Poetry Defined

Teachers of literature typically define poetry as anything other than prose. Even though this definition is true, it’s vague at best.

Poetry has been around for a long, long time. Some historians even believe that poetry in the form of oral tradition predated the practice of writing. You can find poems in every major movement, era, and time period in human history. Likewise, throughout the ages it has developed many forms.

The best way to define poetry is to describe the various forms that it takes.

Narrative poetry tells stories.  Lyric poetry is usually shorter and uses strong imagery to create an emotional effect.

Concrete poetry expresses the theme through the design and the placement of the words. Haiku are short Japanese poems focused on the theme of nature.

Sonnets are highly structured poems that make use of iambic pentameter and rhyme scheme.  Similarly, villanelles make use of refrains, stanza, and rhyme.

The modern free verse form has opened up even more possibilities for poets because ironically this “form” of poetry is defined as any poem that doesn’t fit the molds of the other forms.  It’s a form without a form.  The rules are whatever you make them.

Essentially poetry can be fun or serious.  It can be simple or complex. Most poets try to communicate a complex message in as few words as possible.

Recently, I was sitting in a conference session with well-known poets, Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger as they defined contemporary poetry perfectly. They called it “snapshot writing” and described it as “non-fiction focused through a creative lens.”

How appropriate.

If you think about it, much personal poetry today is non-fiction with a few exceptions.  Poetry takes our everyday encounters and transforms them into extraordinary experiences, whether for better or worse.  We poets paint pictures of our emotions that are too deep to describe with simple language.

Of course these are only a few of the many ways we could define poetry.

One thing is for sure.  Poetry is not simply anything other than prose.

It’s a unique form of linguistic expression that allows for much creativity and imagination.  Poets can play with words, sounds and techniques until they come up with the perfect mixture that expresses the exact meaning and emotions they want to express.

Therefore, you could say my personal definition of poetry is an artistic arrangement of words to capture an experience.

What is poetry to you?  Comment below your definition of poetry.