Questions in poems

[sirenoftitan1]

With the sudden popularity of persona poems, I am also noticing an increase in the use of questions as a lazy device.  Rhetorical questions are as old as time, and can be used very effectively, but I think they often fall apart when the questions are addressed to someone who isn't the audience.  Often this is someone stated in a persona poem, other

Comments

[conditionbronze]

I think the devices have a much harder time than images or phrases in becoming trite or cliche. You can still use a worn device and create something new with it.

As far as the question device goes, if you craft a question that can still successfully create surprise, then I think it is useful.

[mojgani]

word up with bayani. it can be used i feel, but i do agree. the examples you use happen and are lazy, and i feel that making a decision with a statement makes something stronger (i.e., "my dad thought of demons..." the writer may not know this, but he's decided it is true, it is so, that makes it stronger.)

[conditionbronze]

yeah definitely and that statement leads to other questions and possibly even more interesting lines of thought like wondering whether bringing up demons is the writer's attempt to separate the beatings from what may still be an idealized version of the father that the writer may still carry. The question could end up being something like, "On those days that you beat me, I wondered if you had a name for every demon you surfaced..." or something like that, somebody else could word that better. The idea to me though becomes something far more interesting than simply "Did you think of demons?" because there is that subtle attempt to blame demons instead of the father. And it still uses the same device.

Did I just overanalyze a hypothetical?

[sirenoftitan1]

Fair. I think my point is that it is an easy way to hide behind weak images. You could use it with a strong image, but that's not what I've been seeing/hearing.

[cynthia_french]

i concur.

i'm also pretty tired of the persona poem at the moment. They were crazy disproportionate at WOWPS this year. It's like - write about something that you know - not some made up story about some historical figure or a victim of a crime.

You weren't beaten, killed, abused? Write about something else, don't go finding someone who was so you can write the shaken baby poem without having been shaken.

Just for the record - some of these are brilliant, but when finals stage is 80% persona poems, they lose their appeal right quick.

[sirenoftitan1]

I just wrote one (that I posted on LJ) for a very specific assignment, and I find it pretty boring. Unless I come up with inspiration for a serious rewrite, I will retire it after the show for which it was written.

[marced4life]

That's too bad. What was the assignment/what is the show?

And the "persona poems are boring, write about something you know" line of thought leaves me somewhere between "Ow, that's the next two years of my life folks are talking about. Should I rethink this?" and "Alright, that makes me twice as determined to turn these circus poems into something truly worth reading and watching."

[sirenoftitan1]

What is the next two years of your life?

The piece is the one I posted here about El Pozolero, for the assignment "War on Drugs".

[martyoutloud]

I agree with your comment below that the lament is more rightfully aimed at the lack of surprise rather than the abundance of questions in poems.

For excellent, startling use of questions in poems, Li Young Lee is the first to come to mind.

I agree about "I wonder" though -- this ranks up there with "you see" in the hated crutch categories for me. It gets sneakier though, as you move past those and onto less obvious crutches -- for me, I'm trying to avoid using "listen" as a placeholder, and "which is to say" as an easy way to turn a poem.

[scottwoods]

I agree: more poets would do well to install more conviction in their language in general and quit acting smug. You aren't wondering; you already have an opinion, so spit it out.

[whoisthespirit]

I think the questions raised by Meatwad in his letter to Fred Durst avoid doing what you've talked about. Not only are the images arresting, but the questions themselves are deeply profound meditations on the nature of society and human free will.