User blog:Avenging Angel/My Disagreements with the Poetry Section of Quality Standards

As someone who really appreciates poetry, it is nice to see rules for aspiring poets, but I feel as though some of these rules need clarification. The points in question here are good measure for post quality. I am not saying that they are too confining or hold to too high of a standard, just that they might need a little rephrasing. People who know anything about writing poetry don't really have anything to worry about here, but if someone's reading quality standards, they may have been directed there, in which case they might not be as educated on the subject.

Several points listed in Quality Standards are easy to misinterpret, or may not apply to all kind of poetry. I'm only going to talk about the ones that I have discrepancies with.

'(Poems) Please use Stanzas. '

Well, not all types of poetry use stanzas. What about prose poetry, that would instead use paragraphs? Do they quality under this rule?

Suggested change: Please use stanzas unless writing prose poetry, in which you should use paragraphs.

'(Poems) It cannot be AABB rhyme scheme. (First two lines rhyme, second two lines rhyme. First doesn't rhyme with third and second doesn't rhyme with fourth.) '

For this rule, I'm not going to talk about free verse. I could write an entirely different blog about that.

Sonnet 126 by William Shakespeare:

''O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power Dost hold Time's fickle glass his fickle hour; Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow'st. If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack, As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back, She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill May Time disgrace, and wretched minutes kill. Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure! She may detain, but not still keep her treasure. Her audit, though delayed, answered must be, And her quietus is to render thee. ''

Rhyme scheme: AABBCCDDEEFF

This isn't Shakespeare's typical rhyme scheme for a sonnet, utilizing six couplets instead of his usual ABABCDCDEFEFGG. Are couplets an acceptable rhyme scheme? What really bugs me about this rule is what's been put in parentheses. The first part would imply that Sonnet 126 isn't an acceptable rhyme scheme because the first two and second two lines rhyme.

The second part of the this rule states that the first and third lines must rhyme, as the second and fourth lines. While this doesn't apply in a poem made of couplets, it also isn't true in a Petrarchan sonnet, where the rhyme scheme is ABBAABBACDECDE. For these reasons, this rule is very difficult to rephrase and hold the same meaning. It wouldn't be good to just say use some kind of rhyme scheme, because not all poetry rhymes. I'm all for free-spirited rhyme schemes if the content of the poem itself is good, but I can definitely see how that could be abused. However, this thought already covered very well in a different rule (It should have some kind of meter and prose. Just because you write one sentence per line doesn't make it a poem. Do your research on poetry before you decide you want to be the next Edgar Allan Poe).

Suggested change: Delete it. Delete this rule. It contradicts other rules. If someone reads up on poetry, they should already know where AABB is acceptable and where is isn't (and this is assuming any kind of free verse with AABB is punishable by death).

I think that these changes, although minor, would make the rules of poetry easier to interpret, which would in turn improve the quality of poetry on this site.