Here's a snippet of an article in 'Money' magazine about a judge's
definition of poetry:
Keenan's 79-page decision included legal and literary history. He
offered a brief description of [Dorothy] Parker _ "the famous writer
who was a member of the Algonquin Round Table" _ and a detailed
summary of what constitutes a poem.
"A poem sometimes possesses rhyme or meter, though this is not
necessary," Keenan wrote. "A poem is typically free from the usual
rules of grammar, punctuation and capitalization." In a footnote, he
cited testimony that before "World War Two, a poem almost always had
rhyme or meter." Now, "the popular definition of poem has become much
more lenient."
Among the factors in Keenan's decision: Whether a 1920 letter from
Parker to fellow wit Robert Benchley, written in rhyming couplets, was
easily defined as a poem. Silverstein testified that it wasn't and
that he had demonstrated creativity by including it in his book.
On the contrary, Keenan wrote, "where a line does not fit within the
margins, it is indented below and kept apart from the next line in
order to preserve the rhyme scheme.
"The Letter to Robert Benchley is objectively recognizable as a poem."
Full article at
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/4a30b27d0cb6a619f022a61fd51d368a.htm
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
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