Hello fellow Netwest Writers. Below is part of a talk I gave Oct. 21, 2007 at Young Harris College at the state meeting of the Georgia Poetry Society. I am happy to share it with you. Please feel free to share this with others, but do not reprint or publish without my permission. For the sake of learning, the speech has been adapted and presented here in three parts. Positively, Nancy Simpson 2-3-08
WHAT IS FREE VERSE PORTRY? Part I
The best “What is Poetry” definition yet known to me is Laurence Perrine’s definition (from the Sound and Sense textbook) in which Perrine said, “Poetry is language that says more and says it with more intensity than ordinary language.” Perrine also said, “ Poetry is as universal as language and almost as ancient.” He said, “The most primitive people have used poetry and the most civilized have cultivated it.” I celebrate Perrine's understanding. I celebrate being among fellow poets who are practicing and cultivating poetry.
In all ages and in all countries and even now, this day, poetry is being written. The most popular form of poetry being written throughout the world today is free verse. As someone who has studied, practiced, published and taught poetry for thirty years, I will do my best to share what I understand about free verse. Free Verse has been a recognizable form since Walt Whitman, called the Father of Free Vese, published Leaves of Grass in 1855, 153 years ago.
Free verse is a poetic form in which the line does not conform to rules of meter and rhyme. The purpose of free verse is to break with tradition and that means to shun meter and rhyme. After saying that, we still have to ask the question, What is free verse?
I stongly believe the writer of free verse has much freedom, but it is a misconception to think that the poet can write with total abandon of rules. From study, practice and a publishing career, I am certain that except for breaking with traditional meter and rhyme, and a few other minor changes, the other guidelines that poets of old followed are the guidelines we must follow today. Here they are:
1) A poem is made of tightly compressed language. This has been true since the beginning of written poetry. As free verse poets, we must practice economy of words. If you can’t cut, if you can’t
prune, as they say, if you cannot joyfully and willfully give up your words, my advice to you must be, go no farther in writing poetry, for economy of words is poetry’s first rule.
2) Poetry is written in sentences and lines. The master poets practiced this. It is a guideline we must follow. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics says “Poetry is cast in sentences and lines. Prose is written in sentences and paragraphs.” Why is writing in sentences essential? Syntax, for it is syntax of sentence that gives our poems their meaning. If you want your reader to understand, write in sentences.
3) Traditional poets made poems with comparisons, using figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, understatement, and hyperbole. Free verse poets must make fresh metaphors. Similes do not seem to be appreciated by poetry editors these days, but the task for poets is still the same: Use metaphorical language in your poems.
--Nancy Simpson (Part II More Guidelines For Writing Free Verse will be posted here tomorrow.)
Now I can tell people why poetry doesn't have to rhyme to be a poem. Thanks for good info.
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