Just What Makes A Poet?

Question

Just What Makes A Poet?

Just what
makes
one
a
poet,

are they taught
from when a child?

Or is it
perhaps,
much
deeper,

from their heart
and soul inside?

And truly,
are
there
rules
to
follow,

or does one write
what comes to mind?

Is the language barrier
all
that
thick,

or does it go far
beyond minds sight?

Just what
makes
one
a
poet?

Please,
your genuine reply

Is a poet
just
simply
a
writer
that leaves one
to ponder “Oh, my?"

Aw, Psychobilly_Phreakout, I think you mistakingly answered the wrong question hon *^_^*

LOL Mrz, too funny but, at least you answered the question *^_^* Looking forward to reading you...

To some Jesse that would be a poem, yes, a bit overly metaphorical in my opinion but, none the less, interesting *^_^* Is it one of yours?

<3 Peach, thank you on actually answering the question instead of assuming that "I" was writing this about myself *^_^*

(after a few shoddy replies I actually had to re-read it just to make sure I wasn't coming off snooty or something LOL)

Relax people, there's really no threat here, just some simple poetry...

*^_^* Lyndsay C, forgotten my friend, thank you so much for your kind words @)~>~

Hey Lori, you are a true poet indeed and always know just how much it means to me to be able to read it on 360, you go girl @)~>~

Answer 1

A poet is a person who writes poetry. This is usually influenced by a cultural and intellectual tradition. Some consider the best poetry to be, to some extent, timeless and universal, and to address issues common to all humanity; others are more absorbed by its particular, personal and ephemeral qualities.

Nearly every language has had a poet, or poets, who have had a tremendous impact in literary history.

In the English language, poets generally considered to be of the most influential and profound include Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, John Milton, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Lord Byron, Alfred Tennyson, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath and John Ashbery. The French language can be represented with the poetry of Victor Hugo, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Comte de Lautreamont, and Paul Valery. The German language can be represented by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Georg Trakl, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Paul Celan. In the Italian language there is Dante, Ludovico Ariosto, Giacomo Leopardi, and Montale. The Spanish language is vibrant with the words of Federico Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, and Jorge Borges. The Greek language has a long line of poets including Homer, Sappho, Pindar, Cavafy, and Ritsos. In the Chinese language we have such literary geniuses as Li Po, Du Fu, and Cao Zhi. The Persian language owns a few of the more popular poets who are still widely read today. These include Omar Khayyam and Rumi.



john

Answer 2

I believe a poet is a combination of the things mentioned. However the begining has to come from the heart and soul. If this happens then a true poet is born. You my friend are an amazing person and I do believe you are a poet.
Yes I realize this is not about you. Although when I started reading poetry I used to think that the poems were from ones experience. As I have grown into adulthood I realize it simply is not so.

Answer 3

An early version of my 'theory of poetry,' it still applies in many situations, but, of course, modern quantum poetry supersedes it:


"Catch of the day (Granny couplets)"


Let a poet's eye astutely fix
Where the real and mysterious mix,
Where the shadows grey as ashes
Pretend at form as each one passes
Past feeble sense and weaker wit
That tries and fails to make words fit.
Wait and watch 'til some whirling facet
Reflects a beam that cannot pass it;
Off rare aspect that caroming spark
Increases the real, brings light into dark;
Brings old understandings up for review
As the poet reports, "Aha! Something new!"

The method wants patience, an ill-ordered mind
A pen, some paper, and something to find.
See fountaining chaos, then see the bounds
Of its shapelessness, for the thing that surrounds
That boil of confusion is its native intimate
And in some degree knows or is its limit.

Why, this is like science, I hear someone think
Not quite, but I, too, see the obvious link
A difference lies in conceptual scope:
The poet might have to document 'hope,'
That a white-coat can't measure with any machines
(Though the heart 'neath that coat knows full well what hope means).

The scientist totes up the length and the girth.
The poet, perhaps, assists in the birth
Of this what-could-it-be or that vaporous wonder
By making of whispers a great drumming thunder
That everyone hears, a commonplace knowing;
Today's harvest comes of a poet's sowing
The seeds of conception, the parts of the scaffold
That poets lay up for the use of the baffled:
The many, the most of us, caught in today,
Harnessed in hardness, with no chance to play
The power of question on the stuff of maybe.
It's hard to think while you change the baby.

