Is Poetry the Lazy Man’s Story?

An interesting question. I certainly wouldn’t label Auden, Larkin or Wilfred Owen as “lazy”! A poet can spend hours perfecting a few lines. Consequently it is, in my view a myth to describe poets as “lazy”. However I, as a poet undoubtedly have an axe to grind! Kevin

3 thoughts on “Is Poetry the Lazy Man’s Story?”

Janni Styles January 31, 2016 at 12:04 am

Thanks kindly for the reblog, glad you enjoyed my little piece well enough to share! 🙂

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drewdog2060drewdog2060 Post authorJanuary 31, 2016 at 8:06 am

You are welcome for the reblog. Best wishes. Kevin

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mark February 2, 2016 at 10:09 am

Aha!! Good to see people standing up for poetry and people who appreciate the art of poetry.
I think it would be truer to say something like “Bad poetry is what lazy writers do.”
Bad poetry is easy, all you need are some cliches, some redundant phrases, say that it’s about love (the least covered subject in poetry) and then say something about poetic licence. I used to do it all the time when I was younger, but that’s because I never knew what poetry really was.
There’s an Oscar Wilde quote that reminds me of what you said about spending hours perfecting a line, and it goes something like this…

“I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.”

One final quote which I think sums up poetry perfectly by Samuel Taylor Coleridge…

“Prose = words in their best order. Poetry = the best words in their best order.”

Thanks for the read,
Mark

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