Granted, you don’t need a degree in carpentry to make a sturdy bookshelf. You may not need a course in mechanics to change a flat tire. Likewise, one has no need for a degree in English to know that a monotetra requires an internal rhyme to fulfill its definition. But, and this is a big but, you do need to know what you’re doing, why some things will work and others will not. You need to study how it’s been done before. How else will you know that you shouldn’t drill a piece of wood in from the bottom if you’re putting lots of books on the shelf? How else will you realize that some later models of cars require you to pry the tire outwards from the middle with your tire wrench? Likewise, how will you know that using a cliche the same way as always is a bad idea in poetry if you want to write a poem with a fresh point of view?

Poetry is just as vast a subject as car design. And just like car designing, you need to know how to work both content and form to create an appealing and economic design. Otherwise it will not run properly.

“No true understanding of poetry can be reached until form and content are regarded as complementary and not independent.” - World’s Popular Encyclopedia, volume 7, under the heading Poetry.

Poetry: Form and Content

There have always been, and perhaps always will be, poets and philosophers of varying status who hold to either/or as the sole requirement to uphold the definition of poetry. On one end you have those who believe that rhyme and meter are what define poetry. On the other, some believe content, or subject matter alone, is the only proprietor of a good poem. This difference can be seen between Greeks and Romans. The Greek tendency, as upheld by Aristotle in Poetics, was to view content as the priority, while the Romans, as can be seen in Ars Poetica by Horace, tended to lean toward form and word-usage as that which should take precedence.

We have, however, the privilege of being able to see and understand that through the ages, the best of, and/or the most influential of, all poetry has been that which incorporated both content and form as equal components. In the English language, the sonnets of Shakespeare, the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, the odes of Keats, the ballads and epics of the Victorian Age, they all became great historical pieces because of this integration, not without either.

I have stood on both sides of this debate. Mostly because I hold to the modern dramatist school of thought that both should be balanced and used not separate from each other, but, complementary of each other. I have stood on the side of the Greeks because some on the Roman side claimed that content doesn’t matter. And lately, I have been fighting with the Romans, because some on the Greek side say that meter and rhyme don’t apply.

Dear poets and writing peers, must we continue this debate of old? Can we not stand on the crux of the see-saw, and stay balanced, instead of falling to either side of the issue? I implore you all to defy gravity! Don’t gravitate toward either side. Learn about forms, or if you know too much about forms and not enough about life, then learn about life and capture it in form. Either way, learn how to use both form and content; honor the parents of poetry that have led us to where we are now.

The Poem: Definition

Yeah, yeah! I know! Poetry is hard to define. Or, is it?

Because of all that I have mentioned above, I stand on the conviction that free form and free verse are not poetry. Why should it be considered poetry if you are going to use one thing and not the other? That’s like taking out the y, the tr, and the e; all you’re left with then is the po, which doesn’t sound much better than pfah! The removal of certain integral parts of poetry can be likened to taking out bits of the body. There isn’t much that you can take away without affecting its appearance, its visual or aural effect, its coherence, or its mobility. If we compare content to the heart, and form to the brain, we can see just how vital those ingredients are to the validity and consequence of our written word. Take one away and the other fails to live by itself for very long. The brain tells the heart to pump blood. The heart supplies blood for the brain. They are equally important. In this way, the poetic form relays to the content the importance of its purpose, and the content supplies purpose for the poetic form.

Coles Dictionary of Literary Terms, p.149 — “A composition in metrical form, characterized by qualities of imagination, emotion, significant meaning and appropriate language. A poem may be written in rhyme, blank verse or a combination of the two, but the expression is rhythmical and designed to give aesthetic or emotional pleasure.”

Free Form: Definition

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Poetry is written metrical verse, with or without rhyme, (mostly with) and is rhythmical and aesthetic in nature. So, basically, we’re talking about sonnets, ballads, virelays, etc., anything and everything between couplets and epics. So where does free form fit in? In this category?

