Young Writers Society

I WROTE AN EMO VILLANELLE.

I am so proud of myself.

(Relevant to the discussion? What do you mean?)

I know what you're saying. Bad emo versus good emo, basically.

I think the difference between bad emo and good emo is the proper use of similies and metaphors. If you don't know what you're doing, then forget about a good emotional poem; look up the meaning of these two words, and then go from there. That helped me...

I don't know how exactly to describe Emo poetry. I guess it could be described as very open and free verse. I like to think of Emo anything is very dark and angry but very raw. This style is often very abstract and immaterial; if you get what i mean. It's also violent and very simple and blunt words.

I like dark stuff but I'm not really all that into Emo.

And i like to think of 'Good Poetry' as very structured and outlined. This style of poetry is often structured. Good Poetry is also very flowing and pretty.

Well, you don't know exactly if they are "Emo." What if the person

is

really bummed, but they just aren't so good at writing?
See it all depends on if they tell you if they are emo or trying to be emo, or whether they might not be so good at writing.

Emo poetry lacks control, and as someone said (was it Ezra Pound?), "Good writing is perfect control."

I see 'emo' poetry as being a uneditted show of emotion, just what you say and how you want to say it. No rules. As an 'emo' myself, I just think it is a free expression of emotion with no-one telling you what to do.

In my opinion, I see emo as EMOtional. Not cutting yourself.....

I think we all know that Emo has traveled far from the abbreviation of emotional; that doesn't mean anything in this discussion.
And free verse poetry, from what I understand--- with my limited knowledge of the stuff- is not necessarily emo.
Emo poetry is whiny, for one thing. Self-serving... you don't have a better view of anything after having read it.
I think emo poetry is like therapy for the person who wrote it. Which is fine; if you need a poetic release and feel like rhyming words, more power to you. Help yourself out of your funk. But that doesn't make it pleasant, or even readable, for others. Poetry isn't just about creative release; at least not good poetry. It's creative release that works in masterfully subtle ways.
A lot of emo poetry tells, not shows. That's another big thing to take into consideration. If they give us examples, or objects or images instead of saying, "My world is the darkest shade of grey; don't want to leave my house today..."
then it turns into something else, something more dramatic.
But I'm a total know-nothing at poetry, so don't take my word for it...

I don't deny that deliberately writing emo poetry can't be a therapeutic tool for those who want somewhere to store their emotions, and sure, everyone's probably written something amounting to emo poetry during their writing careers, but most of it is unpublishable or unreadable.

Poetry that reads well is fluent, precise in meaning and perfectly controlled, not cluttered with vague and wishy-washy emotions that don't communicate well to your audience.

Good Poetry is more creative and takes more work to make beauty. Emo Poetry is just a simple "bleh".

The funny thing is, all I had to do is read the title and I understood what you meant completely.

Despite that it's hard to offer advice. I think what matters is to analyze why you write. Also it maybe important to acknowledge "emo" writing as a stage in some young poets' career. When looking for good poetry it always does feel like your drudging through all of the myspace poetry crap to get to a gem. Whether it's "emo" poetry or "pre-teen crush" poetry.

"Emo" is just more like teenagers writing stuff down in their diary, but some "emo poetry" can be very good, so keep that in mind. However, "emo" is not really a type of poetry as far as I'm concerned. Some poems are just not pulled off well and a little cliche with the whole depress/die theme. Just my thoughts on the matter. ^_^
~Mizz

Emo poetry can become good because it shows emotion. its not childish, it's just expressing how they feel about the world. Good or emo poetry, someone's going to like it. Good poetry is anything else. I can't say if my writing is good or emo, but I'm just saying poetry is poetry, no matter if its rap, Shakespere, or Poe. Everyone likes one. Personally, I think emo is better than what you guys call 'good'. Saying good is basically classic Shakespere, and emo is bad modern. lots of people like Shakespere and people in his time but the world is changing, showing emotion(abreviation for emotion is emo) that people like nowadays. So, basically all poetry, "good" or "emo", is GOOD. What do you think is good?

Well this is an old topic!

EdgarAllanPoe, nice username by the way, I'm not sure how much of this thread you've read yet. Doesn't really matter though! I'll recast what my opinion is.

I'd first like to explain that, in my mind, "emo" is not the abbreviation for "emotional". "Emo" is a subculture which includes clothing style, music, etc. "Emo" was also originally an abbreviation for "emotive" music, I believe in the 90s, but that's faded out as well.

As far as Shakespeare being the only kind of good poetry... I fail at understanding Shakespeare. I like Spencer more! Anyway, what I mean to say is, I've read contemporary stuff. Lots of it! (You said modern, modern is actually a period in the early 1900s. "Contemporary" = what is now.) I have a book of poems by the Poet Laureate of Missouri, and he's brilliant.

All of my poems are fulled with emotion to the brim. So are Shakespeare's, and so are the best of poems in my mind. If there isn't an emotion behind the poem, what is being written about? However, poetry must be well executed. Since I originally wrote this thread (three years ago) I've read lots more poetry both on this site and in literature classes, or just in my free time. "Emo", aka bad, poetry tends to be poorly executed. It doesn't do what I believe is the most important feature of a poem: affect the reader. It's a selfish act, a poem for the poet alone and no one else. Like a diary in verse. These things are okay to write, they make great catharsis, but they aren't quality poems that a reader would enjoy.

But like a few above have said, I'm starting to wonder if "emo" is the right word for. I think that name leaks in because we more often than not see people writing depressed poems about suicide or what have you, and so they're thrown into the "emo" stereotype. Of course, when I was 14 I wrote depressed poems about death and emo wasn't even a known subculture then. Punk was the thing.

So, perhaps instead of emo, simply, poorly executed works. Nothing that can't be made better with attention to detail and editing.

What is "navel gazing" anyway?