Ode № 131592
I don't rhyme enough, eh?
Rhyming is not all-important. I know
For some it's a challenge, a chance for a show,
But let all beware of those who coerce
Their disordered feelings to pre-ordered verse.
I'm sure that a poem is oft viewed as neater
When properly rhymed and according to meter
If genius strikes you, by all means then rhyme;
Less than that shall be denounced as a crime.
81 comments
End in the Rhyme
Poetry
with it's flashy plume
and flowery scent
is but a simple tool
to recall a precious event.
Dare I say many a fool
has often came and went
who forgot this simple rule
and so will not end in the rhyme.
If you wish to write poems sublime
to spand the changing seasons
(For man's memory fades with time
if it's not given a proper reason)
Fear not that it be called a crime
nor claims of poetic treason
to historically rhyme in the end.
Maybe your friend just likes your rhyming poems and wanted to hear more. If you don't snub your nose at rhyme (which I don't believe you do) then why post this poem. Have any of us told you to rhyme more?
You too good a writer for such triviality.
Seriously, I consider the art of writing poetry in rhyme or strict cadence as one that is a distinct intellectual exercise (hell, what poetry isn't? but still) as well as an expression of feeling and emotion. It's an obvious challenge to compress an idea to a pre-determined form (like a sonnet, for instance) and perhaps that is the reason I don't write more in verse, though I love it - I feel that rhymes should fall into place naturally, instead of stilting the poetry itself. That's tremendously hard to pull off correctly.
Name the 10 most famous rhyming poems you know. Now name the 10 most famous non-rhyming poems. Did you actually make it to 10 non-rhyming poems? You're disqualified from this discussion.
The rest of your comment is incomprehensible.
What gives poetry or any art form feeling is composition.
It is not feeling it is an evoker of feeling.
Rhyme is a poetic device like metaphor or alliteration. All used to help make a lasting impression on the reader.
What does poetry do that prose can't? Poetry can be memorized more easily and tends to be shorter, that's all.
In short, you should love rhyme for exactly the reason that you hate it.
La ilah ila allah... Ahyippyyippy mowmow.
I think the quality is something akin to the primal feeling that rhyme equals reason and I think that is because repetition has a simular effect. I hate to say it but Poe might be right about poetry being mostly a mathmatical effect.
(Bonus note: It's against Muslim holy law to call the call-to-prayer 'singing'. True story.)
After 10 years of paying attention to it, I'd say the key to poetry is repetition. Or, better, prediction. I don't mean when you hear "I'm in love" you know the next line's going to be "sent from heaven above." I mean, you tap your feet to it; you know there's a line ending with -incter coming up somewhere; the image of the dump truck comes back in the end; a metaphor holds the poem together.
Now, before everybody jumps on my ass, I think there's a WHOLE FUCKING LOT of room to play in poems, even when your goal is repetition. As evidence, consider that my poems (ie, repetition-focused) are generally more original than the most out-there free-form poetry on poemranker. The trick is surprising people just a little. Put 'succincter' in the middle of a line instead of the end. Toss up the beat a little. Make an odd refrain or repeat an image where it's not expected. But repeat something, anything. Or you'll sound like one of our resident Californian poets reading a Whole Foods grocery list in a monotone. Rhyme's a good place to start, but I wouldn't do it for a living.
You'll get rich writing rhyme or prose faster than any of the other forms. Just ask Stephen King or Emenem and they suck at it.
I'm guessing you opted for prose. Good choice. The most lucrative of them all.
Rhyme was really big when there weren't a lot of people who could read or had access to literature so poems easy to memorize became popular. Then everyone was reading and rhyme faded and fell by the wayside. But nowadays people are busier and more distracted so short poetry and rhyme for their quick fix and quickly memorizable qualities are coming back into the limelight.
By the way don't you think Hip-hop may be the only form of poetry (if it can be considered that) that actually achieves most of the goals of poetic movements. ie. Changing common language, social behavior, youthful attitude, philosophy and most important getting women to dance in their underwear.
"All smurf the holy Smurfhammed."
Bush would make the best Gargamel.
I've heard very few hip-hop songs that made me stop and think. Maybe it's degenerated and I admit that in Israel rapping on the corner is pretty rare, but I don't have much appreciation for hip-hop as a genre. Sorry.
~
(hey! I loved Gargamel (still do)!)
In grad school lit classes we studied Tupac and DMX. We didn't study poemranker poets. Do the math.
So yes I pussied out and contradicted myself there.
I don't care about the 'Is rap poetry' question or who's color blind. I was talking about how it seems to be the only contemporary poetic movement that's having a major affect on sociaty.
I get 2pac but DMX?
I've always heard hip-hop used to describe both the music and the lifestyle. I think it's because white people (including most of my professors) are more comfortable saying hip-hop than rap. I don't know why.
