04-04-2014, 11:48 AM
insert random line breaks. 
Straight prose can often be poetic in the way it describes things. Generally, what you do not find in prose, but that you do find in poetry is a a rhythmic quality. It may not be formal meter, or even free iambic verse, but it will generally have some rhythmic quality, such as you might find in Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass". Generally in what is called prose that quality is absent. And as Milo has pointed out poetry does have line breaks, with good poetry (as opposed to someone who doesn't know what they are doing), the line break at a minimum, acts as a caesura and generally contributes to the rhythmic quality, like the cadence of Whitman, or the breath pattern of Ginsburg's "Howl". As writers are generally no respecters of authority, there will always be some who try and blur any difference between prose and poetry that one might set, and so today we have a type of writing called "prose poetry" which takes tropes from poetry, primarily the use of metaphor, and the narrative form from prose. Sometimes we have gotten into arguments on this site about what is "prose poetry", or where the line exits between the two, as far as i know, there has never been any definitive conclusion reached.
My question is, why do you care if it is a poem? Prose is not a lesser form of writing. In fact prose has many advantages over poetry, the most obvious being is that a writer can make a living writing prose
There are generally more important things regarding writing than as to what genre it is a part of. It usually takes a number of years of learning to write poetry before you would write anything so subtle that such a question would need to be debated. Learn formal poetry first, so you have a base on which to stand. Too many people want to jump in and write free verse before they know what unfree verse is, and so all they do is copy the superficial appearance without any understanding of the deeper elements.
Please do me one favor, whatever you post, don't post a love poem.
Thanks,
dale
Straight prose can often be poetic in the way it describes things. Generally, what you do not find in prose, but that you do find in poetry is a a rhythmic quality. It may not be formal meter, or even free iambic verse, but it will generally have some rhythmic quality, such as you might find in Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass". Generally in what is called prose that quality is absent. And as Milo has pointed out poetry does have line breaks, with good poetry (as opposed to someone who doesn't know what they are doing), the line break at a minimum, acts as a caesura and generally contributes to the rhythmic quality, like the cadence of Whitman, or the breath pattern of Ginsburg's "Howl". As writers are generally no respecters of authority, there will always be some who try and blur any difference between prose and poetry that one might set, and so today we have a type of writing called "prose poetry" which takes tropes from poetry, primarily the use of metaphor, and the narrative form from prose. Sometimes we have gotten into arguments on this site about what is "prose poetry", or where the line exits between the two, as far as i know, there has never been any definitive conclusion reached.
My question is, why do you care if it is a poem? Prose is not a lesser form of writing. In fact prose has many advantages over poetry, the most obvious being is that a writer can make a living writing prose
There are generally more important things regarding writing than as to what genre it is a part of. It usually takes a number of years of learning to write poetry before you would write anything so subtle that such a question would need to be debated. Learn formal poetry first, so you have a base on which to stand. Too many people want to jump in and write free verse before they know what unfree verse is, and so all they do is copy the superficial appearance without any understanding of the deeper elements. Please do me one favor, whatever you post, don't post a love poem.
Thanks,
dale
How long after picking up the brush, the first masterpiece?
The goal is not to obfuscate that which is clear, but make clear that which isn't.
The goal is not to obfuscate that which is clear, but make clear that which isn't.