-nilly for example staggered lines, uneven stanzas, metaphors, similes, etc, it is not a narrative, well anyways that's what I think, could be totally wrong!
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Rt Avatar
Fm
Rt
Date: 4/8/2017 12:21:00 AM
I write in both, though admittedly I am much better when they are formed. Within free verse however, it is much easier to pour your heart out.
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Mark Avatar
Anthony
Mark
Date: 4/7/2017 7:55:00 AM
I think I am free verse, therefore I must be, I am unable to participate in form writing, my thingy will not allow me to wait for the words to catch up...I don't even know if I employ devices...woe is the novice in me
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Vinson Avatar
Doug Vinson
Date: 4/7/2017 11:32:00 AM
"my thingy will not allow me to wait for the words to catch up" Ha! Exactly, Anthony - roll as best and as fast as you can, in that case. : )
Strand Avatar
Brian
Strand
Date: 4/7/2017 3:39:00 AM
Formed or free ,content is key!
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Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/7/2017 9:14:00 AM
content and how that content is presented. FOR SURE.
Vinson Avatar
Doug
Vinson
Date: 4/6/2017 11:42:00 PM
Great blog thoughts and questions, Brian. : ) I think rhyme and free verse are equally fulfilling, though most of us will have an instinctive predilection one way or the other. Neither is really "easy to do," in my opinion - free verse can fail to carry the reader or turn the wrong way; rhyme can be heavy, strained, intrusive, etc. Perhaps it is foolishly romantic of me, but regardless of the form in which I write, I think inspiration has to come, a line or two, the germ of the main thrust of the poem, a kernel or two of substance, around which the rest will form. Yes, things can be crafted in tradesperson-like manner, yet IMO the result will rarely be as good.
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Dietrich Avatar
Andrea
Dietrich
Date: 4/6/2017 1:07:00 PM
Everyone leans one way or the other. It's like left handers and right handers. Right handers I would compare to the rhymers because most of us prefer it, so it predominates it. GOOD free verse for ME is "outside the box" and involves a different mentality. One must be focused more on other literary devices other than the standard ones of meter and rhyme. I love it when I am able to do an amazing free verse, but I find it much more natural to use metered forms. That is why I adore them.
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Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/6/2017 1:09:00 PM
Wish I were totally Poetically ambidextrous!
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea
Dietrich
Date: 4/6/2017 1:07:00 PM
Everyone leans one way or the other. It's like left handers and right handers. Right handers I would compare to the rhymers because most of us prefer it, so it predominates . GOOD free verse for ME is "outside the box" and involves a different mentality. One must be focused more on other literary devices other than the standard ones of meter and rhyme. I love it when I am able to do an amazing free verse, but I find it much more natural to use metered forms. That is why I adore them.
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Vinson Avatar
Doug Vinson
Date: 4/7/2017 11:31:00 AM
Hey, nothing at all wrong with meter, per se. IMO, free verse works best when the pacing itself communicates things from writer to reader. It can greatly harm a poem or raise it high.
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/7/2017 9:16:00 AM
thanks,Doug. Blank verse is iambic meter without the rhyme. Did you ever read my Iambic Skates? This is what I was born to do, skate on the ice of iambics. Even my dang free verse has meter in it. Crap.
Vinson Avatar
Doug Vinson
Date: 4/6/2017 11:36:00 PM
Andrea, was going to say that one of my all-time favorite poems in all the world - your 'And Sweet Is Her Demise' - is free verse, but in checking I see it's blank verse. Well, it would work sublimely well as free verse too. : )
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/6/2017 9:38:00 PM
Suz, Of course I remember our KOOKY Kookamonga days. That was where I got a LOT of inspiration that put me on the path to writing a lot more than I did in 2001. Thanks for what you told me. I always felt you were so much better than I at the free verse stuff. Wish I had that ability you have!!
Delaney Avatar
Suzanne Delaney
Date: 4/6/2017 1:32:00 PM
You are a natural at metered forms. It never seems forced and you are able to write entertainingly on so many topics. A born storyteller and I am one of your biggest fans, although I don't often have the time to tell you. Do you remember the days when you were WordWarrior & I was Pixordia? On Kookamonga Square ....LOL
Lawless Avatar
John
Lawless
Date: 4/6/2017 1:02:00 PM
Well, I have always encouraged my children to "color outside the lines" lest they be trapped by conformity to arbitrary norms....heheheee
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Savage Avatar
Erik
Savage
Date: 4/6/2017 11:27:00 AM
My experience is somewhat limited, and my writing is definitely growing and changing now that I am spending more time on it. I tend to prefer the structure and framework of forms. I am a sucker for strong meter and rhythm. It forces me to think a lot more about what I am trying to say and how I say it. I do get a sense of satisfaction when things finally fit together and seem right, That being said, I have to admit I am rather awed by some of the things I read on here that seem to be written so freely yet are so rich and full and complete without any obvious structure to hold them together.
