Poetry News

Turns out, poets like/dislike prose poetry

By Harriet Staff

Sean Lovelace has done us the favor of bringing together a mishmash of ruminations on that elusive animal the prose poem. Just a little taste from his list:

‘All which is not prose is verse; and all which is not verse is prose.’ (Molliere)

‘The prose poem has the unusual distinction of being regarded with suspicion not only by the usual haters of poetry, but also by many poets themselves.’ (Charles Simic)

‘From the reader’s view, a poem is more demanding than prose.’ (Mark Strand)

‘My own formal literary education has not accorded much regard to what in English are referred to as ‘prose poems,’ and I am not at all sure what the genre is supposed to entail.’ (W.S. Merwin)

‘However, if a poem can be reduced to a prose sentence, there can’t be much to it.’ (James Schuyler)

Make the jump to HTML Giant for the full list. And be sure to dip into the comments for a few bonus quotes.

Posted in Poetry News on Monday, June 18th, 2012 by Harriet Staff.