Poetry vs. Fiction Blog Response

Poetry vs. Fiction Blog Response

Brandon Lazovic

                So for my Blog Response this week since we are transitioning from poetry to fiction I want to bring up the question: what are the differences and similarities between the two? I think it’d be a good topic since we’re beginning to write micro stories (or rather we started last week). To begin with, I feel as though poetry and fiction are very distinctive counterparts to one another. Both can be written about literally any subject, but the word ‘literal’ can’t be used to truly describe poetry. It’s very subversive, vague, and written in a way so that the reader has to go back and reread the poem multiple times in order to uncover what the poem is actually about. The entire poem is a landmine field, with clues about the actual meaning of the poem littered throughout the entire page that it is written on. They just have to be uncovered first and that can be a messy process. Sometimes poetry can be misleading in its clues, contradicting what it said earlier in the poem to add emphasis to the topic that it is written about.

                Everything has to be analyzed in a poem, and I mean everything. The word scheme, layout, rhyme scheme, pacing, the very last sentences of the poem, the title, everything contributes to the poem. Poems tend to be short, not spanning over too many pages. I feel as though longer poems detract from the meaning that they output if they are beyond a few pages. It’s extremely hard to study and puzzle out if it spans very far as poetry can be very ambiguous. Sonnets are my favorite type of poetry to read as they keep it short, concise, and each quatrain or sestet has an underlying meaning to the entirety of the poem that must be realized. It’s also very pleasing to read based on the pacing. Some poetry utilizes a ‘jazz style’ to keep with the pacing, making it almost into a song rather than a poem. But it works and is pleasurable to read.

                 Fiction is a stark contrast to poetry. It focuses primarily on descriptive detail, character development, plot detail, and a more clear focus on what it’s about. Personally I enjoy writing fiction more than poetry. There isn’t so much emphasis on a word limit, line pacing, or finding that perfect word to fit the line you are currently writing. The descriptiveness paints a very clear picture in the reader’s head and holds them in its embrace as it takes them on a journey, telling them a story and painting a picture. That picture is the start as the camera pans out and it’s like watching a movie, only with so much detail about everything in the setting. Fiction stories can be as long as they want to be as there are different classifications of stories. There are micro stories, spanning no more than a few hundred words, short stories, novellas, novels, it continues on.

                I enjoy the characterization as it makes me feel as though I am right there, watching in a ghostly perspective where they can’t see me, but I can see them with an omniscient presence, knowing everything going on with each character. The writer takes you on a ride, revealing plot twists, minute details that play a role later on and are re-explained to add emphasis, and gradually reveals his or her message that is being explained in the book. It has to be delved into and is more time consuming than a poem’s message is (provided a book is much larger) but it just isn’t as vague as a poem. Because of the time consumption into the novel, however, the message has a much deeper impact since the reader has been involved in the story for hours or even days. It’s just like a movie, but not as chopped up and condensed.

                At the end of the day I enjoy writing both pieces of literature, but am more of a fiction guy than anything else. There are stark contrasts between both, in my mind being opposites in a lot of categories. I’ve learned a good amount about what poetry really is, and just as I’ve learned a lot in that section of the course I’m sure that I’ll learn just as much as we jump into the fiction portion. My final thought: what do you prefer to read or write? Poetry or Fiction?