Comments on: What’s the Difference Between Fiction and Poetry? Quote of the Day http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/ Janice Harayda Reviews Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry for Adults and Children Mon, 20 May 2013 13:35:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3862 Sat, 14 Jul 2007 14:32:27 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3862 Malcolm: No need ever to apologize for bringing up form and structure. They get way less attention than they deserve from many authors and some critics. But you’re right that most poems today don’t have a “plot” in the usual sense. They tend to meet the definition of “lyrical” poetry (typically about the emotions) rather than “narrative” poetry (which tells a story).

Some of the better poets working today can tell can tell a great story, in, say, a sonnet. Claudia Emerson, who won the 2006 Pulizter for poetry for “Late Wife,” is an example. I hope we’ll see more of them.
Jan

]]> By: knightofswords http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3852 Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:30:52 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3852 With apologies for getting into the more mudane matters of form and structure, fiction is usually expected to have a plot. Poetry certainly can, but it usually doesn’t. As Sarton said, it is the arrival. Rather, I think, like a novel that starts with the last paragraph.

Malcolm

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3831 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:35:52 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3831 Schildan: I’d love to see more of that, too. And it could happen. We’ve seen something of a resurgence in formal poetry in recent years. So why not narrative poetry, too? Thanks for your comment. Jan

]]> By: schildan http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3828 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:10:03 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3828 I think it’s a shame that not enough authors have followed suit. The world of poetry would be much expanded by a return to traditional storytelling.

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3824 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:36:32 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3824 And some novelists, like Vikram Seth (“The Golden Gate”), have returned to the form of the novel-in-verse …

]]> By: heehler http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3820 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:09:19 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3820 Thanks for the compliment. As it happens, the book I’m shopping around has a few of them sprinkled throughout.

But getting back to your original point, I don’t think it’s coincidental that what is widely considered as one of the greatest poems ever written, The Iliad, reads like a novel, and that the greatest novels are supremely poetic.

]]> By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3819 Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:28:40 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3819 You have a gift for reducing things to their essence. Maybe you should write a book of epigrams or aphorisms? Or a blog devoted to them?

]]> By: heehler http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3816 Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:32:40 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/07/10/what%e2%80%99s-the-difference-between-fiction-and-poetry-quote-of-the-day/#comment-3816 The smaller the difference, the better they both become.

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