May 18, 2020 • 14 mins
Okay, what on earth is the difference between poetry and prose? What even is prose? Learn all about the difference between poetry and prose in today's episode as we talk about the differences and benefits of each!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
(00:09):
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly
normal.
Thank you very much.
Oh, Captain, my Captain, our fearful trip is done.
My name is Ken Mears.
And I'm Melissa Fales.
And welcome to Writer's World.
(00:47):
Have you ever thought of how you learn to talk?
Just like how we learn to talk from our parents, people in England and Australia learn to talk
from their parents with an accent.
People in Elizabethan times had something similar.
The poor lowly people would learn from their parents a certain way to talk, which was different
(01:08):
from how the Queen learned to talk.
And these two different ways of speaking is called poetry and prose.
In the images I will give you, you'll understand why I said the Queen and the lowly people.
But poetry is a collection of lines that follow a regular rhyming pattern.
(01:28):
It is the umbrella in which couplets, quatrains, sonnets, iambic pentameter, and so forth lay
under.
It's something that the Queen would be educated enough that she could speak it and she would
understand it.
Prose is a form of language that has no regular pattern.
It is quote, a form or technique of language that exhibits a natural flow of speech and
(01:52):
grammar structure.
According to Wikipedia, the word prose first appeared in English in the 14th century.
It is derived from the old French prose, which in turn originates in the Latin expression,
which literally means straightforward or direct speech.
And kind of how I'm thinking of it is if you are poor in mind and you don't have a lot
(02:14):
to say, it'll be more straightforward and direct.
Ken, why would someone consider using poetry or prose in their writing?
Well, prose is just a generally good thing to use because it gives a pattern and regularity
to your writing.
Prose could, in my opinion, even though I'm not the most educated on the topic, it could
(02:34):
also kind of be defined as your style, your writing prose will be fairly different than
mine.
So having prose of your own in your writing will be wise if you want to be recognizable
through your text.
Now with poetry, you may want to use this if you want to be a bit more rhythmic or flowery
with your words.
Usually poetry is reserved as its own little thing while prose is used for literally everything
(02:58):
from articles to novels.
Yeah, prose is the way we speak to each other in everyday language.
Poetries have it and you want to have your own distinct voice or prose and it's very,
very common and interesting to study.
Poetry on the other hand is heightened language.
For example, Shakespeare uses poetry in prose wordplay in his stories to number one, add
(03:23):
emphasis when a character is speaking, I pray you leave me is a way to be clear and get
a point across.
Number two, to create comic effect in a Midsummer's Night's Dream, which I'm sure some of you
are familiar with, there is a group of commoners who go to act out a play for the Duke and
while they are giving this play, they are talking in higher fancier language and it's
(03:47):
kind of funny because they're giving this comic relief trying to talk like fancy people
and they're doing a bad job.
And number three, to suggest a character's mental instability.
If I suddenly only talked in a southern accent, my mom would think I was crazy.
Now imagine if a prince started talking like a commuter, the people around him would think
(04:09):
he was crazy and you get to see this in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Hamlet, the main protagonist, starts to talk in prose and the people around him think he
is loony.
Ken, what has been your experience with poetry and prose?
Do you use them in your writing?
Well, of course I use prose because prose is writing itself, so I use it literally every
(04:32):
time I write.
When it comes to poetry, I don't use it quite as often, but I have written a fair amount.
I'll share a couple of my favorite poems I've written.
Excuse how long these are.
The first one is called Death Rides at Midnight and I wrote it during my Writetober challenge
last year.
Death rides at midnight, filling the land with blight.
(04:54):
He casts a frightful image as he rides through the village.
His frightful scythe gleams, wet with the blood of unrealized dreams.
The cold, hard metal is uncaring enough to unsettle.
Beneath his dark hood lies nothing good, only the husk of a man who signals the end of a
lifespan.
His skeletal horse he rides along his dutiful course, whinnying as he stops to kill the
(05:20):
farmer's crops.
It's all him and his duty to take away life's beauty.
Unbearable to a living man, the underworld's ghastly helmsman.
The pistol is his herald and his black cloak appareled.
Weapons of war bring him to the door.
His job is made no easier, nor and breezier, by mankind's love of violence or vile fraudulence.
