NO!!! (Not poetry at all, thoughts on judging contests)
by cricketjeff on August 3, 2008. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
I cannot agree with the premise! Some of your list seem good and universally
applicable but none apply universally to all contests, few apply even to a
majority. Poetry is not engineering you cannot take 8 parts poetic devices and
stir in 2 ounces of brevity and a foot and a half of balance. It is important
to consider all these things but they do not make poetry. For any given contest
I am judging I set my own criteria. If the contest calls for not more than 100
words, I probably allow 110ish but would lean towards someone who obeyed the
rules, however if a truly great poem had 120 it may win. If I asked for poems
on mountains Shakespeare might win talking of a hill. So my list of criteria
may go
Is it a great poem?
Can I justify it meeting the contest rules in some way?
Now I take all the poems that meet my criteria and judge them against each
other.
However you gave a list so let us work through them
adherence to a contest prompt:- clearly this can be important if the contest is
set to get poems on a subject it matters, but in other contests the theme is
set just as a way of watering the flower of creativity. Before I can rank this
in importance I need to know the contest!
vivid imagery;- can be marvellous but must a good poem have vivid imagery? Or
indeed any imagery at all? I do not believe it is essential.
clear meaning;- I give you Jabberwocky!!! I think that trumps that quality!
mechanics – grammar, spelling, tense/person agreement, etc.;- NO! can matter a
lot but Bill Shakespeare managed to ignore all the rules!
the balance between being obvious and obscure;- need there be a balance? There
are perfectly beautiful poems that are exact descriptions of a scene and as
obvious as you like and there are poems that are an abstract riot. I cannot
possibly rank this item.
brevity;- You mean Paradise lost isn’t a good poem? Haiku are brief, heroic
odes can be long, not a quality I can judge by I am afraid
emotional intensity;- Usually helps a poem but again does it have to be there?
No.
Whether it breaks/adheres to traditional form (if it’s a form poem) or is a
newly introduced hybrid form well this matters if you are setting a form
contest but if a poem sounds better with an acephalic line or with an
anapaestic foot creeping in unannounced I say blow the form and go with what
sounds best (That is very often the correct form but not always)
freshness (i.e. not-cliché);- we have had this before! If it sounds beautiful
who cares that you rhymed June with moon and tune, it is hard to make cliches
sound good, but a good enough poet will do it
poetic device;- If they sound good great if they sound bad get rid of them
Now of course you have to judge my efforts!!!
English