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Thesis: Rhyming does not define poetry
Firstly, all the formality in this piece is in the title. The rest is my unfiltered opinion, conclusion, and judgement. If you are easily offended then HELL YEAH! you have found the right place.
Read on.
I was recently involved in a critique that was ignored. Now, there is no inherent problem with that as I fully understand that I am a wordy old man with pretensions of social skills. What bothered me was why my critique was ignored. I made some suggestions for the person to try their hand at a new style and abandon simplistic rhyme in favour of a more mature voice.
The person in question stated that poetry should rhyme and to extend their justification to the ridiculous, rhyme = poetry, unrhymed <> poetry. I don't extend it to the ridiculous as a misstatement of their position; I just find their position, accurately stated above, ridiculous. As a poet who writes, for the most part, in highly structured, rhymed poetry I still understand that poetry is more than words hacked together that rhyme. Hell, some of the worst poetry in the world rhymes, the most pedantic, the least insightful, the most pretentious.
Oh, and it's not good either.
Don't get me wrong, all this applies to unrhymed poetry as well and even more so to prosetry, but to take the position that, as long as it rhymes it must be better than unrhymed is, at the very best, moronic. Not ill-informed, moronic. I use the word deliberately and for the full meaning.
Let's set aside several of the excellent poets on NeoPoet.com who write in free form. Not because their work is any less inspired or any less vivid or any less exciting. No, we'll set them aside because someone will decide they don't like a poem this particular poet has written and will then declare it's not real poetry and claim victory for the imbecilic idea that rhyme alone defines poetry. Coincidently, the people declaring such a thing are idiots but I am uncertain if A follows B or if B is unrelated to A. I suspect the latter but that's because I am an asshole and have a low and suspicious mind.
No, we'll set aside the excellent poets on this site and move directly into a comparison of rhymed drivel and unrhymed verse that is, at the very least, stunning in its scope and breadth. Boy, I hope I'm up to this.
First, the drivel. For comparison's sake, this is not drivel from anyone in particular. Rather it is drivel I have created in the style of the same people making the rhyme = poetry argument. If you feel I am picking on you in particular, tough shit.
I love kool-aid
I love to drink it in the shade
It is sweet
And I love to serve it to you when we finally meet
Kool-aide is the best
I love it better than any of the other or the rest
Kool-aid, I love it
It smells so sweet and doesn't taste at all like spit
It doesn't taste like any other beverage
when I drink it I feel like I never age
Kool-aid
It makes me want to sing in a glade
Kool-aid
I never need a Band-Aid
When I drink kool-aid
I love kool-aid.
OK, so that's complete and utter crap, though I did get some amusement with the "beverage" and "never age" choice. It rhymes though so it must be better poetry than anything that does not rhyme, right?
Yeah, sure. But let's check, just on the off chance that unrhymed poetry may stack up in a positive manner.
Henry V, Act III, Scene 1
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
Golly, does my ode to kool-aid fall short of Shakespeare's work? How can that be? After all, my ode rhymes and Shakespeare's does not. By the logic refuting my critique mentioned at the start of this piece, my ode MUST be better.
How can I sum this up in a single word? Oh, I know:
Bullshit.
If you believe that poetry must rhyme or it is not poetry then you are, at the very best, ignorant. If you have been instructed that poetry does not have to rhyme and still insist that it must rhyme then you are an idiot. Hey, this is not just my opinion I am spouting off here, this is inferred from Shakespeare his own dam self. As he's not around to defend himself you can call me names until you feel better. Be warned, however, I call names back and I promise you I will enjoy the exchange much more than you.
So, I've detailed why Shakespeare and I believe poetry need not rhyme but why the hell do I make such a big deal about it? It's a small thing, really, but I have to admit it pisses me off. Not in a shouting and turning red sort of way but in a "let's get folks so mad they turn red and shout" way.
It's a gift.
Here's the deal folks. I love poetry. Seriously, I love poetry. I love the creation, the performance, the crafting, the inspiration, the "oh my God, did I just write that" feeling. So when I see drivel put up on a pedestal over actual good and impactful work, I have to speak up. I am compelled by moral outrage to challenge this assault on the thing I love and treasure.
So, if you say your poetry is free form and then you say poetry must rhyme but need not obey any other conventions you are well and truly full of shit and probably have never written a poem in you life. No doubt you've strung together words that have, in the wildest sense of the definition, rhymed, but you've not written any poetry and anyone who tells you differently is aiding you in your abject failure.
Poets need to have the courage to fail and grow. If you believe your work is 100% complete on your first vomiting onto the page then you are, at the very best, a fool. If you can't stand that thought then you don't belong in a poetry workshop environment and the people who are encouraging you are doing so just to make their failure less obvious.
Wow, that's a lot of vitriol and judgment. What gives me the right to say such a thing?
I say it is, so it must be true
See, it rhymes so you must believe it
Remember, I'm not laughing with you,
But I truly think you're full of shit.
Remember folks, if you think this post is about you, it probably is so complain to me directly but try to use words of more than one syllable else I'll be bored and will fall asleep as I laugh at you.
Now, as a final word, this is not a rail against poetry written badly. Hell, I've written more than my share of bad poetry and if you have the courage to let us pick apart your work and improve your style and craft and art then you are the reason this workshop environment exists. It's not a showcase of egos, it is a melting pot of talent and ideas and we all have things to learn.
So I'll continue my critiques, especially to those people who ignore them because I will be using them as examples so that people who have a desire to actually develop their talent can see common mistakes and benefit from the analysis. Lastly, I'll never criticize your attempts at poetry just as I hope never to be criticized for my own but I will harshly attack any arrogance that attempts to display crap as competent work.