(05:44):
All the thousands of young souls, lives lost without completing their goals, brought to
a swift end by death only to attend.
Death rides at midnight, filling the land with blight.
He casts a frightful image as he rides through the village, searching for souls to pillage.
And then this other one is a bit more recent.
(06:06):
It's called You're Crazy, and I wrote it after a chat with my parents about how crazy all
the stuff I do is.
You're crazy, they say.
Am I crazy?
I hope so, I pray.
Am I crazy for having a bit of ambition?
Am I crazy for finding my life's mission?
Am I crazy because I have a purpose?
(06:26):
Am I crazy because I may seem multi-purpose?
Am I crazy because I want to inspire others?
Am I crazy because my life seems to be another's?
Am I crazy because I stand for what I believe?
Am I crazy because I am not afraid to achieve?
Am I crazy because I try and do?
(06:46):
Am I crazy because I went and flew?
Am I crazy because I took that pain and hurt?
Am I crazy because that put me on the outskirt?
Am I crazy because I choose to care?
Am I crazy because I do not wilt under another's glare?
No, I am not crazy because I stand alone, because I am not lazy and do not live as a
(07:10):
clone.
If that makes me crazy, then I believe I am proud to be known as crazy because I am willing
to be loud.
I suppose I am crazy because I speak the truth.
I do not live life hazy, but always in youth.
You're crazy, they say.
Am I crazy?
I hope so, I pray.
(07:31):
That was amazing.
I loved it.
Very good.
Ken, we live in the 21st century.
Is poetry still useful today, and your poetry was beautiful?
I was just wondering, do you think that it's still useful today?
I definitely think poetry is still very, very useful in our modern 21st century.
(07:53):
If anything, it's more useful than ever.
We live in a world that is fairly disconnected.
Many people are numb and not really in touch with their emotions.
Honestly, at times it feels a little bit like Fahrenheit 51, which is kind of scary.
But poetry has an odd way of connecting in a way most other forms of writing struggle
(08:13):
to accomplish.
Maybe it's the rhythm or the rhyming or the fancier words.
Whatever it is, it helps us snap out of what numbs us in our 21st century culture.
Very interesting point, throwing it old school because I can.
In fact, Shakespearean texts, you can tell because prose has run on lines, no rhyme or
(08:38):
metric schemes, and the quality is of everyday language.
While poetry with most poetry, each line begins with a capital letter and each line has a
defined length.
For modern and Shakespearean text, how to tell the difference between poetry and prose,
your biggest clue is using the power of your ear.
(09:00):
The reason I'm bringing up Shakespeare is his name is the bard, which literally means
the poet and the best.
I'm going to read off some famous texts to you, Ken, and we will see if you can tell
the difference between prose and poetry.
I would highly recommend if you don't look at our show notes to look at the show notes
(09:23):
to see how these examples are written, which is a huge help in figuring out the difference
between the two.
So Ken, your first challenge.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
(09:45):
Is that poetry or prose?
Clearly that is poetry.
Yes.
Okay.
Ready to take it up?
Look, I don't want to be half-blood.
If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is close this book
right away.
Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth and try to live a normal
life.
(10:05):
Is that poetry or prose?
That would be prose.
Okay.
Long ago, a great and powerful wizard trained two apprentices.
The apprentices were best friends, both with incredible natural abilities and harnessing
magic from the world around them.
Poetry or prose?
It's prose and not only is it prose, it's my own prose.
(10:28):
I was reading your book this weekend and I was like, well, this is the perfect opportunity.
Yeah.
So it's kind of clear to see and Ken was right on all of them, but it's kind of easy to see
like how prose is a certain way and poetry is another way.
But I just thought I wanted to make it a little bit clear.
Now that we have addressed the difference and you kind of have an idea of the difference
(10:52):
between the two, I think we can address another point.
Ken, how does one write poetry?
That's hard to exactly say.
Honestly, you write poetry from the heart.
You pour out your emotions and find words to fit them in a rhythmic way.
When I write poetry, I usually pull up the website Rhyme Zone and use that to find words
(11:14):
that rhyme or fit with what I'm trying to portray.
My usual form of poetry is pretty simple in four-sentence stanzas or sections with alternating
rhyming words at the end of sentences.
Really poetry is a hard topic to teach and I wish I could better explain how to do it.
