| Author | Message | ||
| Don Schaeffer
Advanced Member Username: don_schaeffer Post Number: 70 Registered: 12-2003 |
Reading critiques and making critiques has made me aware that there are different kinds of poems posted in our forums. Each kind of poetry requires its own level and type of critique. Mixing the types up can be misleading to the poet. I can't be exhaustive, but here are a few types: Rants--nothing matters here except the burst of words and energy. Even grammar or sentence structure doesn't count. Few people read rants word for word. Most just get caught in the flow. Declarations and postulations--These are theories about the world from the perspective of someone trying to play out a hunch about how the world works (or a particular life works). These poems should not be examined for emotional content. Usually they are poetic versions of testible hypothesies. Emotional expressions--these are the ouch and wow poems that many of us write to describe our experience of love, death, pain, sturm und drang. Here the struggle to bring grace into feeling is the most important issue in critique. Advice--Some poems are very useful when read by an adolescent or read for a child. They are recipes for social development or success. Many of us hold our noses up when we see these. If noses are held up, the usefulness of the poem is underestimated. These poems are frequently what most people on the planet think poetry is all about. These are a few poetry types. I would welcome debate and discussion. This is an important consideration in learning how to critique. | ||
| "A-Bear"
Moderator Username: dane Post Number: 1246 Registered: 11-1998 |
Don --I couldn't agree more. And yes, there are probably other categories. Bottom line, it's all good in one form or another and each one deserves its own special consideration for content and intention when you offer critique. I smile whenever I read a comment that someone's "romantic poetry" is likened to "Hall Mark" because IMO that's very much a compliment. Hall Mark writers are paid handsomely for their words. We should all be so lucky, eh? D | ||
| Packrat
Advanced Member Username: packrat Post Number: 266 Registered: 01-2002 |
("sturm und drang'...!! Oh, BOY, you nailed THAT one just right!) Question to ponder (apropos...): Should rhyming poetry be considered separately from other types/categories, considering how many people seem to turn their noses up at THAT...hmmmm?? (Personally, I have often suspected that such aversion may, at times, be rooted in deep-seated, perhaps unconscious, feelings of linguistic-agility/meter'n'beat inadequacy, but...that's entirely irrelevant to the question as posed, of course...) Beyond that, to the topic...I seem to find that most of my poems are either of the 'telling a story' or 'making a point' variety. Most of my first poems (as an adult) were getting off my chest things I wanted to have said, or (and this, more often now that I've got most of the rest out of my system) something will trigger a response/reply...these last tend to be much shorter, often satiric. Thoughts or comments, Don?? --Packrat. (Message edited by Packrat on August 22, 2005) |
