Prose poetryispoetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects.
Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it makes use of poetic devices such as fragmentation, compression, repetition, rhyme,[1]metaphor, and figures of speech.[2]
Although the Bible is written in prose, it maintains poetic features such as rhythms and lyricism. [3]
In 17th-century Japan, Matsuo Bashō originated haibun, a form of prose poetry combining haiku with prose. It is best exemplified by his book Oku no Hosomichi,[4] in which he used a literary genre of prose-and-poetry composition of multidimensional writing.[5]
In 1877–1882 Russian novelist Turgenev wrote several 'Poems in prose' (Стихотворения в прозе) which have neither poetic rhythm nor rhymes but resemble poetry in concise but expressive form.
The writings of Syrian poet and writer Francis Marrash (1836–73) featured the first examples of prose poetry in modern Arabic literature.[8] From the mid-20th century, the great Arab exponent of prose poetry was the Syrian poet Adunis (Ali Ahmad Said Esber, born 1930), a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[9]
^Robert Hirsch, A Poet's Glossary, New York, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014, ISBN9780151011957.
^Lowenstein, Tom, ed., Classic Haiku, London, Duncan Baird Publishers, 2007.
^Stuart Friebert and David Young (eds.) Models of the Universe: An Anthology of the Prose Poem. (1995)
^Gedichte in Prosa. Von der Romantik bis zur Moderne. Vorwort und Auswahl, Alexander Stillmark, Frankfurt a. Main (2013)
^Jayyusi, Salma Khadra (1977). Trends and Movements in Modern Arabic Poetry. Volume I. Brill. p. 23.
^Robyn Creswell, "Hearing Voices: How the doyen of Arabic poetry draws on—and explodes—its traditions", The New Yorker, 18 & 25 December 2017, pp. 106–9.
^Donald Sidney-Fryer, "Klarkash-Ton and 'Greek'," The Freedom of Fantastic Things: Selected Criticism on Clark Ashton Smith, Scott Connors, ed. (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2006); reprinted in Donald Sidney-Fryer, Random Notes, Random Lines: Essays and Miscellanea (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2021), pp. 144-171.
^A Curious Architecture: New British and American Prose Poetry, London, Stride Press, 1993.