What is a poem?
An article by Jerry Craven in a past issue of Writer’s Digest, confronts the issue of what a poem is and how to write one. The notion is generally widespread that if we knew what distinguishes poetry from prose, we all would be able to write a poem.
In reality, however, there are fewer so-called masters of poetry in our cultural heritage than there are of other artists. Of modern big names, most of us merely know the names of Robert Frost and Walt Whitman, and a survey showed that lots of people have never heard of Robert Penn Warren. A great percentage of people when asked to name one female poet of rank, could come up with Emily Dickinson and no one else, and she lived more than hundred years ago.