And there's a lot of options and there's a lot of ways that you can do it.
(11:35):
And before we cover how to write prose, I wanted to briefly talk about why powerful
prose is important.
I think the best way to do this is to tell the story and then just hand over the time
to Ken to talk about how to write good prose.
This story is told by the author of The Chosen in an interview.
He says, quote, I went to the public library and browsed around for a while and by sheer
(12:00):
chance found Brideshed revisited by Evely Wing.
I have no idea what attracted me to it.
Maybe it was the fact that it was about upper-class English Catholics.
I took the book home and at first found it difficult to get into.
But once I grew accustomed to the prose, I became utterly enchanted by the world and
by the prose.
(12:20):
It was really the first time in my life that I understood the importance of language in
the writing of a story.
Most of the time, I wouldn't want the language to interfere with the story.
Reading the novel gave me a very vivid sense of the rhymes of the English language, its
texture, the way sentences can be constructed to obtain certain effects.
I remember that as I was reading it, I found myself thinking about the characters during
(12:44):
the times I was away from the book.
I would try to anticipate what their thoughts and feelings might be when I returned to the
book.
I was utterly taken by the characters of the mother, her tendencies, her odd personalities,
her faith.
I remember closing the book when I finished reading it and feeling bereaved because all
the people I had read about were gone.
I remember sitting there saying to myself, what power there is in this kind of creativity,
(13:08):
end quote.
Ken, how do you write good prose?
I would say probably just simply by keeping it consistent.
Your prose should be distinctly your own because it is a part of your style, which should be
distinct.
If you tend to be very solemn in your prose, do it that way.
If you tend to be more lighthearted, do likewise.
All in all, the best thing I can say with writing good prose is keep consistency.
(13:31):
We hope today's episode was helpful.
If you like our podcast, please share it with your friends and family.
For resources in the transcript, visit writersworldpodcast.weebly.com and our Instagram is writersworldpodcastofficial.
Yes, a mouthful, but worth it.
Our Patreon is patreon.com slash writersworldpodcast and if you want your questions answered.
(13:52):
Our email is writersworldpodcast at gmail.com.
Until next time, I've been Ken Mears.
And I've been Melissa Fales with Writers World.
And keep on writing.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
(00:09):
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly
normal.
Thank you very much.
Oh, Captain, my Captain, our fearful trip is done.
My name is Ken Mears.
And I'm Melissa Fales.
And welcome to Writer's World.
(00:47):
Have you ever thought of how you learn to talk?
Just like how we learn to talk from our parents, people in England and Australia learn to talk
from their parents with an accent.
People in Elizabethan times had something similar.
The poor lowly people would learn from their parents a certain way to talk, which was different
(01:08):
from how the Queen learned to talk.
And these two different ways of speaking is called poetry and prose.
In the images I will give you, you'll understand why I said the Queen and the lowly people.
But poetry is a collection of lines that follow a regular rhyming pattern.
(01:28):
It is the umbrella in which couplets, quatrains, sonnets, iambic pentameter, and so forth lay
under.
It's something that the Queen would be educated enough that she could speak it and she would
understand it.
Prose is a form of language that has no regular pattern.
It is quote, a form or technique of language that exhibits a natural flow of speech and
(01:52):
grammar structure.
According to Wikipedia, the word prose first appeared in English in the 14th century.
It is derived from the old French prose, which in turn originates in the Latin expression,
which literally means straightforward or direct speech.
And kind of how I'm thinking of it is if you are poor in mind and you don't have a lot
(02:14):
to say, it'll be more straightforward and direct.
Ken, why would someone consider using poetry or prose in their writing?
Well, prose is just a generally good thing to use because it gives a pattern and regularity
to your writing.
Prose could, in my opinion, even though I'm not the most educated on the topic, it could
(02:34):
also kind of be defined as your style, your writing prose will be fairly different than
mine.
So having prose of your own in your writing will be wise if you want to be recognizable
through your text.
Now with poetry, you may want to use this if you want to be a bit more rhythmic or flowery
with your words.
Usually poetry is reserved as its own little thing while prose is used for literally everything
(02:58):
from articles to novels.
Yeah, prose is the way we speak to each other in everyday language.
Poetries have it and you want to have your own distinct voice or prose and it's very,
very common and interesting to study.
