: Re: What makes a poem a poem? Warning: long question. To start it off lightheartedly, here is the topic as doggerel. There are plenty of questions with titles like these: "What is this form?" —

@Pierce369

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My favourite definition or description of poetry is concentrated prose.

Speaking only of verse, it uses fewer words to communicate its ideas than prose would use.

The Moving Finger writes and having writ,
moves on. Not all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor tears wash out a word of it - Khayyam

To speak of fate and man’s struggles against it in prose would take much more time, but the idea is clear, the image strong.

Poetry has a beauty and effect on the reader that verse does not. Verse is technique and often technical brilliance, but poetry is heart and soul expressed in few words, reaching across the generations.

Poetry has a profundity and power not found elsewhere.

What in me is dark, illumine, what is low, raise and support - Milton

It is the thought expressed and the resonance with the reader that raises verse to poetry.

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