What is poetry?

[sto67]

just a question to all of you to get your minds in focus. you all write, you all read, but do you ever think about what makes what you write "poetry"?

what makes poetry different from prose? what makes poetry "poetry"?

is it emotion? but you can write emotional prose too can't you?
and what happens when you write to give the reader the illusion of emotion without actually having felt it? i mean nobody would really know except the author whether or not it was a "real" emotion or not!
is it line breaks? you use those in prose too! just not to the same extent.
is it just something you feel inherently but have no words with which to describe it? if you cant describe something i believe its a lack of eloquence and not "something you feel" :P
is it saying the most you can using the least words? it could be, but then we would all be writing haikus!

Discuss!

[Sanzora]

What is poetry? That’s a good question… Yes, you can do a lot of the things we do in poetry in prose as well. Some people have called authors of novels poets in the sheer way they write. But that is a hard question to answer…

To me, poetry is more than an emotion or just lines of words, it a piece of writing that has it’s own spirit. It is my belief that poetry flows through a person, not to a person. When one reads poetry, the words touch you on a deeper level than just a story or a book. It speaks to you as if it had it’s own voice. How do you actually define something like that?

[Helikaon]

I agree completly with sanzora, poetry has its own beat, its like the poet has taken a part of himself and made it into writing that lives and tells you a message.

[sto67]

well personally, poetry to me are words which hold deeper meaning than what you read on the surface. poetry is not about the meaning of the words but rather what the words entail, its about the author showing the reader something that he/she sees from his/her perspective. its not about what is being shown but rather reading between the lines.

"poetry is the economy of words", i find that its true. imo the difference between poetry and prose is in the economy of words. where a word can be omitted it will be in poetry, whereas in prose it would most likely stay.

but its late at night and i cannot make myself any more coherent so i will spare you my thoughts lol. continue to discuss at your leisure :D

[Helikaon]

haha sometimes i just cant be bothered defining poetry as such.. i just write it and call it poetry.. lol..

[iladys]

Well defined Sto,Sanz and Ice. I believe it to be all those things; I cant say anything else because of it :redbiggri