Which Has Greater Power to Express Love & Emotions - Poetry or Prose?

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Poetry is commonly used as a writing choice for people wanting to express love and emotion. It’s a common gift to give to someone for Valentine’s Day as a way to convey feelings for another person.

I have to admit, I’m not a fan of poetry.

I hated studying it in school and hated it even more when were supposed to write it. I would look at a poem we were studying and hear people going on about what the poem said and I’d be like… those words aren’t there, that’s you guessing what might have been in the mind of the writer.

I guess that has likely left me with a bit of a blind spot when it comes to poetry. I came across a writing prompt today suggesting I should write about the role poetry has in expressing love and emotions.

Hmmm, I thought. Maybe I should explore that question and see how it stacks up against prose. Maybe those who use poetry like the short form method over having to think through writing something in prose.

Writing Expressions of Love and Emotions

To establish a bit of a baseline, I first propose the question: What are the most powerful expressions of love and emotions to write?

The most powerful expressions need to be authentic and heartfelt. Personal experience and emotional depth are excellent wells draw authenticity and heartfelt expressions from. IMO, you can’t make up better expressions than those already experienced.

Some of the areas writers might explore would include:

  • unconditional love
  • passionate love
  • heartbreak
  • longing and desire
  • gratitude and appreciation
  • nostalgia and reminiscence

All those areas can create some great themes to work with no matter what medium is used. I think we have common ground for reference of what writing about love and emotions would include.

The Role of Poetry

In exploring why poetry would be a preference as a means of expressing love and emotion I frequently came across the idea that musicality of language and rhythm of the language used in poetry made it a powerful tool. Metaphor and imagery to convey complex feels and emotions and a direct and subtle manner has it’s own power to paint vivid images.

Poets recognized for their abilities to express love and emotions with musicality and rhythm include:

  • William Shakespeare — sonnets from the man who brought hundreds of new words into the language some of the most famous love poems of all time.
  • Robert Frost
  • Emily Dickinson
  • Langston Hughes
  • E. E. Cummings
  • Maya Angelou

This is not a comprehensive list, but, the name recognition is a testament to their ability to convey love and emotion in a way their readers could relate to and resonate with.

Can Prose Play a Role?

Prose can express love and emotions as effectively as poetry. It has its own unique strengths in doing so. Prose provides writers with a greater degree of flexibility in terms of structure and style, and allows them to convey their emotions in a more straightforward, literal way.

Prose is particularly effective for exploring complex emotions in a more nuanced and multi-dimensional way. Writers can take the time to develop their characters using vivid description and dialogue to paint a rich and detailed canvas of words.

Typically, prose is viewed as straightforward and lacking the musicality of poetry. Using elements like repetition,
alliteration, rhythm and careful sentence structure effectively, a writer can bring to life a musicality in prose.

I’m sorry but trying to write a love scene from Outlander as a poem… would just not cut it.

Some writers known for their ability to express love and emotions with musicality and rhythm include:

  • Langston Hughes
  • Maya Angelou
  • John Updike
  • Jean Toomer
  • Toni Morrison
  • James Baldwin

Interesting to see both Hughes and Angelou appear on both the poetry and prose list. Clearly that speaks to their voice and style of writing regardless of the form.

Which Is Best Then — Poetry or Prose?

Well, both me and my impromptu poll (of two respondants) overwhelmingly voted that prose was the best for expressing love and emotions. Alas, I have to admit a poll of two people is not sufficient sampling of the population, no matter how long it took me to find the second person.

Both poetry has their value when it comes to the expression of love and emotions. It depends on the style and needs of the creator and how the recipient appreciates receiving the expression.

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Shadowspub writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.
NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s

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For me, I vividly cannot say which would best express love or emotion. I am not much of a reader, but I can identify them since there are quite a lot of poetry writers on Hive and I seem to like the rhythm when reading through some of the articles I have come by.

This post has been selected to be curated by @lazy-panda of the Hive Learners Community.

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If I'm writing it? Prose, easy. If I'm reading it? Same answer.

I've read at least some of every author on both your lists. I'm not the biggest fan of any. Even Shakespeare's sonnets drive me wild. It's like trying to read in Spanish or German. I have enough of either language to 'get the gist' but not to truly understand.

Jack London wrote some poetry that I can read (though none of it would qualify as Valentine's appropriate) and Maya Angelou is a favorite of mine. In spite of the rhyme and rhythm it seems.

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No John Donne in your list of poets writing about love? 😁

I don't think it's really a competition - both poetry and prose have their place. It would be like comparing painting and sculpture or Bach and jazz. We need them all.

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