Why?
Because I absolutely love poetry and won't stand by and idly watch it raped.
Read on.
I was recently involved in a critique that was ignored. Now, there is no inherent problem with that as I fully understand that I am a wordy old man with pretensions of social skills. What bothered me was why my critique was ignored. I made some suggestions for the person to try their hand at a new style and abandon simplistic rhyme in favour of a more mature voice.
The person in question stated that poetry should rhyme and to extend their justification to the ridiculous, rhyme = poetry, unrhymed <> poetry. I don't extend it to the ridiculous as a misstatement of their position; I just find their position, accurately stated above, ridiculous. As a poet who writes, for the most part, in highly structured, rhymed poetry I still understand that poetry is more than words hacked together that rhyme. Hell, some of the worst poetry in the world rhymes, the most pedantic, the least insightful, the most pretentious.
Oh, and it's not good either.
Don't get me wrong, all this applies to unrhymed poetry as well and even more so to prosetry, but to take the position that, as long as it rhymes it must be better than unrhymed is, at the very best, moronic. Not ill-informed, moronic. I use the word deliberately and for the full meaning.
Let's set aside several of the excellent poets on NeoPoet.com who write in free form. Not because their work is any less inspired or any less vivid or any less exciting. No, we'll set them aside because someone will decide they don't like a poem this particular poet has written and will then declare it's not real poetry and claim victory for the imbecilic idea that rhyme alone defines poetry. Coincidently, the people declaring such a thing are idiots but I am uncertain if A follows B or if B is unrelated to A. I suspect the latter but that's because I am an asshole and have a low and suspicious mind.
No, we'll set aside the excellent poets on this site and move directly into a comparison of rhymed drivel and unrhymed verse that is, at the very least, stunning in its scope and breadth. Boy, I hope I'm up to this.
First, the drivel. For comparison's sake, this is not drivel from anyone in particular. Rather it is drivel I have created in the style of the same people making the rhyme = poetry argument. If you feel I am picking on you in particular, tough shit.
I love kool-aid
I love to drink it in the shade
It is sweet
And I love to serve it to you when we finally meet
Kool-aide is the best
I love it better than any of the other or the rest
Kool-aid, I love it
It smells so sweet and doesn't taste at all like spit
It doesn't taste like any other beverage
when I drink it I feel like I never age
Kool-aid
It makes me want to sing in a glade
Kool-aid
I never need a Band-Aid
When I drink kool-aid
I love kool-aid.
OK, so that's complete and utter crap, though I did get some amusement with the "beverage" and "never age" choice. It rhymes though so it must be better poetry than anything that does not rhyme, right?
Yeah, sure. But let's check, just on the off chance that unrhymed poetry may stack up in a positive manner.
Henry V, Act III, Scene 1
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
Golly, does my ode to kool-aid fall short of Shakespeare's work? How can that be? After all, my ode rhymes and Shakespeare's does not. By the logic refuting my critique mentioned at the start of this piece, my ode MUST be better.
How can I sum this up in a single word? Oh, I know:
Bullshit.
If you believe that poetry must rhyme or it is not poetry then you are, at the very best, ignorant. If you have been instructed that poetry does not have to rhyme and still insist that it must rhyme then you are an idiot. Hey, this is not just my opinion I am spouting off here, this is inferred from Shakespeare his own dam self. As he's not around to defend himself you can call me names until you feel better. Be warned, however, I call names back and I promise you I will enjoy the exchange much more than you.
So, I've detailed why Shakespeare and I believe poetry need not rhyme but why the hell do I make such a big deal about it? It's a small thing, really, but I have to admit it pisses me off. Not in a shouting and turning red sort of way but in a "let's get folks so mad they turn red and shout" way.
It's a gift.
Here's the deal folks. I love poetry. Seriously, I love poetry. I love the creation, the performance, the crafting, the inspiration, the "oh my God, did I just write that" feeling. So when I see drivel put up on a pedestal over actual good and impactful work, I have to speak up. I am compelled by moral outrage to challenge this assault on the thing I love and treasure.
So, if you say your poetry is free form and then you say poetry must rhyme but need not obey any other conventions you are well and truly full of shit and probably have never written a poem in you life. No doubt you've strung together words that have, in the wildest sense of the definition, rhymed, but you've not written any poetry and anyone who tells you differently is aiding you in your abject failure.
Poets need to have the courage to fail and grow. If you believe your work is 100% complete on your first vomiting onto the page then you are, at the very best, a fool. If you can't stand that thought then you don't belong in a poetry workshop environment and the people who are encouraging you are doing so just to make their failure less obvious.
Wow, that's a lot of vitriol and judgment. What gives me the right to say such a thing?
I say it is, so it must be true
See, it rhymes so you must believe it
Remember, I'm not laughing with you,
But I truly think you're full of shit.
Remember folks, if you think this post is about you, it probably is so complain to me directly but try to use words of more than one syllable else I'll be bored and will fall asleep as I laugh at you.
Now, as a final word, this is not a rail against poetry written badly. Hell, I've written more than my share of bad poetry and if you have the courage to let us pick apart your work and improve your style and craft and art then you are the reason this workshop environment exists. It's not a showcase of egos, it is a melting pot of talent and ideas and we all have things to learn.
So I'll continue my critiques, especially to those people who ignore them because I will be using them as examples so that people who have a desire to actually develop their talent can see common mistakes and benefit from the analysis. Lastly, I'll never criticize your attempts at poetry just as I hope never to be criticized for my own but I will harshly attack any arrogance that attempts to display crap as competent work.
Why?
Because I absolutely love poetry and won't stand by and idly watch it raped.