Poetry Rules - Yay or Nay

This is the place for readers of poetry. Discuss poetry and literary art. You can also discuss music here, including lyrics. Also, you can discuss poets themselves, in addition to poetry.
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Lincolnshirelass
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Re: Poetry Rules - Yay or Nay

Post by Lincolnshirelass »

@TME888. What a lovely idea! We could wake up in the morning and go from Bed to Verse!
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Russell Burke
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Post by Russell Burke »

EllieA hits the nail on the head. The limits of different metres--whether in iambic pentameter, a sonnet, or whatever else--ideally should inspire creativity rather than discouraging it, for the rules force you to think carefully about how to best express yourself within the system, in a sort of "do more with less" way.
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Aishat Rabiu
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Post by Aishat Rabiu »

AA1495 wrote: 12 Sep 2016, 11:42 I prefer free verse. Why hold back something that someone really wants to say?
Me too. The free flow of the mind through my pen speaks a lot
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DesireeRose
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Post by DesireeRose »

I love poetry! It is a beautiful way to express yourself, and a beautiful thing to read. It is also an enjoyable challenge.
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Post by thaservices1 »

Poetry is painting a picture with words. It's good to know how to paint on the canvas, but sometimes paint drips and that is just part of the artwork.
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Post by JuliaKay »

I have always preferred free verse because you can express yourself more authentically, in my opinion. However, if you are following a certain style of poetry, I believe it's important to follow the rules, especially since many forms of poetry are cultural and the rules are symbolic .
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Post by Romuald Shawon »

The beauty of poetry can only be appreciated by lovers of poetry and masters of the art. It is my belief that the art of poetry can be learnt through study and writing.
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Post by lbhatters »

Tbunde5 wrote: 21 Mar 2018, 22:56 Poetry is the language of the heart. It is the only written form that can capture pure emotion, other than music. Being a music person myself, I prefer rhythm and rhyme. But it’s the feeling within the verse that matters!
Yay. Poetry is not poetry without some kind of rhyme or repetition because that is what draws out emotion, as in music. Even good prose writing incorporates features if poetry. The best books I read are keeping me reading due to the repetition of words, the variety in sentence structures which mimic a flowing river with stops and starts.
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Post by Amberlily »

I think at the end of the day it all depends on what kind of poetry you want to write. Formal poems with strict rules work better for some than others, but mostly the trend for poems are now free verse. Since you seem new to the practice I'd suggest trying both and see which you like better. It never hurts to try. I always write in free verse but I have written a few formal poems for a college course. Even though I prefer free verse, I'm glad I tried formal as well because I now have an appreciation for it.
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Post by PlanetHauth »

I take any "rules" others place on writing with a grain of salt. There is always and exception to the rule when it comes to writing, and there are plenty of authors and works to prove it. Research some stuff on your own and decide if you want to follow a certain path or not.

I personally write poetry how I feel like it at that moment. Sometimes that means it's a free-form poem, sometimes it follows a certain style. It's up to you.
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Post by NRoach »

"Rules" in poetry are fantastic! They are what really bring out the inventiveness and creativity in writing. Restrictions do, honestly, make for the best results, because they lead to focus.

In my experience, free verse is often something that newer poets get into because they find meter and rhyme schemes frustrating, and then they end up producing that would be better described as abstract prose. Some of the greatest poetry in the English language was written in free verse, but invariably by people who learnt the craft writing structured verse.

I implore everyone interested in poetry to genuinely attempt structured verse, and not just toss it aside "because my feelings don't fit in a rhyme scheme". That's an excuse, nothing more.
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Post by Lamoy »

I think whether rules or not, the poet decides. I haven't tried the one with rules, I prefer mixing but I've met people who do so well with rules. Just a poem from the heart should do.
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Post by mrc_cmbs »

This is kind of weird because I really struggle in writing in free verse because I'm so used to putting rhymes in all of my poems. That holds me back a bit when it comes to writing in free verse. But as I am writing this, I did realize that I can still write in free verse while including all the rhymes that I can use. Now, for thr last problem, I haven't really been stacking up for my vocabulary. Sometimes, there are words that I want to use that either don't rhyme or I don't know what that word is.
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Post by palilogy »

I prefer free verse and that is the only style I write in (minus my years in grad school forced to comply with structure, sonnet writing and complicated rhyming schemes).
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Post by Facennagoss »

I don’t think poetry should have rules. It’s a stream of consciousness and if you are tied down by rules, it skewes the result,
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