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I was probably a bit quick to respond because I think there's a common idea that poetry is "better" than prose ~ purer, tighter, more difficult ~ and a consequent assumption that to write prose in a poetic way would be to elevate the former through association with the latter.
I can see what you're saying but I think that "common idea" is some leftover from a days when fictional prose was younger and more people actually read poetry - and exists only as an undercurrent, maybe. I tend to associate "poetic" - when used as an adjective for prose - with a certain musicality and rhythms that don't normally show up in the works of, say, Ernest "Just The Facts" Hemingway.
Which is a bit of a red herring because his prose is poetic too.
I wouldn't see it as any guarantor of good prose, though, because I think the poem and the novel are very different forms.
Ah, but a fair amount of schlock has been produced using a prose-specific (?) approach, so that's not much of a guarantee, either. |
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love it...