What Poetry is?

by **Lily** Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:21 am

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Post n°1

Re: What Poetry is?

by Lily Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:21 am

Prose is writing that resembles everyday speech. The word "prose" is derived from the Latin prosa, which literally translates to "straightforward". Prose is an unpretentious form of writing; it is adopted for the discussion of facts and topical news. Prose is often articulated in free form writing style. Thus, it may be used for books, newspapers, magazines, encyclopedias, broadcast media, films, letters, history, philosophy, biography, linguistic geography, and many other forms of communication.

Prose generally lacks the formal structure of meter or rhyme. Although some works of prose may happen to contain traces of metrical structure or versification, a conscious blend of the two forms of literature is known as a prose poem. Similarly, poetry with less of the common rules and limitations of verse is known as free verse. Poetry is considered to be artificially developed ("The best words in the best order"), whereas prose is thought to be less constructed and more reflective of ordinary speech.^{[citation needed]} Pierre de Ronsard, the Frenchpoet, said that his training as a poet had proved to him that prose and poetry were mortal enemies. In Molière's play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Monsieur Jourdain asks something to be written in neither verse nor prose. A philosophy master says to him, "Sir, there is no other way to express oneself than with prose or verse". Jourdain replies, "By my faith! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing anything about it, and I am much obliged to you for having taught me that."

Styles

Prose varies considerably depending on the purpose of the writing. As prose is often considered to be representative of the patterns of normal speech,^{[citation needed]} many rhetorical devices are used in prose to emphasize points and enliven the writing. Prose aims to be informative and accurate, such as history or journalism, usually striving to use the simplest language possible to express its points. Facts are often repeated and reiterated in various ways so that they are understood by a reader, but excessive use of this technique can make a serious piece of writing seem pedantic.

In fiction, prose can take on many forms. Skilled authors can alter how they use prose throughout a book to suggest different moods and ideas. A thriller often consists of short, "punchy" sentences made up of equally short words, suggesting very rapid actions to heighten the effect of a very fast-moving plot. Conversely, longer sentences can be used to slow down the action of a novel.

Also, it can be expressed in a combination of prose and poetry in a style called prosetry. A good example of this is in Elie Weisel's book Night.

Speech/Debate

The event 'Prose' in Speech/Debate is an event in which one person reads a selection from a published book, play, etc., and interprets the piece for the judging audience.^{[citation needed]}For example, In the state of Texas UIL (University Interscholastic League), one of the high school categories are 'Prose and Poetry', where one competes with a prose piece in part A, and a second piece in part B.

by **Lily** Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:12 am

Lily

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Post n°2

What about Prose ?

by Lily Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:12 am

Prose, the form of written language that is not organized according to the formal patterns of verse; although it will have some sort of rhythm and some devices of repetition and balance, these are not governed by a regularly sustained formal arrangement, the significant unit being the sentence rather than the line. Some uses of the term include spoken language as well, but it is usually more helpful to maintain a distinction at least between written prose and everyday speech, if not formal oratory. Prose has as its minimum requirement some degree of continuous coherence beyond that of a mere list. The adjectives prosaic and prosy have a derogatory meaning of dullness and ordinarinesss; the neutral adjective is simply ‘prose’, as in ‘prose writings’.

Literary medium distinguished from poetry especially by its greater irregularity and variety of rhythm and its closer correspondence to the patterns of everyday speech. Though it is readily distinguishable from poetry in that it does not treat a line as a formal unit, the significant differences between prose and poetry are of tone, pace, and sometimes subject matter.

prose 1. Greek. Prose as a means of literary expression was developed in Greece as in other countries long after poetry. In early times when writing was in its infancy and literary compositions survived by being committed to memory, those written in metrical form were easier to memorize (in Greece, writing was reintroduced at the end of the eighth century; see ALPHABET). The earliest writers of Greek prose appear to have been the chroniclers (see LOGOGRAPHERS (1)) and philosophers (see PHILOSOPHY) of Ionia in the sixth century BC. From this time onward the development of prose was rapid. Heracleitus in about 500 BC was already writing prose of subtlety and style. By the middle of the fifth century BC a technical prose had been developed which was adequate to express all that was needed for a scientific or philosophical treatise. Democritus (c.460–c.357 BC), to judge from his fragments, was a competent prose writer, and the earliest works in the Hippocratic Corpus (see HIPPOCRATES) show at least the capacity for accurate and concise statement.

