Young Writers Society

This is more of a question than any statement by me.

What do you think makes the difference between an emo poem, and a good poem? When I say emo, I'm speaking of poems that are trying awfully hard to present emotion and feeling but failing because they are "navel gazing" and not exactly being creative. (I'd give examples, but I don't want to insult.)

Sure, I just gave reasons above why emo poetry is "bad" but what makes it go from "Emo" to good? What elements do you believe a poem needs to successfully convey emotion?

Emo poems are what I like to call TTAP. Typical Teenage Angst Poetry. Not good. Good poetry is much harder to describe, so well, I'll just say its...not TTAP.

Emo poetry is to preoccupied with being "emo". While the point of poetry is to present emotion, it has to be done subtly and in a way that makes the reader feel. Emo poetry is too busy going on about how life sucks to even notice the reader.
A poem can be about sadness in life and still be interesting to the reader. The key? Don't dwell on feelings alone. Put those feelings into images that the reader can infer from.

Emo poetry:
Life sucks. I want to kill myself. *slashes wrists*
SHARDS. (the words "shards" or "broken" must always be present in emo poetry)

Good poetry:
The stories of the street are mine, the Spanish voices laugh.
The Cadillacs go creeping now through the night and the poison
gas,
and I lean from my window sill in this old hotel I chose,
yes one hand on my suicide, one hand on the rose.

I know you've heard it's over now and war must surely come,
the cities they are broke in half and the middle men are gone.
But let me ask you one more time, O children of the dusk,
All these hunters who are shrieking now oh do they speak for us?

...With one hand on the hexagram and one hand on the girl
I balance on a wishing well that all men call the world.
We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky,
and lost among the subway crowds I try to catch your eye.
-from the song "Stories of the Street" by Leonard Cohen.

EDIT: What Cohen does is present some beautiful and intriguing images that pull in the reader - well, listener, rather. He presents a melancholy view of the world while contemplating suicide at the window of his room in the Chelsea Hotel. While the speaker is obviously depressed, he never comes out and says, "I'm depressed. Look at what the world is coming to." The images (and the mournful, darkly wavering tone of Cohen's voice) speak for themselves. Leonard Cohen is one of the masters of turning "emo" into "WHOA!"

None understand my pain.
God dammit, life sucks.
I must pick up the shards of my broken soul.
But there is not a chance it could be repaired.
Man, I am so freakin' emo. Boo-hoo.

well there is some definite differences. like the fact that if you are going on over and over again about how ur life sucks, obviously emo. If u can however express urself and how you depict ur life with true emotion, that is a pivotal change. Sometimes it can be hard to determine, but if you read it right, you can see the true impact behind it.

I work on the School Lit. Magazine, so I see a lot of work. The thing is, it doesn't come down can emo become a good poem? The fact is it comes down to two things:

1.) Emo poems that are complete crap, that have forced rhyme or they talk about stuff that just doesn't make since ect...

And..

2.) Emo poems that you can really relate to, that you can connect with, as a person. Because sometimes you just need to conect with someone, and know that someone feels the same way that you do.

Like lit, emo poems can sway both ways.

I think something can technically be called "emo" because it's about teenage heartbreak or suicide and still be a good poem. If that's in your definition of emo then of course, there are great poems with original images and ideas, written by teenagers or 'young adults', that deal with those issues...the only problem is that they might get marred by their subject matter because of so many of the OH WOE WHAMBULANCE poetry that will overtake the decent stuff.

Well, if you write an emotional poem and it still is beautiful, and is what a poem should be (causes the reader to also feel your emotions) and it is about teenage life, suicide, etc. then I think it isn't emo poetry. Good poetry can still be emotional, right?

The emo-ness comes from (as someone said above, who was it?) the poorly written quality of it. I think, though, even if you can relate to it, if it is badly written, I dislike it more than relate to it but...that is me.

Well, there's certainly a difference in what the terms "emotional" and "emo" are describing.

Emo poetry just isn't original. Even if you can relate to the feelings being expressed in the poem, they aren't expressed in a fresh new way.

Emo poetry just isn't original.

*applauds*

Or, which is another thing to consider, Emo poetry takes into no consideration the fundamental pieces of poetry: structure, rhythm, rhyme, flow, verses, and the many others that I have yet to learn

It's often times just....jumbled thoughts.

Claudette wrote:Or, which is another thing to consider, Emo poetry takes into no consideration the fundamental pieces of poetry: structure, rhythm, rhyme, flow, verses, and the many others that I have yet to learn

It's often times just....jumbled thoughts.

Well, it is possible that someone could write a perfectly structured, rhymed poem that still doesn't express anything new. Usually, though, people who put that much consideration into their poetry don't write it emo.
Like, if you learn to cook at a prestigious culinary arts school, you're probably not going to be making TV dinners for the rest of your life.

The answer to this is simple: in emo poetry, the 'feelings' (and I use the word loosely) that the poet feels are blown up, taken out of context, until its so extreme that nobody (except the poet him/herself) can feel what is trying to be said.
Consider the whole 'slashed wrists' nonsense. How many of us have ever felt like slashing our wrists on a regular basis? Sure, people have had suicidal thoughts (and to those people you have my deepest sympathy) but a lot fewer live and breathe depression, suicide, death etc. So, when an emo poet talks about 'slashed wrists', nobody knows, or cares, what it means.
Good poetry, on the other hand, is a much more heartfelt, tangible thing. Goods poem reach out to everyone in some way, while still remaining very close and personal to the poet. The poet feels a certain way, writes a poem about his/her feelings, and if the poem is good, the reader will feel the same way.
Like I said: Simple.

Emo poems make the reader laugh.

Actual poems make the reader share the emotion of the writer, at least to some extent.

Emo poetry is pretensious, pathetic, and laughable. And I loathe it with a passion.

I think we forgot one aspect of emo poetry: Navel-gazing.

And even I am guilty of that! So...We all do a bit of navel-gazing now and then.

Clau--


I don't think "emo" is a valid class of poetry.


Best,
Brad