# Free Verse Poetry Is A Copout



## Damaged Goods (Aug 8, 2020)

My literary gripe for the day:

Free verse (not to be confused with blank verse.) is a literary device defined as poetry that is free from the limitation of regular rhythm or meter.  Might as well call it prose.

Blank verse at least has meter.

Anyone can throw down 

short lines

even me


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## Gary O' (Aug 8, 2020)

I agree

I've enjoyed only a couple
Of those, mainly, the content overtook me
...and how it was read

I think free verse is a copout 
.....along with a lot of 'art'


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## Autumn (Aug 8, 2020)

I agree with you.  I love poetry.  I admire the discipline required to write a sonnet, for instance.  The meter, the rhyme pattern, the structure.  For me, it adds to the overall experience.


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## Fyrefox (Aug 13, 2020)

I'm inclined to agree as well.  This is not to denigrate all free verse, but much of it is questionable as true poetry...


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## Ruthanne (Aug 15, 2020)

Well, that's your opinion but mine is that there is a lot of real engaging emotion and essential validity in free verse...........Poetry does not have to rhyme to be valid or valued.  I have written a lot of free verse and was appreciated for it.


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## Damaged Goods (Aug 15, 2020)

Ruthanne said:


> Well, that's your opinion but mine is that there is a lot of real engaging emotion and essential validity in free verse...........Poetry does not have to rhyme to be valid or valued.  I have written a lot of free verse and was appreciated for it.



Rhyme is not necessary but there should be meter; otherwise it's prose.

Nothing wrong with prose but it shouldn't be called poetry.

Like you said, just my opinion.


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## jerry old (Aug 15, 2020)

Verse with it's structured, "Thou shalt not,' requirements: 
places techniques and rules above the power of the words. 

 It sounds as poetry should because you were taught in school
'this is how it is done, this is how it sounds.'

When you deviate from 'the rules' you will lose readers schooled in: 'I know how it
is supposed to be written and I know how it is supposed to sound.'
They are the victims of their education.

The words carry the meaning, the 'technique' deadens the power of the words.
herding them into corrals of technique.

You write what you feel,
 Not allowed you say,  you want me to put the words in a formalized pattern
that I am not familiar with-why?


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## JaniceM (Aug 20, 2020)

Ruthanne said:


> Well, that's your opinion but mine is that there is a lot of real engaging emotion and essential validity in free verse...........Poetry does not have to rhyme to be valid or valued.  I have written a lot of free verse and was appreciated for it.


I agree with ^ Ruthanne.  
Creativity is a higher priority than structure and 'rules.'


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## Capt Lightning (Aug 23, 2020)

Here's one of  my favourite "poems" by the Scottish poet, Liz Lochhead.  Is it poetry or prose?  I don't really care - it conveys a message.

Kidspoem/Bairnsang

it wis January
and a gey driech day
the first day Ah went to the school
so my Mum happed me up in ma
good navy-blue napp coat wi the rid tartan hood
birled a scarf aroon ma neck
pu'ed oan ma pixie an' my pawkies
it wis that bitter
said noo ye'll no starve
gie'd me a wee kiss and a kid-oan skelp oan the bum
and sent me aff across the playground
tae the place A'd learn to say

it was January
and a really dismal day
the first day I went to school
so my mother wrapped me up in my
best nay-blue top coat with the red tartan hood,
twirled a scarf around my neck,
pulled on my bobble-hat and mittens
it was so bitterly cold
said now you won't freeze to death
gave me a little kiss and a pretend slap on the bottom
and sent me off across the playground
to the place I'd learn to forget to say

it wis January
and a gey driech day
the first day Ah went to the school
so my Mum happed me up in ma
good navy-blue napp coat wi the rid tartan hood,
birled a scarf aroon ma neck,
pu'ed oan ma pixie and' ma pawkies
it wis that bitter.

Oh saying it was one thing
But when it came to writing it
In black and white
The way it had to be said
Was as if you were posh, grown-up, male, English and dead.


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## jerry old (Aug 23, 2020)

"It conveys a message"
That is the point of anything in print, painting,...


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## Capt Lightning (Aug 23, 2020)

Really?  oh so you can't have anything purely for the pleasure of seeing it, hearing it, reading it...  everything HAS to have a message. Is that it??


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## jerry old (Aug 23, 2020)

Capt:  Were on the same page, the message is 'see, enjoy the things you can see,
enjoy those things you can read.'
were all the same, our words, get in the way, our brains are synchronized but we confuse each other-a strange thing, beyond my understanding.


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