What do you think? Is it poetry?

Question

There are conflicting opinions on what makes poetry poetry. Lyrical poetry...is it really poetry? For example, is Bob Dylan a poet? Once, after attending a Dylan concert in Berkeley with Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was embittered, ranting about a stringy kid with an electric guitar drawing a bigger audience than a major poet such as himself. In an interview with Robert Shelton, Ferlinghetti acknowledged that Dylan has a poet's imagination, but added, "I still think he needs that guitar."

So, what is poetry? What makes something a poem and not just a song? Paul Garon, for example, has made the emphatic and stipulative pronouncement that all blues is self-evidently poetry and that those who think otherwise must be mentally defective. What do you think?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Perhaps the characteristic most central to the definition of poetry is its unwillingness to be defined, labeled, or nailed down. Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it's a paint-spattered canvas - but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you. If you really want to know what poetry is, read it. Don't shackle poetry with definitions.

There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry;" and Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing." ♥

Source(s):

http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/poet…

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks

Answer 2

Poetry is the ancient linguistical art of speech, the language of love, of the Gods. It is an art form, and as with art many conceptual methodology is applied to create great works of poetry. The skill of eloquence, of expressing emotion and passion, in a fluid flow, in a set rhythm makes for sensational poetry. There are many classic to study and learn from, and each poet in time, adopts a preferred style of writing or alters as deemed appropriate. The art of wordplay, of articulation in prose, or mantra like delivery and resonance. Poetry.

Answer 3

I am afraid that my answer is not as eloquently put as the others, which is "Poetry is words in tuneful order".