Poetic Licence

When I was young and reading and writing was a chore I had to endure I would encounter ideas and phrases that I would never meet in ‘real’ life. Phrases such as “look-ed o’er” instead of the more prosaic overlooked; “treads the fields of Elysium” instead of dead, and hundreds more.

I would stumble over these literary speed bumps, my reading slowing or even  coming to an abrupt halt whilst my mind darted hither and yon seeking other routes to understanding or a way to overcome these awkward impediments to my own enjoyment. When I raised the matter with my teachers they would smile and say “It’s poetic licence”


So poetic licence would become an accepted pass-word used for anything that didn’t really fit with my mind but could be used to maintain a rhythm or create a rhyme, or just to sound different and get me better marks from those same teachers.

 

 

Nowadays it seems that we have rescinded the requirements of gaining a poetic licence and we give them away with every pen or pencil purchased. So now everyone throws in these verbal impediments to understanding without any real thought and waves their un-earned licence in the face of anyone who dares demur. So much so that the original purpose of making things poetic has reversed and its use makes many erstwhile poems into prosaic passages.

 

 

It’s time we rebelled and brought in a qualifying standard before we grant someone that talisman of taste – a poetic licence

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  • rufina caraid gold member
    May 12
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    Poetic License :)

    “The liberty taken by an artist or a writer in deviating from conventional form or fact to achieve a desired effect”

    Well that’s the Oxford dictionary meaning well-spelled out for the masses BUT – I wonder how many of us on Allpoetry use this form without even realising it? It would be interesting don’t you think Jim to see how many examples of Poetic License we can find  If one had the time of course! ~Von

    • I-Like-Rhymes gold member
      May 13
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      Those opening words "the liberty taken" apply (in my mind) far too frequently on AP without bothering to acknowledge the users as "artist or a writer".
      I would imagine we could find many examples in a random selection of a dozen AP offerings but whether they were uses or abuses is the real question.
      Perhaps we should restrict it to OP and set it up for a contest -- Spot the Device -- ?
      Thanks for reading and writing Von.
      Jim