Poetry on the other hand is heightened language.
For example, Shakespeare uses poetry in prose wordplay in his stories to number one, add
(03:23):
emphasis when a character is speaking, I pray you leave me is a way to be clear and get
a point across.
Number two, to create comic effect in a Midsummer's Night's Dream, which I'm sure some of you
are familiar with, there is a group of commoners who go to act out a play for the Duke and
while they are giving this play, they are talking in higher fancier language and it's
(03:47):
kind of funny because they're giving this comic relief trying to talk like fancy people
and they're doing a bad job.
And number three, to suggest a character's mental instability.
If I suddenly only talked in a southern accent, my mom would think I was crazy.
Now imagine if a prince started talking like a commuter, the people around him would think
(04:09):
he was crazy and you get to see this in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Hamlet, the main protagonist, starts to talk in prose and the people around him think he
is loony.
Ken, what has been your experience with poetry and prose?
Do you use them in your writing?
Well, of course I use prose because prose is writing itself, so I use it literally every
(04:32):
time I write.
When it comes to poetry, I don't use it quite as often, but I have written a fair amount.
I'll share a couple of my favorite poems I've written.
Excuse how long these are.
The first one is called Death Rides at Midnight and I wrote it during my Writetober challenge
last year.
Death rides at midnight, filling the land with blight.
(04:54):
He casts a frightful image as he rides through the village.
His frightful scythe gleams, wet with the blood of unrealized dreams.
The cold, hard metal is uncaring enough to unsettle.
Beneath his dark hood lies nothing good, only the husk of a man who signals the end of a
lifespan.
His skeletal horse he rides along his dutiful course, whinnying as he stops to kill the
(05:20):
farmer's crops.
It's all him and his duty to take away life's beauty.
Unbearable to a living man, the underworld's ghastly helmsman.
The pistol is his herald and his black cloak appareled.
Weapons of war bring him to the door.
His job is made no easier, nor and breezier, by mankind's love of violence or vile fraudulence.
(05:44):
All the thousands of young souls, lives lost without completing their goals, brought to
a swift end by death only to attend.
Death rides at midnight, filling the land with blight.
He casts a frightful image as he rides through the village, searching for souls to pillage.
And then this other one is a bit more recent.
(06:06):
It's called You're Crazy, and I wrote it after a chat with my parents about how crazy all
the stuff I do is.
You're crazy, they say.
Am I crazy?
I hope so, I pray.
Am I crazy for having a bit of ambition?
Am I crazy for finding my life's mission?
Am I crazy because I have a purpose?
(06:26):
Am I crazy because I may seem multi-purpose?
Am I crazy because I want to inspire others?
Am I crazy because my life seems to be another's?
Am I crazy because I stand for what I believe?
Am I crazy because I am not afraid to achieve?
Am I crazy because I try and do?
(06:46):
Am I crazy because I went and flew?
Am I crazy because I took that pain and hurt?
Am I crazy because that put me on the outskirt?
Am I crazy because I choose to care?
Am I crazy because I do not wilt under another's glare?
No, I am not crazy because I stand alone, because I am not lazy and do not live as a
(07:10):
clone.
If that makes me crazy, then I believe I am proud to be known as crazy because I am willing
to be loud.
I suppose I am crazy because I speak the truth.
I do not live life hazy, but always in youth.
You're crazy, they say.
Am I crazy?
I hope so, I pray.
(07:31):
That was amazing.
I loved it.
Very good.
Ken, we live in the 21st century.
Is poetry still useful today, and your poetry was beautiful?
I was just wondering, do you think that it's still useful today?
I definitely think poetry is still very, very useful in our modern 21st century.
(07:53):
If anything, it's more useful than ever.
We live in a world that is fairly disconnected.
Many people are numb and not really in touch with their emotions.
Honestly, at times it feels a little bit like Fahrenheit 51, which is kind of scary.
But poetry has an odd way of connecting in a way most other forms of writing struggle
(08:13):
to accomplish.
Maybe it's the rhythm or the rhyming or the fancier words.
Whatever it is, it helps us snap out of what numbs us in our 21st century culture.
Very interesting point, throwing it old school because I can.
In fact, Shakespearean texts, you can tell because prose has run on lines, no rhyme or
(08:38):
metric schemes, and the quality is of everyday language.
