Sunday July 13, 2003

Bad poetry

Category: The Web | 6 Comments | Posted 21:43

OK how about a longer entry again for a change? I started replying to emails, then got bored, then remembered something I've been meaning to write about for a while. Yes, bad poetry. A dreadful thing.

I'm talking about the "oh I take myself so seriously and have to express my feelings through this" kind. There's so much of it on the Net, because it's just too easy to publish your less than mediocre drivvle. I know this is cruel, and I know this is gonna be a cruel entry, but I can't help myself. It shouldn't be allowed. It's like, 'People, writing good poetry is a really difficult thing! Not everyone is made for it! If you're crap, keep it to yourself!'

Yes yes, that is indeed the way I feel about the issue. What's especially bad is poetry that doesn't rhyme. Written by amateurs I mean. It's usually an indicator of REALLY bad poetry. If your poetry can't sustain itself on rhythm and rhyme, you need to be really good to make it work some other way. The emphasis lies on strong imagery. Just putting words together and using line breaks in unexpected places doesn't make it poetry!
As I sit in this forest,
Of wooden sent,
(sic)
I mean PLEASE! 8-|

And the topics! Love! Usually unrequited love, or love that had to end. Or, alternatively, being misunderstood. Very frequent in teenagers. Blech, give me a break. You think you are SO unique uh? Look around you. 1 billion people think they are just as unique as you. :))

Clichés and commonplaces abound. Poetry has to be powerful! Give me a good metaphor anytime, but don't compare love to a dew drop on a flower! :-& 'So precious, so untouchable!' Yeah yeah 8-|

Haha. I was going to use lots of examples from the Net for this entry, and poke fun at them by making sarcastic remarks, but I feel bad about that. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. The examples I've used were rephrased so as to keep the awfulness, but make them unrecognizable.

See, that's another thing about poetry, you can't tell the author it's crap (if they post it on a public forum, for instance), cuz they'll be really upset. Which means that more & more people will be convinced that they write great poetry and should keep publishing it. Which again means that the Net will be flooded with more crap poetry. Thank God I'm not forced to read it all :))

PS this is not directed at ANY of my poetry-writing friends. The ones whose poetry I've read are WAY above average. If that wasn't the case, I wouldn't have written this entry ;;)

  Comments

LMAO I love how this entry ends with kyoot 'fluttering eyelashes' smilie MINE! ©


>>Or, alternatively, being misunderstood. Very frequent in teenagers. Blech, give me a break. You think you are SO unique uh? Look around you. 1 billion people think they are just as unique as you
COMPLETELY agree with Citz Me Mine Evil Copyright Go Near And Die You Yes You Yes I'm Talking To You. I HATE all these bloody so-called "misunderstood" teenagers - give us a break! WHAT makes YOU so special?! Oh you're suicidal?! SO WHAT?! Stop walking around TELLING everyone you're suicidal and depressed and maybe then people will stop looking at you and just seeing an attention seeking, moany little crybaby.


*breathes through brown paper bag*


>>As I sit in this forest,
Of wooden sent, (sic)


Posted by: The BML at July 14, 2003 03:19 PM

Bloody hell. Went a bit overboard with the 'br' tags there...

Posted by: The BML at July 14, 2003 03:20 PM

KYOOT BML Me

And indeed @ BR tags Kyoot tho

Posted by: Clarissa at July 14, 2003 04:33 PM

Posted by: The BML at July 14, 2003 04:35 PM

A big AMEN to this entry. *g* And I was glad to read the post scriptum. *ahem*

But you're totally right. It seems everybody writes "poems" nowadays. It should be something like a privilege to certain people who really understand it (or at least more than common people).

Posted by: Katja at July 14, 2003 05:08 PM

Heeheehee too right. Big Hooray for elitism!
I think the problem is not so much that they write it, but that they're able to inflict it on the world! Terrible!

Posted by: Clarissa at July 14, 2003 05:19 PM