More alike than they wish
The poet and sage
Stare into the mist
And each builds a cage
Each captures mystery in his own way
The poet at night, the scientist by day



--Skumpf Sklub


Since then, I have more firmly settled my understanding of 'poet' as one who finds the ragged edge of language flapping in the wind of new mysteries--and does something about it. I've had to abandon 'the talent theory of poetry,' that says 'you have it or you don't' as there is far too much evidence that EVERYONE has the genius of poetry, and that the differences between 'great poets' and 'lousy poets' can be explained with reference to the well-documented 'practice effect' that is demonstrated in any human skill.

(Yes, I understand that that implies that Joe Sixpack could, with sufficient hours of practice, out-poet Robert Frost. So? You got a problem with that? Or is it the 'that-count' that troubles you?)

Answer 4

What is it that makes a poet, a poet. A question that's been asked several thousand times throughout history. I will venture my own opinion instead of googleing someone else's opinion, as I feel mine is possibly better.
I consider myself a poet, I write mostly rhyming, lyrical poetry that follows strict meter and rhyming rules. That is the poetry my father read to me in my earliest recollections. It's what I learned to read. Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verse" was my first reader. My father taught me to read using that book, before I ever started school. We didn't have kindergarten back then. I tried writing my first poem at age 10 to my fourth grade teacher, and I was instantly "Teacher's Pet". I learned that many ladies loved a poet, so I endeavored to be one. After several years of really terrible poetry, I finally started to write a few that weren't all bad, and went from there. What made me a poet?
A love for the words, the rhyme, the bounce in the reading, the way it made me feel, the way it made others feel, really too many different things to accurately list. But if I had to boil it all down to something simple I would have to say "LOVE".
The love of all those things is what made me a poet.

Answer 5

I wish I knew what makes a poet. I have tried and tried, but I am doomed to just read what others write. I love good poetry, especially rhyming love stuff. I admire everyone with the ability to write such poetic verses that can make me sit and cry out of shear joy. Thank you all, no matter how you became poets. And I hope someone will tell jesse that what she posted is not poetry, but just a bunch of words on a page. I felt nothing when I read it. It was kind of disgusting. Dumb judges, if I do have to say so.

Answer 6

I can't speak for the others, but this poet is not yet a poet. I'm working on it though. So what made me a poet? nothing yet, but the thing that makes me want to be a poet is the romance involved in it, the intrigue that can be found, and all the dark little secrets that can be imagined from reading poetry. I guess I must say that my parents made me, but the love of poetic words made me want to be a poet.

Answer 7

I believe a poet is a person who is able to take an emotion or situation in life, capitalize on it by using the right combination of expressive words arranged in poetry form. They are in tune with emotions and the environment around them, and are naturally intuitive. They should actually be more sensitive to harsh critique because no one should ever say a poem is bad (considering poems are a derivitive from emotion, and emotion can't be "bad" bc it is real), and they themselves are poets.

Of course a poet can also critique following the motto,
"I must be cruel only to be kind"

A poet is definitely a descriptive word for you, Shad, so don't let any empty-headed, low life tell you otherwise. *mwah* kisses to you and yours!

Answer 8

Honestly shad you are the best person to answer this question.....as far as experience goes i am postive that being a poet is just like composing muzik.....some just seem to have a flair for it with rhythm and rhyme coming easy from their thoughts and feeling.....whereas other taught as you can as best and as hard will only manage to struggle with words that rhyme.......a very small similarity to what a poem should be

Being once in a teaching position this is what i can observed....a poet has a gift with words and being able to use them in such away that with such few sentences convey a whole lot of story....a more deeper hearfelt meaning...........often resulting with 'oh' and 'ah yes' from the readers without them having to say anymore indicating agreement or something that they understand but could not say in a few words........depending on how one interpret and reads it....so just like a muzik composer....

Answer 9

It can (make you romantic) and there are lots of soft love poems. But there also are many poets with plenty of cynical, bloodless, sour stuff that is a ways from romantic. As for the moment side of your query : When you are in love, sure, it might probably make you create poems. So all of it is determined by the "poet" however love does encourage you to create amazing ideas.

Answer 10

I think a poet is someone who likes to express their selves in words and find everything in life has a meaning.They can take any 20 words and come up with something interesting.Most of the poets i have met have had some real trauma their lifes; and writing down these cool great poems' helps them deal with it; and makes us the reader' so blessed to be able to read their words' of art.You shad; are a great poet 'and i love everything you write.'when you see a poet in action; and read their work you just sit and think; and go damn; that was a great poem ' and go they sure do write beautifully ; and wish you had a talent so devine,,,,,,...