It used to seem like a big deal to me that the world had "turned away from poetry" and so on and rap and pop music were the only poetic forms people paid attention to, but it doesn't now. Consider:
1) Originally, all poetry was set to music; it WAS music.
2) During times when access to singers/reciters or recorded music was limited, written poetry was a decent substitute.
3) But during those times there was no diminishment in the poetry-as-music movement, it was just hard to get at your isolated manor house.
4) Since recorded and live music became more available in the end of the 1800s, interest in written poetry has been diminished. Every generation since then has considered its musicians poets, and every generation has scandalized at the thought that people were paying attention to music-poetry more than nonmusic-poetry. Whatever. Here is a nowhere near complete list of the music people have had this same debate about:
- Opera
- Cole Porter and Broadway light opera
- Jazz
- Beat-style jazz
- early rock
- The Beatles
- Bob Dylan
- most other 60s rock
- Led Zeppelin
- early and most other rap
- Bossa Nova and latin music
- Grunge lyrics
If you consider some of the genres on this list, DMX (actually, I think I meant Run DMC and was tired) isn't such a bad choice.
Conclusion: Silly thing to argue about, nowhere near original, and not going away. The best thing to say is all music is poetry. Most is bad poetry.
Ok. Did you recover from your shock induced heart attack.
I think rap is a little closer to what strait out liturature poetry is than the more music driven forms. So it seems to be the one most commonly agued nowadays. I saw two poets aguing it on CSPAN's Book TV and I thought the same thing. Duh.
The internet has revived poetry as written word somewhat but soon that will fade away also. Like a slow draining of water out of a fish's bowl. Just curious I guess were you guys think poetry is going to go next.
Sorry that's another way over done topic.
Nevermind. Don't mind me I'm a little buzzed on cough syrup right now. I appologize again profusely.
I'm amazed at your ability to pull up these references so often.
In complete awe.
I prefer a girl with nice big titties and an ugly ass as opposed to a fine ass.
That way when she finally walks out on you, you don't mind seeing her sorry ass go.
I think if I understood someone's perception about something, I'd think I was at least as smart as that person. If I didn't understand his perception, I'd think I could either be smarter or dumber. And I'd be inclined toward smarter. If it sounds like I'm just rehashing my first comment, that's because I think you didn't get or answer it.
PS-It's too late to dodge with 'guys who are smarter in areas'. Stick with your original statement: You prefer a man who's smarter than you. We'll assume on-average smarter, thank you.
If I may make another suggestion: The answer to this conversation should be "I prefer a man who I THINK is smarter than me." Your constant failure to distinguish between your ideas about something and the reality of it (similar or not) is another of the reasons why I make fun of you, and the one thing I'd like to teach you before I die. I consider myself an astonishingly smart person, but I almost never make that mistake.
This from the Center for Disease Control, 2002.
American males 15-44 years of age with no high school or GED
- No sexual contact with females: 3.1%
- Had sex but not in the last 12 months: 6.0%
- 1-2 partners in the last 12 months: 69.4%
- 3 or more in the last 12 months: 12.6%
- Average number of sexual partners per lifetime: 5.5
American males 15-44 years of age with high school or GED
- No sexual contact with females: 3.1%
- Had sex but not in the last 12 months: 5.1%
- 1-2 partners in the last 12 months: 79.8%
- 3 or more in the last 12 months: 9.5%
- Average number of sexual partners per lifetime: 7.0
American males 15-44 years of age with some college, no degree
- No sexual contact with females: 3.3%
- Had sex but not in the last 12 months: 7.5%
- 1-2 partners in the last 12 months: 77.7%
- 3 or more in the last 12 months: 10.5%
- Average number of sexual partners per lifetime: 6.7
American males 15-44 years of age with bachelor's degree or higher
- No sexual contact with females: 3.9%
- Had sex but not in the last 12 months: 8.4%
- 1-2 partners in the last 12 months: 78.3%
- 3 or more in the last 12 months: 7.3%
- Average number of sexual partners per lifetime: 5.4
Also, women with bachelor's degrees are TWICE as likely to be virgins (3.5% to 1.7%) than non-colleged women.
Of course one wonders if these men poled were hooked up to a lie detector or not.
I think women would rather be smarter than their men. Lets ask Dovina.
Your right though. They do have nice teeth.
Angle version: If you answered yes to the above, are you or any of your friends a middle-aged trophy wife prone to wearing either sequins, cellophane, or both at the same time?
Should blacks be flattered by whites who try to be like them or just insulted because what the white imitators are trying to be is a stereotype? If the latter then how well does it reflect on a black person who is flattered by the white imitators?
Transvestites' trying to be like us, even if flawed, is appealing. Am I demented?
Have you seen that Tony Sinclair dude in those Tanqueray ads?
Makes you feel good to be white again don't it?
The English make white Americans look black. When blacks imitate white Americans they sound like nerdy scientist.
Kids, please, stay out of school.
You set'em up, I knock'em down.
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