The first fully developed prose work that has survived in its entirety is the history of Herodotus (c.490–c.425 BC). Attic prose reached its height in the dialogues of Plato (c.429–347 BC) and the speeches of Demosthenes (384–322 BC). The sophist Gorgias (c.483–c.385) developed a very mannered oratorical style which did not have a long-lasting influence. Isocrates (436–338) on the other hand exercised through his school a deep influence on later Greek prose, in the direction of greater elaboration and ornament. With the end of the fourth century BC came the close of the classical period of Attic literature, the dialect of Athens then giving place to a common Greek dialect, the koinē (see DIALECTS), less subtle, varied, and accurate in expression. Greek prose was influenced by ‘Asianism’ (see ORATORY 1), the florid style favoured by the rhetoricians of the third century BC. There was an energetic reaction against this, and an Attic revival, at Rome in the Augustan age; of this Dionysius of Halicarnassus is the best example. In the second century AD Lucian wrote in a very good imitation of classical Attic prose. See also NOVEL and SOPHISTIC, SECOND.

2. Latin. Latin prose was developed, in its characteristic features, out of public speech, though it originated partly in the Annales of the pontiffs (their records of traditional ritual and events of religious importance) which were the origin of written history at Rome. Roman law, published and often learnt by heart, was also a formative influence. Latin prose, unlike Latin poetry, owed little to Greek influences, for it already possessed, before the advent of these, the essential qualities of clarity, precision, and conciseness. In a community like Rome where politics played so great a part, these qualities were naturally esteemed in oratory. We hear of Appius Claudius Caecus and Cato the Censor as noted speakers; and oratory was further developed, with a great variety of appeal, by Gaius Gracchus. Latin prose reached its highest point in the speeches and writings of Cicero. Thereafter it tended to become artificial, epigrammatic, and poetical, under the influence of the poets and of the prevailing education in rhetoric and through the practice of declamation (see DECLAMATIONES). Seneca's prose is typically epigrammatic; that of Tacitus is marked by its excessive compactness and its poeticisms. The Younger Pliny also shows the influence of the rhetorical schools. Quintilian opposed the artificiality of his day and wrote in a style free from conceits and studied effects; but although a professed follower of Cicero he did not recapture the amplitude and symmetry of Cicero's prose.

by **Lily** Wed Mar 04, 2009 1:51 am

Lily

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Post n°3

What Poetry is?

by Lily Wed Mar 04, 2009 1:51 am

Poetry, language sung, chanted, spoken, or written according to some pattern of recurrence that emphasizes the relationships between words on the basis of sound as well as sense: this pattern is almost always a rhythm or metre, which may be supplemented by rhyme or alliteration or both. The demands of verbal patterning usually make poetry a more condensed medium than prose or everyday speech, often involving variations in syntax, the use of special words and phrases ( poetic diction) peculiar to poets, and a more frequent and more elaborate use of figures of speech, principally metaphor and simile. All cultures have their poetry, using it for various purposes from sacred ritual to obscene insult, but it is generally employed in those utterances and writings that call for heightened intensity of emotion, dignity of expression, or subtlety of meditation. Poetry is valued for combining pleasures of sound with freshness of ideas, whether these be solemn or comical. Some critics make an evaluative distinction between poetry, which is elevated or inspired, and verse, which is merely clever or mechanical. The three major categories of poetry are narrative, dramatic, and lyric, the last being the most extensive.

Writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through its meaning, sound, and rhythm. It may be distinguished from prose by its compression, frequent use of conventions of metre and rhyme, use of the line as a formal unit, heightened vocabulary, and freedom of syntax. Its emotional content is expressed through a variety of techniques, from direct description to symbolism, including the use of metaphor and simile. See also prose poem; prosody.

A literary expression in which language is used in a concentrated blend of sound and imagery to create an emotional response; essentially rhythmic, it is usually metrical and frequently structured in stanzas.

Poetry (from the Greek "ποίησις", poiesis, a "making") is a form of literaryart in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns or lyrics.

Poetry, and discussions of it, have a long history. Early attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition and rhyme, and emphasised the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose.From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.

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What Poetry is?

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