Poetry

Can someone explain to me why something can be called poetry if it doesn't rhyme?

I've just seen part of the inaugaration in America and they had a "poet" recite a very long winded diatribe that never once rhymed, yet he was introduced as a poet reciting his poem.

I remember reading poetry at school but it always rhymed, even the one about "The boy stood on the burning deck" rhymed...

It's a mystery to me, can anyone offer any explanation...

Re: Poetry

I've noticed 'arty-farty' poems should 'not' rhyme...
Its just not the 'done' thing to rhyme dear boy.....

Re: Poetry

I don’t think poetry is defined by rhyming .Anyone can write couplets, that is a series of rhyming pairs of lines. It takes inspiration & thought to produce poetry of note.

I had no time for poetry until one night I was dragged along to a poetry evening at which people read out their own poetry. It was a revelation.

Here is a well known poem . I don’t think it rhymes at all ,but it’s unmistakeably poetry.
Cargoes by John Masefield



Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amythysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.


I expect it’s as clear as mud now.
I have just noticed that the 2nd & 5th lines DO rhyme.

Re: Poetry

Don't want to be a bore but I taught high school English and this is the definition of a poem: A literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.

Poetry doesn't have to have rhyme but it has to have rhythm. Most of the great poets - Shakespeare, Tennyson, Milton, Shelley etc - all wrote unrhymed poetry as well as rhymed.

Tennyson's Ulysses is my favourite:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ulysses-2/

Re: Poetry

Being a total moron I still don't understand why it is classed as poetry, as against just telling a story about how you feel.. That guy at the inaugaration didn't seem to have any style or rhythm either, for me it was just a meaningless monotone diatribe...

Re: Poetry

Maybe just a personal thing - but for me poetry 'has' to rhyme. It is not 'easy' to write good - entertaining poetry.. Thats the magic of poetry - that it rhymes...Some songs are poetic, a fav, are these lines....
'I have often walked - down this street before...
But, the pavement always stayed beneath my feet, before...
All at once am I - several storeys high,
Knowing I'm - on the street - where you live....'

Re: Poetry

People stop and stare, they don't bother me
Cos there ain,t no better place that I'd rather be......

Re: Poetry

A poem doesn't have to rhyme! A lot of my poetry is prose, although some of it is rhyming. It does get published from time to time too!

Re: Poetry

Of course it has to rhyme, otherwise how do we know that it's poetry? Is this post poetry because I've written about my feelings about poetry?...

Re: Poetry

Oh dear!