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Krampe Avatar
Agnes
Krampe
Date: 4/6/2017 7:06:00 AM
Great question. As a classical singer, I have always felt drawn to metered and rhymed forms, because this comes naturally to me. But I also love writing free verse, and I wrestle with the nagging thought that I am taking the "easy way out" ( thinking of Robert Frost's "writing free verse is like playing tennis without the net"). Sometimes, rhyme and meter simply happen, and sometimes, a poem won't work in metered form and insists on being free verse. As a math lover, I also find joy in the puzzle aspect of working within the form - it forces me to think more. So I do both and have not settled on one particular style.
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Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/6/2017 1:05:00 PM
Agnes, I love Frost but i think his quote on free verse is not a very good one. FORM comes very natural for many of us but not for others. When people write free verse really WELL (which I do not see a lot of the time) they ROCK IT. I can write it, but I rarely feel like I hit a home run with it like I can do with my own metered style!
Delaney Avatar
Suzanne
Delaney
Date: 4/6/2017 6:37:00 AM
Robert Hass in comparing metered poems with Free Verse states:……the metrical poem begins with an assumption of human life which takes place in a pattern of orderly recurrence with which the poet must come to terms- Meter organizes accents into an overall pattern and more or less evenly times the lines bringing an organizing influence that allows the story to unfold. The Free verse poem…begins with an assumption of openness or chaos in which an order must be discovered. The basic fact of free verse: each poem is shaped from within. You’ll often hear a poet say they didn’t know where the poem would end when they began writing it but that it comes to them as a natural act of writing.”
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Delaney Avatar
Suzanne Delaney
Date: 4/7/2017 9:54:00 PM
As poets, we never stop learning and discussions like this help to clarify and re-inforce the poetic tools we are discovering. Will read this thread again tomorrow. Thanks Brian for an interesting blog and to Andrea, Doug and Chris for your input.
Delaney Avatar
Suzanne Delaney
Date: 4/7/2017 9:53:00 PM
I really enjoyed reading all your responses and have at different times came to many of the same conclusions the same conclusions on my writing journey.
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/7/2017 9:19:00 AM
The sense I am getting from comments here is that free verse is not totally free, like so many assume. It is difficult to do if one wants to perfect it. It is an ART and it may come quickly to a few,but I think just like a rhyme, it can be honed because for me, the best free verse actually have a type of organization or pattern to them. Best of all, a magic with words.
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 4/7/2017 9:17:00 AM
LOve how you think, Doug.
Vinson Avatar
Doug Vinson
Date: 4/6/2017 11:30:00 PM
For the reader of free verse - that order must be discovered, or there must be a time (whether all the way through, or at some time within, or at the end) when they really "get" the poem, and the beauty is revealed. Can happen in many ways, this handing-over from writer to reader.
Vinson Avatar
Doug Vinson
Date: 4/6/2017 11:27:00 PM
Great comment, Suzanne. Wise man Chris, too, below. Agreed that we may begin writing without knowing where we are going, and that along the way we find out, i.e. in some unconscious/mystical manner that way was there all along.
Delaney Avatar
Suzanne Delaney
Date: 4/6/2017 6:42:00 AM
For me I find I write mostly free verse but I find, using a form draws different responses from me. In looking for the right words I am distracted and suddenly thoughts are organized by following the form.
Puddifoot Avatar
Charlotte
Puddifoot
Date: 4/6/2017 3:59:00 AM
oh, free verse for me every time! when i write in form i feel as if i'm writing in a straitjacket, constricted...i find it frustrating; for example, if i'm writing in a syllabic form, i think to myself "oh f***, i want to use this word, but the syllable count won't let me!" i wrote free verse right from the start, but that's probably because i read mainly free verse; i only started experimenting with forms when i came here...having said all that, i do like some forms, but they have to have a very modern slant...i can see why some people like writing in form, because it's like painting inside a frame, but i like to daub the colours over the edge of the frame! lol
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Vinson Avatar
Doug Vinson
Date: 4/6/2017 11:19:00 PM
Charlotte, I hope you not only so daub, I hope you slather it on, clear to the other side of existence. :P : )
Strand Avatar
Brian
Strand
Date: 4/6/2017 3:09:00 AM
Apparently the thought behind the 'art' version of the quote is that mistakes are easier hidden with oils
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