For Certain Definitions of Poetry

I've presented panels on poetry, writing, and language for several years at Norwescon, a local science fiction convention. One of the things I've had the opportunity to discuss at length is meaning and value of poetry. So, as a result of those discussions, and somewhat in my own defense, I've come up with my working definition of poetry. I'd like to share it with you today.

Poetry occurs when word choice is important beyond the meaning of the words. When a word adds value to the work in addition to its definition, poetry is created. To put it another way, if you remove a word and replace it with a different word of the same meaning and the work suffers from the change, the word removed had some poetic weight. The phrases "diminish the lesson" and "lessen the lesson" basically mean the same thing, but one reads as a play on words and the other does not.

In a structured poem, the added value may be in the number of syllables, or the meter, or the ability to rhyme with another word. In other works, it could be as simple as choosing a short sharp word over a longer word with softer consonants.

But the nifty thing about this definition, to my mind, is that it's more about when poetic elements occur than it's about what makes an actual poem. So it also provides food for thought in writing stories or even non-fiction. I have personally found it useful when writing for the stage or preparing stories to be told out loud. Does the sound of this word work better than the sound of other words I could use?

In Arlo Guthrie's classic Alice's Restaurant, he uses the phrase "side of a side road." It has a nice repetition that "edge of a side road" doesn't. He also stretches the vowel sound a little, "siiiide of a siiide road," which wouldn't work as well with edge. He repeats the trick with the vowel later, referring to the sides of a piece of paper, creating a continuity of vocal tone through the work. Couldn't do that with "edge" -- the edge of a road and the side of a road may mean the same thing, but the edges of a piece of paper are different from its sides.