Poetry. It is a way of expression, a way with words, a way in which a person writes down their feelings and emotions. However, some may be surprised to know that poetry doesn’t always have to be about or need to involve emotion. Now I know what you’re thinking, but poetry is almost all emotion, it’s a person putting everything they are feeling onto paper pouring their heart out. Yes, in a way you’d be right but only to an extent. Nothing says poetry has to be about emotion or even written with it we just naturally assume this because in most cases when we feel down or want to express our emotions, some of us do so through poetry. Emotion may be a standard in poetry but it is not a priority, meaning it is not always necessary. Poetry invokes many different types of emotion from reading but the main point I’m getting across here is that it doesn’t need to be written with emotion. That’s not to say poetry without emotion isn’t as good but the fact is that it does exist and there are some examples of it.
When I wrote my first book, The Macabre Masterpiece: Poems of Horror and Gore I knew I wanted to write horror poetry. While I knew the poems would create emotions in the reader and the words written involve emotion I myself didn’t really use emotion to write them. They weren’t my experiences or something that had happened to me. They were written for entertainment and came from creation and imagination and not emotion. See? Poetry without emotion can be done. Another example of this is some of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems however I would imagine most did come from emotion, the emotion of depression as the man was always down and in a gloomy mood.
Poetry can be whatever you want it to be. It can be something you want people to know about you, something you want someone to know, or it can be a story in poetry form. One could say regardless of how and what you write about that emotion is needed in order to write it but I would have to disagree. I have nothing against writing with emotion, many of my poems I‘ve written have lots of and were written emotion I’m merely saying that sometimes although not always emotion and poetry do not always go hand in hand.
Poetry is a feeling and a creation. It is everything and it is nothing. Poetry with emotion could be said to be more real, more pure and authentic. Poetry without it is said to lack substance and real drive but again this is just assumed as a person can write a poetry about anything without emotion just as good as a poem with emotion can be written. Remember, no matter how you write poetry and regardless of what you write about it doesn’t have to be written with emotion but you can be believe that emotion is still a part and involved in it.
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