What's the Difference Between Poetry and Prose?
@gtargirl (5376)
United States
11 responses
@averagejill (20)
• United States
17 Dec 09
Poetry and Prose are quite different. The dictionary's thought on these two matters are as follows: Poetry: n. rhythmical composition embodying beautiful or elevated thoughts.
Prose: n. ordinary language, not versed.
In more practical understanding, poetry is the fluid, rhythmic, and rhymn in the world. The "beautiful language". Prose is what makes a writer and author. Prose is what's written up in newspapers. Prose is the columns in a magazine. Prose is a written form of what you speak.
Hope that broke it down for you. =)
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (160696)
• United States
17 Dec 09
Think of the word "prosaic". It is from the same root. It means ordinary.
2 people like this
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
17 Dec 09
Thank you, GardenGerty--I was reaching for my keyboard to type that very thing when I saw you'd just done it!
Obviously, judging from this thread, schools are doing a sorry job of teaching literature! Sigh..what a shame to leech all the poetry from our lives in such a flat-footed manner!
I never expected to become another sighing Geezer, missing the "good old days" when folks knew prose was always unrhymed, pretty-much rhythm-less writing, while poetry (which may or may not rhyme!) strove for higher things, playing with the language as prose cannot, by definition, do!
So, for those who don't know, prose IS what you read in the newspaper, but it's equally what you read in textbooks & the finest fiction available! No, it doesn't rhyme, but lack of rhyming does not automatically equate with prose!
Maggiepie
"SAY 'MERRY CHRISTMAS!'"
1 person likes this
@Allie_xoxo (1063)
• Canada
16 Dec 09
Hi Gtar
prose is long and story-like, unrhyming. Poems have a shorter format
@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
16 Dec 09
Interesting. Would it still be considered poetry, just a different style? Thanks, Allie, that clears it up a little.
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
17 Dec 09
Allie: Nooot exactly.
Poetry, even non-rhyming poetry, differs from prose in that it has an inner rhythm. Prose is not bound by this constriction, whether long or short. Both poetry AND prose may be any length. Think of "Ulysses," or "Snowbound." Book-length poems! No, the secret to calling something a poem is there must be a rhythm to it (albeit perhaps a subtle one), as well as having the words be subject to that rhythm.
Compare this line of poetry to its prosaic counterpart which immediately follows:
"Do not go gentle into that good night;
Rage! Rage against the dying of the light!"
"Don't just lie down & die--get mad! Fight to live!"
Does that help?
Maggiepie
"SAY 'MERRY CHRISTMAS!'"
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
17 Dec 09
basically prose is anything that is not poetry,
some will say it is ordinary written language
3 people like this
@gitfiddleplayer (10362)
• United States
17 Dec 09
Poetry would be more in a stanza form like writing a song or sonnet. Prose is more free flow writing like in a magazine. Hope that helps.
2 people like this
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
16 Dec 09
I can understand your confusion because some writing sites use the prose category for stories as well as for poetry. In short, prose is a language that is not poetry and an ordinary style of expression. Could be a story. Poetry is literature in verse.
2 people like this
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
17 Dec 09
Poetry is poetry, and prose is everything else. I am writing prose right now, by responding to this discussion. Prose is simply the written word that has not been organized into a form of poetry.
1 person likes this
@gtargirl (5376)
• United States
18 Dec 09
So prose then, could be as beautiful as poetry because a fictional novel would be considered prose, right? Thanks DC.
@maygodblessu44 (7336)
• India
5 Jan 10
Hello my friend gtargirl Ji,
At blunt way, prose is defined as text in any language,whereas poetry excites all senses, sad and happiness. It takes you to natural world. People feelhappyand also during sad mood they remember and sing. There is absolutely no feel oflyric in prose. It has nil feelings. It is an abstarct feeling. It is like throwing stone.
Wishing you a very happy New Year-2010.
May God bless You and have a great time.
@TBBryceson (1)
• United States
3 Aug 12
In the modern academic/literary world, the definition of "poetry" has been loosened or, in my opinion, outright ignored to include prose that is simply, arbitrarily divided into convenient lines and/or verses in order to be classified as "poetry". There seems to be an aversion to admit to poetic prose as being basically imaginatively descriptive prose at all, but rather to insist upon it being called "poetry". The classification of "prose poetry" is commonly used to describe a work that is in no particular line, verse or structural form at all (other than basic grammatical form), but is engaging and imaginative, emphatic or emotional, rather than simply referring to it as poetic prose.
Poetry uses rhyme, rhythm (meter) and/or structure to:
(1)convey an impression and depth of experience beyond the words themselves, such as the rhythm of the words mimicking a galloping horse in a poem about a horseback escape, or a poem about an unnamed emotion, with the lines of the work composed into the shape of a heart;
(2) capture deeper attention by achieving a reader’s engagement that allows the poem to penetrate his "outer shell" in order to be taken more personally, and to make itself more memorable or pleasing so the words inspire more contemplation then or at a later idle moment;
(3)to bring a sense of continuity to a work or a group of works to indicate their link to one another, or the opposite effect, as in a different meter used for different characters in the poem.
These examples are by no means exclusive nor exhaustive, but simply show ways true poetry uses the written word, as opposed to the way prose is written. Prose is generally devoid of rhyme, meter and line/versed structure, although it may occasionally employ any one of these elements to achieve some particular effect, much, and as rarely, as one would in common conversation, such as rhyming a word with someone's name to describe or clarify, as in "Stormin' Norman". These three elements are not used consistently within prose as is "required" (by my definition) by poetry.
Imagery is often confused as being a requirement or the sole domain of poetry, which may be one of the main reasons for the gradual blurring of distinction between prose and poetry within the last hundred-plus years. Poetry is often picturesque and descriptive in nature, with analogy and simile playing large roles, but this can also be well represented in prose, resulting in a beautiful, engrossing read- but does that make it poetry? No. It simply makes it well written, beautiful and compelling prose.
With all this being said, in the interest of the active student within the current educational system, let me give this advice: poetry is whatever your instructor says it is; if you disagree, your instructor may be open to friendly debate, but be sure to evaluate the powers that be carefully- your instructor may be a writer who considers him/herself a poet.