Bad Poetry.

January 23, 2002 7:25 AM

Bad Poetry. There is a huge amount of bad poetry in the world. Although new bad poems are being written by the hundreds every day ... most bad poetry is simply weak and ineffectual and lacking in interest and (fortunately) is soon forgotten. ... To achieve memorable badness is not so easy.
posted by mattpfeff (10 comments total)

(The obvious Google search quickly detects more such. A word of caution, however -- the Sea Monkey Worship Page is a terrible, terrible thing indeed....)
posted by mattpfeff at 7:31 AM on January 23, 2002

Oscar Wilde said "All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling." It's much easier to criticize than create.
posted by pb at 7:57 AM on January 23, 2002

In Flint, we have the julia moore poetry contest...ahhh to be the worst.
posted by clavdivs at 8:20 AM on January 23, 2002

Canada's worst poet: James McIntyre: The Chaucer of Cheese.
posted by mcwetboy at 8:23 AM on January 23, 2002

You can also find a shocking amount of bad poetry by searching google for peotry.
posted by jammer at 8:38 AM on January 23, 2002

It can be said as well that there is a lot of bad prose, film,music, theatre/playwriting, and art in general. In the end though, saying something is "bad" is mostly subjective. That particular piece of creative work does not resonate or provide you with insight or pleasure.

The state of "pluralism" in the fine art world(this situation might be different for other creative genres I guess) since the late 1980's allows for the artistic validity of any creative endeavor. This is something I have had to consider for the last decade as a working artist. On one hand I see pluralism as positive by allowing more people to feel that being creative is an acceptable activity. But is it also possible that we might miss the next Matisse or Byron because they are overshadowed by the flood of well meaning people enjoying their creative endeavors?

Quite a predicament.
posted by hotmud at 8:53 AM on January 23, 2002

Writing poetry is something I enjoy. My poems are for me and anybody that can find them. I have some of them hidden in my web site. I have no comment on them being bad or good, they are just mine. Most people that write poems do so from their own experiences and don't care one way or the other if people like them.
posted by bjgeiger at 9:09 AM on January 23, 2002

I find my own bad poetry astonishing. I mean, I'm fairly articulate, but as soon as I try to express something in poetic meter, I end up with some just shockingly nasty results. It's pretty entertaining - I keep my efforts in a folder I call my Vogon Chapbook. Sometimes I'll come across something so bad written by someone else, that I'll stick it in there too, for inspiration.

Poetry is a very entertaining art form, especially when it feels like you have bad-poetry filter on your internal word processor that ensures that all your efforts are uncomfortably hilarious.
posted by annathea at 9:36 AM on January 23, 2002

NB: The Bad Poetry page includes poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Any poet has written their fair share, if poet they indeed are (though no one else may have ever seen them).

annathea -- "Vogon Chapbook" is brilliant. ... Indeed, turns out it's inspiration to more than a few....
posted by mattpfeff at 9:46 AM on January 23, 2002

Let us not forget Bad Haiku.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:16 PM on January 23, 2002