How do you describe poetry?

Question

"I can call you Betty and Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al"

Metaphorical

Allegorical

Comical

Whimsical

Metrical

Formal

Casual

Literal

Natural

Mental

Physical

Psychological

Intellectual

Elemental

Communal

Enigmal

….Obscure

Above all.......normal

Poetry…can be all these things and more

Answer 1

You Can Call Me Al

    ( Paul Simon )

    A man walks down the street,

    He says, Why am I soft in the middle now?

    Why am I soft in the middle?

    The rest of my life is so hard!

    I need a photo-opportunity,

    I want a shot at redemption!

    Don't want to end up a cartoon,

    In a cartoon graveyard .....

    Bonedigger, Bonedigger,

    Dogs in the moonlight.

    Far away, my well-lit door.

    Mr. Beerbelly, Beerbelly,

    Get these mutts away from me!

    You know, I don't find this stuff amusing anymore ....

    If you'll be my bodyguard,

    I can be your long lost pal!

    I can call you Betty,

    And Betty, when you call me,

    You can call me Al!

    A man walks down the street,

    He says, Why am I short of attention?

    Got a short little span of attention,

    And whoa, my nights are so long!

    Where's my wife and family?

    What if I die here?

    Who'll be my role-model?

    Now that my role-model is ....

    Gone ...... gone,

    He ducked back down the alley,

    With some roly-poly, little bat-faced girl.

    All along .... along ....

    There were incidents and accidents,

    There were hints and allegations .....

    If you'll be my bodyguard,

    I can be your long lost pal!

    I can call you Betty,

    And Betty, when you call me,

    You can call me Al!

    Call me Al ......

    A man walks down the street,

    It's a street in a strange world.

    Maybe it's the Third World.

    Maybe it's his first time around.

    He doesn't speak the language,

    He holds no currency.

    He is a foreign man,

    He is surrounded by the sound, sound ....

    Cattle in the marketplace.

    Scatterlings and orphanages.

    He looks around, around .....

    He sees angels in the architecture,

    Spinning in infinity,

    He says, Amen! and Hallelujah!

    If you'll be my bodyguard,

    I can be your long lost pal!

    I can call you Betty,

    And Betty, when you call me,

    You can call me Al!

    You can call me Al ......

Answer 2

I like TD Euwaite's brief but complete description: "Poetry is literature concentrate."

Answer 3

I think it's an art, like a painting but in words.

Mysterious, only the skillful can decipher.

I love poetry.

Answer 4

the little

powerful word

describing

word salads of life,

freely living.

starving, providing

forever.

Answer 5

Liionel Trilling called poetry "a boxed explosion".  I'm somewhat inclined to agree, but more I'd say it is a view of the world, its intricacies, expectations, anxieties, celebrations, macabre moments, and idiocies, but above all its beauties and sense of wonder.  Poetry to me is a way of playing and praying. Oh, and by the way you really can call me Al.

Answer 6

I am going to rely on a quote of Lord Byron's here.

"I can never get people to understand that poetry is the expression of excited passion, and that there is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?"

My definition: Poetry is an attempt to capture AND harness that excited passion. I say "attempt" because you can capture a wild mustang, but you cannot harness one.

In prose we are taught to "show, not tell". Paintings are the opposite, it's not enough for a painting to show us a picture; it must tell us of the excited passion the artist attempted to capture--poetry is a combination. Poetry is painting in prose.

Mama don't take my Kodachrome away.

Answer 7

all the above in rhyme or free verse, all life looked at through alternative

lenses.

Answer 8

This is one of my very own quotes

Poetry is a love affair with words!

Cheers!

Answer 9

Yes, wonderfully it is all of the above!

The man who has been the most helpful to me this past month as I've begun to write, put it this way to me in so many words:

Throw the words down and let them bleed on the page.

If there is a reaction, then it's poetry.

Pretty loose terms, I know, but if his description had been more confining, I would never have dared to begin.

ma

Answer 10

I don't.  It is constantly evolving as your great words give testament to.

Answer 11

Poetry makes you feel happy, sad, angry...

It's art. Art is life, haven't you noticed how some carefully chosen words make you feel something? That's what I like about art. It makes you feel something, and that's human. It makes me feel alive.

It's so complex and yet so easy I can't describe it with just words.

Answer 12

Poetry has nearly everything that music can give--melody,rhythm,sentiment-but it has this advantage--it can come closer to the heart.It can have a more personal and lasting appeal.It entertains,inspires,and in time of need, it comforts.It can make you think,reflect,imagine,question,and dream.Who could ask for anything more.

Answer 13

Poetry is either in exact iambic pentameter with an ABAB CC rhyme scheme of 14 lines....

...or it's not.

Answer 14

A costume ball attended by words in masks -- few are who they seem to be, but they all invite you to dance with them...

Answer 15

I think poetry is expressing yourself with beautiful words and expressions which add even more meaning to the experience you are trying to portray.