Wondering what makes a poem good? The inner meaning sometimes stems from the hidden and more subtle undertones from within the writing, portrayed through literate techniques.
Can a poem still have as much depth as any other with a very unorganized presentation if that type of structure has nothing to do with the theme of the poem itself. Can it still mean something if the meaning is laid out through literal descriptions rather than little indications...I could go on and on rambling about certain techniques and word lengths, but I think you get what I mean...Please feel free to answer and discuss I would love to know everyone's answer to it and why they feel that way etc... :)
Totally off-topic: I'm just passing notes in class. Pssst! Kai, just in case you weren't planning to revisit Kashaf's story, this is to say that I've written you a letter there.
["WILHELMINA! Is there anything you wish to share with the rest of the class?"]
(Gluuups!)
Lorraine, I LOVE that poem! Thanks for introducing it to me! I also love the comment on the web-site I chose through Googling:
"One more memorable poem by WCW--a famous one, which I imagine began as a note typed to his wife, which turned into a poem. Was it a fair trade?--this poem for the plums she was saving??" - http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/wcw.plums.html
Back to the question: What makes a good poem?
There is no secret recipe.
It's all a matter of taste.
For some Nash was a genius.
For other's just a waste
Of time.
For some, scan and rhyme were all important. Ogden Nash was famous for slinging scan out of the window as long as he could get to a rhyme.
(Just a little something that I shuffled off in 3 minutes.)
Aside from Nash fans, I guess that most poetry lovers would agree that the RHYTHM is important. For most, the MEANING is of supreme importance, a theory radically opposed to Humpty Dumpty's sound (applaud the pun) advice to “take care of the sounds and the sense will take care of itself”.
How long is a piece of string? A poem is good if the reader feels in tune with it, I suppose. It's so subjective. A poem can be structurally clever but fail to convey the emotion to the audience. It can be simple, or complex. Compare Keats with Gerard Manley Hopkins - vastly different, but they are both considered good, perhaps great, poets.
The first university lecture I ever attended was about one single poem - William Carlos Williams' This is Just to Say. Google it. The challenge was for us new undergrads to say if it was indeed a poem, and what made it so.
If you're writing a haiku or a sonnet, for instance, you have to observe the rules of construction; but whatever the form, a poem is written to communicate an idea or emotion or a description. In answer to your question, then, a bad poem is one that fails to do what you intend it to do.
Lorraine