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What is the Difference Beween Poetry and Prose? - John Anderson's Blog

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I was born under the star sign 'Pisces' and as the saying goes "You can't get over that". I have life-long interests in water, fish, the sea, sailing and everything wet and aquatic. I have a scientific background in the environment and fisheries. I have written extensively on many topics. I have created and manage a gaggle of websites. I have now retired and live in the 'Shark Shack' by the sea near Jervis Bay, on the South Eastern coast of Australia. I sail, fish, walk, dive and swim as much as I can with the motto: 'Diving for Pearls'. My main focus is on didactic poems. I love the poems of Dylan Thomas and my favorite movie is 'Under Milk Wood' (a radio play, made into a film). I also like Les Murray. My website is Poetry Community http://www.poetrycommunity.com.  Cheers! 


What is the Difference Beween Poetry and Prose?

Blog Posted:7/24/2017 6:25:00 PM

Billy Collins said in an interview => "I write one line at a time. I’m a line-maker. I think that’s what makes poets different from prose-writers. That’s the main way. We think, not just in sentences the way prose writers do but also in lines. So we’re doing these two things at the same time. When I’m constructing a poem, I’m trying to write one good line after another. One solid line after another. You know a lot of the lines ... hold up better as lines than others. But I’m not thinking of just writing a paragraph and then chopping it up. I’m very conscious of the fact that every line should have a cadence to it. It should contribute to the progress of the poem. And that the ending of the line is a way of turning the reader’s attention back into the interior of the poem."  --- https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brisk-walk-billy-collins-conversation

Do you think 'lines' laid-out in stanzas vs 'sentences' strung out in paragraphs is the crux of the difference?



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Date: 7/25/2017 3:34:00 PM
I liked what you showed of Billy Collins' thoughts on the matter. Nice blog!
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Date: 7/25/2017 9:36:00 AM
What is good poetry or great poetry, falls in the same category as what is art. The answer will always be determined as much by who is seeing or reading as by the particular style and will the reader remember it at all after it is read or seen. If it is remembered, it really doesn't matter what we call it ;). [Nor does it matter WHY we recall it;).]
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Guzzi Avatar
Debbie Guzzi
Date: 7/25/2017 3:56:00 PM
Thanks, Andie!
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 7/25/2017 3:34:00 PM
I love how you said this, Debs.
Date: 7/25/2017 7:20:00 AM
Many of the most popular or want to be most popular here write sentence forms. Which is fine to do and some are really great story tellers. I'll remain quite there but I prefer lines leading a progression with multiple layers divulging different meanings to different people.
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Date: 7/25/2017 4:10:00 AM
I do not solely think in lines or sentences, but also in shape, form, effect. Structure, building blocks, so to speak. Spacing also, because it adds a dimension to punctuation.
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Smith Avatar
Tim Smith
Date: 7/25/2017 7:21:00 AM
That is true. Formatting and presentation can make or break a poem.
Date: 7/25/2017 3:29:00 AM
John for me poetry is prose, 'structured differently' according to evolved traditions (forms) and is at its best when read aloud,
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Date: 7/24/2017 7:20:00 PM
pretty much I think, yet the distinction has been more blurred I fear. Great writing with all the tools of poetry can be found in many a great book (it is what make great prose). Yet I contend that a poem should have more structure much like a short story is more condensed than a book, it should be more than prose broken to "look" like a poem---many modernists will disagree, but...?
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Anderson Avatar
John Anderson
Date: 7/24/2017 8:52:00 PM
In a way, prose re-structured as poetry can work and be poetry (why not!). The reverse never works.
Anderson Avatar
John Anderson
Date: 7/24/2017 8:47:00 PM
I think the layout and punctuation is a key difference. Keeping lines as entities like short pithy sentences helps.

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