What makes a poem good or bad?
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
October 13, 2015 10:08am CST
I am going to be leading a workshop on Friday at my local writing group on the subject of "What is a poem and how can a good one be distinguished from a poor one?"
I am particularly interested in what people think makes a poem either good or bad, and indeed what counts as a poem at all. I have my own ideas on these questions, but it would be fascinating to know what other people think and then to see whether those thoughts accord with my own.
6 people like this
10 responses
@xFiacre (13218)
• Ireland
13 Oct 15
For a poem to be "good" it needs to strike a chord with me and elicit an emotional response from me. Experiencing a poem is not really done with the eyes as we read the words but with some other part of us I believe, and we need to be willing to give ourselves to the poem to connect with it. I don't envy you having to lead that workshop!
2 people like this
@bookbar (1609)
• Sudbury, England
15 Oct 15
There is too much snobbery around Poetry, the best poetry, is what it is,mind in motion and a thought caught on paper, it's not about layout or what others think is missing/application, just a free flow of an individual uniqueness of mind, through another's eyes..
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
15 Oct 15
I don't think it's snobbery to appreciate the difference between a well-crafted poem and an outpouring of emotion on paper. I think it is a fundamental error to say that any well-meant effusion of words is a poem, just as it an error to say that a child is making music when it bashes the piano keys.
A poem is an art form, and all art involves a certain degree of craft.
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
14 Oct 15
Brother John ( @indexer ) - I believe that poems are writings that use words to create images. Good poems produce good images. Good poems are understandable to the readers (or listeners) to whom they are directed. Good poems are not constructed of words that few people will understand. Some good poems are of a serious nature, whereas other good poems may be humorous or even frivolous. Some have rhyming lines and passages. Others may not. It is not vital that perfect grammar (etc.) be used to construct a good poem. Here is a two-word poem written by Ogden Nash. It is one of my favorites.
"Rhinocerous
Prepocerous"
1 person likes this
@Ceerios (4698)
• Goodfellow, Texas
16 Oct 15
Brother John ( @indexer ) After reading your post about poetry merits, I read two "poems" featured on the website, "The New Republic.com." The site even has a "poetry editor." The two poems were gosh-awful things - gibberish. But there they were. One was almost understandable. The other one - not at all. It amazes me what some otherwise intelligent people believe to be "good poetry." Serious stuff is one thing. Garbage is another. I doubt if flies would have landed on the two "poems" on that website. 
@intal_carl (299)
• Quezon City, Philippines
14 Oct 15
In my own opinion no poem is bad it really depends on the readers understanding.
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
15 Oct 15
I suppose one could argue that if a poem is really bad it ceases to be a poem! You need to read some of the work of William McGonagall to appreciate how bad a poem can be!
@sallypup (62481)
• Centralia, Washington
13 Oct 15
I posted what I consider to be a poem yesterday. I would be curious to get your input on it. What is a poem? Heart and breadth and the writer's individual response to something- physical, spiritual, emotional etc. Can the writer take the grass is green and make it their own? Can the writer take a Canada goose and paint it on the page so that the reader feels that goose wing? To aim for rhyme is not for the faint of heart. At times I have looked back at a piece and found rhyme snuck in. Then I know it is okay cause I did not sit down with a canned dictionary and rhyme intended or else.
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
15 Oct 15
Do you mean the piece entitled "This is poetry for me?" or did you have something else in mind?
@poehere (15123)
• French Polynesia
13 Oct 15
That is a good question. I sometime think that poems are what people want them to be and reflect their feeling at the time they write them. There are many a poem on love or holidays. Some poems you read you walk away and wonder what was the meaning behind them. While others strike you and you walk away thinking about them. Furthermore, do all poems have to rhyme. Some do and some don't. So it is hard to say what makes it good or bad. I think it is your personal choice. I know people who read a poem and love it and others read the same and don't get it. Maybe it's just perspective.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (170531)
• Boise, Idaho
14 Oct 15
I think it is the chose of words used. The flavor and subject matter of the piece. In any writing the correct word for the situation is very important. I think it is even more important in poetry.
@mythociate (21432)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
18 Oct 15
Everybody knows that poems are 'expressions of feeling,' so they're "good" if they effectively communicate the feeling the writer wishes to convey (possibly even making the reader feel the same way).
They're "bad" if they either don't communicate any feeling, communicate any feeling other than the feeling of the writer (instead of the writer's feeling), or communicates a feeling based on wrong information.
@joylol (148)
• Austin, Texas
14 Oct 15
Yay! Another poetry discussion! ^_^ Poems are the individual sharing thru written form of what you are, who you are,what you feel, and what you think at any given time. It is a connection of ideas aimed at your own life or to others life. I don't really think there are really any bad since people can read one and completely relate to it and not feel alone and if they can't relate than the poet who wrote it themself the poet is usually unique and is very beautiful at finding an alternate method to sort out their thoughts.
The only thing that makes a poor poem is if the poet didn't even try which is impossible since even blankness or emptiness or not knowing what to write are emotions other can relate to. What makes a really good poem to me, personally, is when it talks about the low topics of life, the ones that usually make others uncomfortable, because its important to actually question our motives and be the best versions of ourselves and the only way we can do that is if we dare to face the uncomfortable.
The one who stretches past their comfort zone of what is before thinks before they act and usually produces good results. Poetry is one of those! ^_^
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
14 Oct 15
I agree with you in part, but I can't agree that there are no bad poets or poems. Unless a poet is writing purely for their own amusement - in which case why inflict it on anyone else - it has to convey something that is understood by the reader or listener.
When I say "understood" I do not necessarily mean "completely understood". T S Eliot famously said that a good poem can be effective before it is understood - just as a piece of music can - but understanding then adds to the experience. The reader/listener might even gain some insight that the poet did not intend.
A good poem is multi-layered, whereas a bad poem has no layers at all! You will often come across so-called poems that are merely strings of words that bear little relationship to each other and fail to communicate anything other than confusion. A poem needs a structure - which may be a structure of ideas as opposed to a standard poetic form - but without any sort of structure it cannot be other than a bad poem, or not even a poem at all.
@EllaSpringtime (198)
• Israel
23 Oct 15
A good poem is lifting you up and a bad one is.. I can't say about a poem bad things because a bad hand script is better than a "good" handgun.
