OK... this isn't a column, per say, but rather a poll question. I really want to know your opinion on this one.
Does a poem have to rhyme to be considered an actual poem? Or does "free verse," without a set rhyme, also count as poetry? No yes or no answers, explain your opinion.
Sound off in the comments!
I'd really like to know your opinion on what makes a poem.
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i would say both are 2 different styles to write in.. but there are other styles also.. it just depends on the person writing the poem .. well thats just what i think
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Poetry has been defined as: noun: literature in metrical form
noun: any communication resembling poetry in beauty or the evocation of feeling
If you read the great poets of history, you will find that many of them wrote in free verse. Yeats, for example..and Poe. If one is to say that there must be rhyme..than we have to remove many of the great poets from the books.
I write both styles and I'll be damned if you take that away. -
Poetry is something that comes from the heart. It can rhyme of not it doesnt really matter. Free verse is my favorite type of poetry because you have no set rhyme scheme... Its so hard to come up with words that rhyme... well I find it is... lol
Love Valerie -
I don't think rhyme is neccesary for a poem at all, and I think insisting otherwise is a sign of bias and/or ignorance. Rhyming can help to make something seem more poetic, but as non-rhyming poems are certainly not prose, you can't not consider them poems without giving them a whole other name and seperating them from rhymed poetry throughout history. Haiku and other syllablic based poetry would no longer be considered poems, and wonderful free-verse work like e.e. cummings would be nothing.
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awesome contest
poems are like pictures, they define how you are feeling at that very moment. it doesn't have to rhyme or anything. no rules. ^_^ -
Poetry seems to be a set of words not woven around one clear message like a piece of proze, but more to appeal to individual thougth, ideas, emotions which are "touched" (when you read) by lines in the poem, thus trying sometimes to reach to an underlying feeling, or to reveal a new feeling. Sometimes a poem can touch you, and with this touch daily experience and details like work and waiting at the supermarket, can be given a place, just like more emotional things. A poem should help you to reach to the more meaningfull parts of the flow of your life, the love you feel for others, ectetera; it should be without pretence. In The netherlands there is a poet who said "all that is of value, is helpless (without resistance)". A poem does not have to be helpless but it has to be sincere. Rhyme can be important to help you open up to words, personally i find rhyme okay cause it can reflect beauty or love maybe because a poem with rhyme has more melodie, like a song. Anyway just some thoughts, bye.
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Wolves in the background-- i like that
Q. Does a poem have to rhyme to be considered an actual poem?
A. No, it does not have to have rhyme, though rhyme is an excellent device not just for the auditory effect but also as a memory aid.
Q. Or does "free verse," without a set rhyme, also count as poetry?
A. Yes, it can count as poetry, but without any rhythm, one might call it prose poetry, or even just prose set in an alternate visual form. So, yeah, the poem doesn't even have to have a detectable rhythm. -
I definitely don't think poetry has to rhyme... or else I am not a poet, and Mary Oliver is not a poet, and Pablo Neruda is not a poet...
I define it by the line breaks. *shrugs*
Elizabeth
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I think that poetry doesn't have to rhyme, but it helps. A lot of the time when it doesn't rhyme it seems like the writer is just ranting, and you get sort of sick of hearing it. So...I think that a poem that doesn't rhyme has to be well written to sound right, but it still counts as poetry.
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Of course poetry does not have to ryhme. Free verse is a type of poetry, a form of poetry, just as a sonnet or haiku would be. One could argue that poetry is in the eye of the beholder. Something that speaks to someone as a piece of oral or written lanuage on a level that is not only factual or observational, but has another purpose or meaning to it. Hope any of that made sense.
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good question
i agree with lavender, however, i do think a poem (well...its poet) must decide whether they are using or disregarding form. poetry should essentially be a different or original way of conveying an idea that others can relate to. if the poet attempts to use form, for example, attempting to use a certain type of language or structuring thier poem in a particular way, they should stick to it. however, this is not to say that all poetry should do this, as i myself, as well as many poets of far superior talent to myself do, but rather that form (in the sense of rhythme,rhyme, genre and form) may be used to great affect in certain instances.nonetheless, this is very good question which, in my opinion, may only be asked by a poet who is truly thoughtful and introspective about their work. cheers.
j -
A poem is a set of lines from the heart or mind of a person. The key to ones soul. Poetry is poetry no matter what the style, form, or rhyme scheme is. Poetry is the words of a person to do as they please with. Maybe someone wont like it but another will and even so.. It is the deepest secrets.. fantasies.. dreams.. hate.. or love of your heart and you pen it how you want. I tend to like unrhyming better sometimes.. I love rhyme dont get me wrong.. but if you can make a poem flow really good without it rhyming then that is true talent. Anyway to say a write has to rhyme to be a poem, is just a little close minded.. Some of the best poets and some very great published poems were not tied to a certain rhyme scheme.
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