While poetry with most poetry, each line begins with a capital letter and each line has a
defined length.
For modern and Shakespearean text, how to tell the difference between poetry and prose,
your biggest clue is using the power of your ear.
(09:00):
The reason I'm bringing up Shakespeare is his name is the bard, which literally means
the poet and the best.
I'm going to read off some famous texts to you, Ken, and we will see if you can tell
the difference between prose and poetry.
I would highly recommend if you don't look at our show notes to look at the show notes
(09:23):
to see how these examples are written, which is a huge help in figuring out the difference
between the two.
So Ken, your first challenge.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
(09:45):
Is that poetry or prose?
Clearly that is poetry.
Yes.
Okay.
Ready to take it up?
Look, I don't want to be half-blood.
If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is close this book
right away.
Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth and try to live a normal
life.
(10:05):
Is that poetry or prose?
That would be prose.
Okay.
Long ago, a great and powerful wizard trained two apprentices.
The apprentices were best friends, both with incredible natural abilities and harnessing
magic from the world around them.
Poetry or prose?
It's prose and not only is it prose, it's my own prose.
(10:28):
I was reading your book this weekend and I was like, well, this is the perfect opportunity.
Yeah.
So it's kind of clear to see and Ken was right on all of them, but it's kind of easy to see
like how prose is a certain way and poetry is another way.
But I just thought I wanted to make it a little bit clear.
Now that we have addressed the difference and you kind of have an idea of the difference
(10:52):
between the two, I think we can address another point.
Ken, how does one write poetry?
That's hard to exactly say.
Honestly, you write poetry from the heart.
You pour out your emotions and find words to fit them in a rhythmic way.
When I write poetry, I usually pull up the website Rhyme Zone and use that to find words
(11:14):
that rhyme or fit with what I'm trying to portray.
My usual form of poetry is pretty simple in four-sentence stanzas or sections with alternating
rhyming words at the end of sentences.
Really poetry is a hard topic to teach and I wish I could better explain how to do it.
And there's a lot of options and there's a lot of ways that you can do it.
(11:35):
And before we cover how to write prose, I wanted to briefly talk about why powerful
prose is important.
I think the best way to do this is to tell the story and then just hand over the time
to Ken to talk about how to write good prose.
This story is told by the author of The Chosen in an interview.
He says, quote, I went to the public library and browsed around for a while and by sheer
(12:00):
chance found Brideshed revisited by Evely Wing.
I have no idea what attracted me to it.
Maybe it was the fact that it was about upper-class English Catholics.
I took the book home and at first found it difficult to get into.
But once I grew accustomed to the prose, I became utterly enchanted by the world and
by the prose.
(12:20):
It was really the first time in my life that I understood the importance of language in
the writing of a story.
Most of the time, I wouldn't want the language to interfere with the story.
Reading the novel gave me a very vivid sense of the rhymes of the English language, its
texture, the way sentences can be constructed to obtain certain effects.
I remember that as I was reading it, I found myself thinking about the characters during
(12:44):
the times I was away from the book.
I would try to anticipate what their thoughts and feelings might be when I returned to the
book.
I was utterly taken by the characters of the mother, her tendencies, her odd personalities,
her faith.
I remember closing the book when I finished reading it and feeling bereaved because all
the people I had read about were gone.
I remember sitting there saying to myself, what power there is in this kind of creativity,
(13:08):
end quote.
Ken, how do you write good prose?
I would say probably just simply by keeping it consistent.
Your prose should be distinctly your own because it is a part of your style, which should be
distinct.
If you tend to be very solemn in your prose, do it that way.
If you tend to be more lighthearted, do likewise.
All in all, the best thing I can say with writing good prose is keep consistency.
(13:31):
We hope today's episode was helpful.
If you like our podcast, please share it with your friends and family.
For resources in the transcript, visit writersworldpodcast.weebly.com and our Instagram is writersworldpodcastofficial.
Yes, a mouthful, but worth it.
Our Patreon is patreon.com slash writersworldpodcast and if you want your questions answered.
(13:52):
Our email is writersworldpodcast at gmail.com.
Until next time, I've been Ken Mears.
And I've been Melissa Fales with Writers World.
And keep on writing.
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