Poetry

What's the point of anything?

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>>9918536
It's about metric foot and holding rhythm. When not focusing on rhyme, rhythm and meter become absolutely key in keeping time. So, I'm sure you've heard the term "iambic" before. When using the iambic metric foot, you're alternating between an unstressed syllable and a stressed syllable, in that order.
>Because I could not stop for death,
>Death kindly stopped for me.

So in this example there are four iambs per line:
>be-cause I-could not-stop for-death
and so this poem would be considered "iambic tetra meter" with some trimeter. "Tetrameter" just means there are four uses of the metric foot--iambs--per line.

Should this poem not rhyme--though it does--it would contain the underlying metric foot which then holds its place.
Meter may be subtle, or deliberately used to establish a theme through rhythm.

Take Lord Byron's 'The Destruction of Sennacherib'. It rhymes, but it also uses the anapaest metric foot of "soft-soft-hard" to establish a rhythmic similarity to the gallop of horses depicted within the poem itself.

TL;DR: The point of poems which don't rhyme are to establish underlying rhythms as their motif; usually to exemplify the ideas in the poem.

>>9918536
What's the point of poetry that does rhyme according to you?

>>9918642
Is there an effective way to learn how to recognize meter? Simple meter is easy to pick up on, but what about the more subtle ones?

>>9918536

200 years ago they were edgy, now they are actually tired and passé but try telling that to pseudopoets

>>9918541
either say something helpful or fuck off you 2deep4u fuck face

>>9918642
so rhythm in poetry matters more than the meaning of the actual words? I always thought the appeal of poetry was the language being beautiful

>>9918642
Pretty sure OP meant free verse and not blank verse.

>>9918536
I think what you're asking is: what justifies calling free verse poems, poems? What makes them poetry, rather than prose?

And to that I say that you don't yet know what poetry is. What defines poetry is not its rhythm, much less its musicality, neither are required to constitute poetry. Poetry is a way to use language, and to express insights, which, contrary to prose, seeks to transmit the affects of an experience or idea through figurative language, rather than describe it in order for it to be intellectually understood. A poem might very well be tightly metered and rhythmic, and not contain any real poetry. Or, poetry might come in the form of prose, as is with prose poetry or novels of a certain ilk.

>>9918735
The best way to do it is to study each type of metric footing along with a few poems which apply each method. Even with this though, meter may be subtle at times. Certain words which by themselves are stressed may be unstressed in a sentence.

If you're reading a lot of poetry, don't focus too hard on devices. Focus more on being able to read the piece fluidly while understanding it. From there it becomes easier to identify what methods are being used.

If you're writing poetry, once you understand the metric foot you wish to use, try and allow the words to come to you naturally. Typically, the harder you try and force certain stressed or unstressed syllable in a line, the more likely you are to make yourself hear a syllable as you wish it to be and not what it is within the sentence or thought.

>>9918755
No, no, no. Imagery is always the most important device of poetry. Meter, and rhyme, come into play to give life to the images or thoughts.

Here's an example of how meter can be used to empower the imagery:

Drumsticks matched with matchsticks
drum erupting snares of embers.
Alternating and pulsating
orbs of rhythmic fires
conjure bursting storms of sparks
becoming twisters dancing spirals.

Summon me my will to be,
You frantic beating meter!
Tell me now, Hephaestus, how
Dionysus helps me neither!
This blazing pounding scares me not
of burning bloody ether.
Chaos born was Eros,
Surely so could we together.

Twisting body-coals ablaze
my thoughts can see no other.
Exhausted, forging hammers stay
and fires start to smother.
Cooling off, though not all froze,
My mind returns to me.
I strike a match and light a bone
as ashes fall to glowing screen.

Alone, the piece tells of the pounding rush one feels in a moment swept in passion. Then, under the imagery, the rapid semi-iambic meter helps stir to life that pulsation. This is a major point of meter.

Or, when reading Homeric type verses, there is pretty much only meter which purely keeps time and rhythm. In that usage of meter a poet may build upon and alternate metric foots to act as progressions much like in a song. They rise and fall with the rise and fall of the story to bring the reader into the energy of the moments depicted.

>>9918931
>Drumsticks matched with matchsticks
cringe, bet you thought it was awfully poetic

>>9918997
I posted it because it backs the point I was trying to make about image and meter. It's a personal poem not meant for publish, so I don't care what you think.

>>9918642
Thanks anon. You've been really helpful