No, because while free form has a basic rhythm and, once in a while, rhyme, it does not have a definite form. Hence the name free form. Poetry has a definite shape, rhythm, and rhyme scheme, whereas free form only resembles this rule slightly by having irregular meter and lazy rhyme schemes and varies from author to author. Basically, if you organize your lines into pockets of equal numbers of lines, have no control over the number of syllables per line, and rhyme with ordinary words or only when you want to, then you’re a “free form-er.”

Free Verse: Definition

The movers of the vers libre (free verse) wave consider content to be more important to poetry than any other component. But, like I said above, that is not the case as proved to us by Shakespeare and Keats. So, what happened? Why is there such a thing as free verse and free form? Let’s just remember that this form is not a new one; Psalms and Songs of Solomon were written in free verse.

In order to get at the core of this issue, let’s harken back to an earlier statement. In paragraph seven, I said “The removal of certain integral parts of poetry can be likened to taking out bits of the body”. Free verse, at its root, is a heightened form of content that has no form. It’s effect is largely based on capturing an emotional or highly imaginative instance using sharp imagery and sensory detail. It’s very much like, according to my previous assessment, a heart without a brain. That may sound base, but the relativity stands firm.

It is because of this assessment that I affirm the laziness of modern ‘poets’, and instead of calling them poets, I call them “free verse-ers”. Writing free verse allows a writer to write without concern for form or rules. It is my assertion that through this laziness, this inattention to the rules of poetry, that most modern-day writers do not want to take the time to learn their craft. They want instant results, hence the need to be free from formal constraints. This modernist approach is too impatient.

Those Who Came Before

“Writing traditional poetry is too hard.” I heard one person say. And yet, she hadn’t even given it a try. “I don’t like sonnets, they’ve got too many rules.” I heard another. And yet, sonnets are one of the easiest forms to write.

I don’t care too much for sonnets myself, but, my point is, if you want to write poetry, stop writing free verse. If you want to write poetry, then show some appreciation to those poets who brought poetry into the twentieth century and made it popular. Thomas Hardy, E. J. Pratt, T. S. Elliot, and many more whose roots began in the Victorian Age, laid the foundation for free-verse-ers today. Don’t deny them what is properly theirs: respect. Before the free verse became popular these people studied their craft and learned from those that came before them. Do yourself a favor and learn from them.

To get you started on the road to poetry, here is a few links that you can bookmark and look through when you take the time. Don’t be daunted; this is where you want to be to learn something about your craft. Take up your torch and discover something new to you. You just might find something you like.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Poetic_form
• http://www.onelook.com/?w=poetry&ls=a
• http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display_rpo/poetterm.cfm

Writing is like painting, you start with a blank canvas. Assuming you know all about the subject you want to write about, begin with a simple yet effective opening line and try to capture the reader from the word go; humour is good, I've used it many times in the past. Okay, that opening line is written, your canvas is no longer blank, and just like a painting it's got its first flush of colour.

Build on that colour, make language and the use of different words in your article as though it were your paint brush. The varied use of colours in a painting help to create a pleasing effect on the eye - use words in the same way to create your article. You've heard the saying. "A picture paints a thousand words ..."

Create your own personal dictionary of words specific to article writing, and you'll soon discover which particular words make the most hits as potential links to sites which advertise - those sites are your bread and butter! The more potential links in your article, the greater the chances of increasing your earning power.

Example:

Car for sale, 1 previous owner. Immaculate condition for year - 1066. Seller forced to offer it due to breakdown of marriage as the wife ran off with the postman. Fees for obtaining the services of a good lawyer are essential in my particular case. Will accept any reasonable cash offer as my life at this moment in time is like a horror movie - Nightmare On Elm Street springs to mind! I will accept cash via electronic payment. My mobile number is ...

Notice how varied the words are in the above example? Even using numbers can be useful, the year 1066 was the year that the Battle of Hastings took place, which means history has played its part also!

Right, I hope I've imparted some useful information, and wish you every success with your future as an article writer. Thanks for reading my article, it's highly appreciated.

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