: Re: At what point in editing / revising does one poem become another poem? Many writing journals say they will not publish previously published poems. But if I revise a previously published poem,

@Deb2945533

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I doubt that there is a hard and fast line. I suppose a publication might say, "If the revised poem has at least 50% of the words changed it is acceptable". But I doubt they do.

One could, of course, play games with this sort of thing. You could take a completely original poem and cry, "Look! It includes the phrases 'undying love' and 'made for each other', just like this other poem over here! Obviously a copy." At the other extreme, I can't imagine that any editor would accept that changing one word in a five-page poem makes it a new poem.

Any standard is likely to be subjective. Does it "sound like" the other poem? Etc.

I have to wonder: Why do you ask? Did you write a poem, get it published, and now you want to publish it again? Or are you contemplating taking a book of poems by Shakespeare or Poe, changing a couple of words here and there, and submitting them as your own?

I suppose if you wrote some poem that you consider your master work, that you are not confidant that you will ever be able to create something of this quality again, and you had it published in some obscure literary journal that six people read and you are now frustrated because you can't get it out to a wider audience ... well, I'd talk to the editor about that and explain your position. Otherwise, I think you'd be better to just write new poems rather than try to tinker with someone else's. Well, other than to produce a parody, like your example above is obviously a parody on Road Not Taken.

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