When you read a poem, what about it catches your attention?

Question

What makes you like a piece of poetry and want to continue reading it over and over again until you count it among your favorites???

Do you like for it to have a strict rhyme scheme, lyric, or obvious meter or do you prefer it to go more by assonance and feeling, or form and function?

Or do your prefer crazy, deep, harsh & intense or honest prose?

So tell me... What means "Great poetry" to you?

What do you look for? Listen for?

and does it bother you if it is not grammatically perfect?

Last but not least....Who is your favorite poet and what poem is your favorite?

Answer 1

I rather enjoy the imagery from a good poem and a well-turned phrase (a specific line that just jumps out). I like to read the work of a poet skilled in making line breaks that either pull you into the next line, or when read alone that line (or word) can be read in many different ways.

As for rhyming, it all depends upon the poem and the form (with expected rhyme schemes from the established formats).

The rhythm and meter should also be emphasized in the established formats while all is fair in free verse.

Grammar and syntax (and spelling) are also very important as mistakes detract from the reading. The obvious exception would be for persona poems (including dialects) and where the author makes a change in grammar or syntax for a reason (not merely a mistake or trying to force a rhyme).

I prefer poems that do not rely on merely using the words soul, heart, spirit, love... all the loaded words with big connotations that do not use more solid imagery. And if the imagery is solid, I don't care whether the poem is crazy, deep, harsh, intense or honest.

I have been blessed (or cursed) with the inability to call forth most of my favorite poets or poems and I'm able to re-discover them whenever I encounter them again. One of the few poems I can recall is "Kubla Khan", probably because I saw a previous answerer mention Coleridge. And then there are a few bits and pieces of Shakespeare's sonnets floating around in my head. However, the last poetry book I purchased was by David Budbill, Moment to Moment: Poems of a Mountain Recluse, after I heard him recite his poem "Bugs in a Bowl" on NPR a few years ago. And before that I purchased a collection of Gertrude Stein winners. The last poetry book I was gifted with was a collection of Elizabeth Bishop's work.

Answer 2

i love it when it spreads a message. it needs to be simple and concise, not going on forever. no unneeded details. stay to the point. it needs to flow; not necessarily rhyme every line. i usually prefer when it rhymes every other line. if it has an emotion or message to get across, i love it. or it has a natural tone that sets it apart. deep poems out of those choices are my favorite. i like poems that leave you thinking. great poetry is word choice that doesn't seem overdone, but still is intelligent. you read it and wonder how in the world could someone write a poem so brilliant. when i am writing poetry, i know if my poem is good by how i wrote it. if i got writer's block halfway through then i obviously didn't have my full attention or heart into it. but if it just seemed to appear from the pencil and i couldn't write down all my thoughts fast enough, then it is a great poem. i look for a message, however small, to make me think, or even smile. it can't be choppy. yes, it does bother me if the grammar is off; for some reason poetry needs to be so simple that even if the grammar was wrong on purpose it seems unnatural. my favorite poets are robert frost, emily dickinson, carl sandburg, langston hughes, and edgar allan poe. i love "the road not taken" by robert frost, "hope is the thing with feathers" by emily dickinson, "romance" by edgar allan poe, and "mask" by carl sandburg. those are only a few.

Answer 3

I like both strict rhyme schemes and freeverse types of poems. I Usually I look for creativity, beauty, insight, imagination, the describing of mundane things from an interesting perscpective, and the effectiveness of the words expressing the emotion and/or imagery weather it's expressing something happy or morose. Also, I like it when they come from a observer's, outsider's or questioner's point of view. For me great poetry is when the structure, wording and emotion all work synergistically and the wording style is congruent with what it's saying. It can be very long or very short. It should have good grammer since that adds to the whole effect. My favorite poet is E.A.P and my favorite poem is "Dreamland". Here's a bit of it:

"By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of TIME..."

Answer 4

There are some poems with a rhythm that when you read them, just draws you in. The way they flow is just captivating--like Khubla Khan by Coleridge, and Bells by Poe.

I like poems that have that almost hypnotic rhythm, but they also have to have substance and feeling. My very favorite poem of all time is A Forsaken Garden by Swinburne--the whole rhythm of the poem is very excellent but the picture it paints, the imagery, and the overall message are what make it the best. It gives me chills every time I read it, and I've been reading it occassionally for about a decade now.

I also do like Edna St. Vincent Millay, because some of her poems are tasty little bites! (The My Candle one is unforgettable).

Answer 5

i want it to be able to evoke several different meanings, it doesn't matter if its grammatically perfect, but it should be able to flow....hmmm, I like "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, but also like "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day" by little Willy shakespeare (my nickname for him)