Modern Poetry...

[mountain_tiger]

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Here's one thing I don't really get about modern poetry (by modern, I mean latter half of the 20th century leading into the 21st century). There are almost no poems written in the past 40-50 years that seem to rhyme. Why is this? Rhyming poems can be just as good quality as non-rhyming ones, and often take more skill to write as well. I never get people that say 'rhyming in poems is childish as well'. After all, Shakespeare used rhyming in his poems; does that make him childish? Of course not.

The problem is that a lot of contemporary poets are trying so hard to be non-mainstream that they've managed to become mainstream from trying to be non-mainstream. I mean, there are plenty of great free verse poems out there, don't get me wrong, but when almost every poem has no rhyme scheme or proper meter, it ends up feeling a bit cut-and-dry, if you know what I mean. Of course, that's just my opinion. Feel free to disagree.

 

[Teran]

Every era has its own style.

Besides, by exploring other areas of poetry, people are able to develop the other aspects that were still relatively undeveloped.

Tbh, if you have a problem with it, write rhyming poetry yourself. Those poets wrote to express themselves in a way they wanted, so they aren't obligated to follow any rules.

You should worry about more important things, like how well you're going to do in your exams next summer.

 

[GunmasterLombardi]

Poetry can be reletively easy to do. I did a few in school, they kinda "stunk like skunk" though.

 

[Firus]

I never got the impression people wrote free verse poetry just to be non-mainstream...

The few times I write poetry, I write free verse, because...well, it's free. Rhyming poems are so restrictive. Rhyming poetry is difficult to write because you basically have to change your poem a lot, possibly entirely, in order to have it fit in with a rhyming scheme. With free verse poetry, you can still write creatively, it still isn't easy to write, it's just not horribly challenging.

Trust me, I've made my fair share of attempts at rhyming poetry too, they all sucked really badly because I tried too hard to get them to rhyme while trying to maintain what I wanted to get across, too.

This is definitely an argument for it being difficult, but it's not as if it takes no effort to write a free verse poem. If you think it does, you probably haven't tried writing very much free verse poetry yourself.

I could share examples of mine of both things, but A) Basically all my poems suck, B) The best example of a rhyming poem is very personal, and C) My poems tend to be super-emo.

 

[Teran]

Wait there's a... duplicate blog?

Hold on a second. *facepalm*

**** vBulletin.

 

[bobson]

I find rhyming poetry to be infinitely more rewarding on both ends. Free-verse can be good when well-written (and I mean well-written as in written well, not written by picking the most "emotive"-sounding adjectives from a thesaurus and then attaching them to every other word), but I've never thought "wow, that's genius" after reading a free-verse poem like I have after a rhyming one, and when I write them I never appreciate them.

 

[j0s3ph]

My post got deleted in the dupe

Anyway, main point was that free verse = autotune of poetry. Its popular now but it'll go out eventually.

 

[CRASHiC]

There's a lot of misinformation in this thread.

1. Free verse is not going against the popular grain. Its the exact opposite. American poetry IS free verse poetry, and is regarded as one of our three art forms.

There is Free verse created by Walt Whitman

Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown,
or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons,
and with the young, and with the mothers or families,
re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book,
and dismiss whatever insults your own soul;
and your very flesh shall be a great poem....

There is Jazz, invited by the poor African American, borrowing from their own roots and the french Americans around them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkJfL6KQ058

And then there is Minimalism in music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsOPR9659Ww

These are our creations. These are what the world regards us for, and these are the most popular in the art fields for a sense of Nationalist artistic pride.

Though somehow, ironically, America's most famious poet Robert Frost wrote in more standard forms.

2. Free verse may not have rhyme, but it heavily focuses on the subtler elements of poetry. Free verse is somewhat misleading in that it is viewed completely without structure. This is not true. Most Free Verse poets use meter heavily, THE true structure of poetry. Is it as structured as a Sonata? No, but then again, neither is most of Poes work. Free Verse is like any unfamiliar art form, it takes time to appreciate. We are raised as children on rhyming poetry, so it is difficult for us to recognize free verse poetry. Its a flaw in our education since we live in a country were we not only take pride in free verse poets.

3. Free verse is not easy. On the opposite, many poets stressed that they couldn't figure out how to write free verse poetry properly. Robert Frost once said, "Writing free verse poetry is like playing Tennis without a net." Free verse still requires the use of poetic elements, the ability to tell a novels worth in a few sentences, maybe even a fragment or two, and a deep understanding and musing of the world. Free verse is no easier. By the time you reach such a poetic height, you rhyming words is not a difficult thing.

 

[Teran]

There's a lot of misinformation in this thread.

1. Free verse is not going against the popular grain. Its the exact opposite. American poetry IS free verse poetry, and is regarded as one of our three art forms.

Mountain Tiger and I are from England. It doesn't matter what Americans have as the standard.

 

[CRASHiC]

I am aware that many free verse poets are non-american as well. I was simply stating that it is the popular form in America for nationalist reasons.

Jazz and minimalism have the same effect. Though minimalism (at least our version of it, Europe has a different breed all together) hasn't spread elsewhere, the Latin Americas and oddly enough Japan have plenty of jazz music.

 

[Firus]

free verse = autotune of poetry

...Did you seriously just compare a program which fixes your voice so it's in-tune to a type of poetry that merely has no restrictions?

That's a really poor comparison, and you basically just said that people are cheating to make their poetry better simply by not rhyming or doing something similar.

 

[mountain_tiger]

Sorry if I submitted the blog twice, Teran. I must've pressed submit more than once by accident...

BTW, I'm not saying that free verse is a bad thing, per se. On the contrary, I think it's pretty good. But when every new poem published is free verse IMO it just gets a bit stale. It's a bit like when you eat too much of a food you like and then it makes you feel bad...

 

[Teran]

Sorry if I submitted the blog twice, Teran. I must've pressed submit more than once by accident...

Actually it's the forum software's fault, don't worry about it..