Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
It's just weird that poetry would be described as a subset of fiction. . . .
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Agreed; however, I take issue with one implication which people might infer from this:
Quote:
But:
"Listen my children and you will hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere...." or
"'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred."
are not examples of "fiction".
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No, those poems are not fiction insofar as they refer to factual events. However, they are certainly narrative poems which offer (in stylized form) much of the same information as a prose account. Modern expectations would dictate that that those same events now be rendered in prose (unless the account were parodic; for example, a report on a scandal-plagued politician's loss written in the form of "Casey at the Bat"), like the manuals and Bible translations that I've mentioned.
If a poem can use narrative, then it can be a work of fiction, just as it can be an account of an historical event.
People who say that poems must be cries from the gut or "about love" are also mistaking content for form. How exactly are Pound's Pisan Cantos or collections like Bob Perelman's
Primer "about love"?
Additionally, many would draw a distinction between poetry (which is thought to have a certain depth of meaning and/or feeling) and verse (cf. any vintage Gradus ad Parnassum which uses rhyme and meter to help the student memorize content). I tend not to make that distinction because the answer -- that poetry is the higher form -- is so common as to be cliche, and because the inevitable discussion that follows -- what is and isn't poetry -- nearly always hinges on the preconceptions of the participants.
At this point, manuals in verse are so uncommon that I think it might be fun to write one -- especially a
manual for mortuary cosmeticians.