Which do you find the hardest to write: prose poetry or rhyming poetry and why?

When rhymed poetry flows and captures exactly what the poet wants to say it is wonderful.

The difficulty with writing rhyming poetry well is that the need to rhyme a word can force the direction your poem takes. Some words have a limited number of words that rhyme with them so you might pick a 'second best' word to fit or make the rhyme work.

With prose poetry the freedom to convey what you want to say without rhyme seems easier and enables the freedom of your message to flow with the words. I think the hardest poetry to write is 'the older style' that has set and sometimes complex patterns ( a formula) to the rhyme scheme.

The Rubai is a verse form of four lines the rhyme scheme for it is a,a,b,a . Which means that line one two and three rhyme (a) but line three (b) does not. I have written poems with that pattern but the ability to rhyme a more complex scheme than that escapes me.

Sonnets are an example of more complex rhyming patterns.

Even limmericks can have a form to the rhyming: a,a,b,b,a line ends.

The three genres I know are prose, drama and poetry. Some people use unrhymed poetry- free verse- which allows freedom of expression without punctuation in most cases. It is like talking in rhythm like rap but without the rhyme.

I have tried unrhymed and rhymed poetry.An example of unrhymed original poetry is Serenity. It goes thus.

This is more form/shape and style; and it is not written often. I am more a lyricalsongwriting poet though I write some narratives and inspirational poems. Rhyming is easier for me as I am musically inclined.

I still count syllables though I do not worry or sweat about cadence and iambic,trochee etc. I write; and if it doesn't fit, I do not force it.

It's always made me a little cross that poetry should have rules associated with it. How much of the best poetry you experienced created rather than obeyed a rule?

It's all hard to create, because it's exposing yourself at your most raw, whether that's within a construct or not is defined by the emotion, not the other way round.

Rhyming poetry is definitely harder for me. It's what I started with when I was younger, but as I've grown, my style has evolved based on the various influences in my life. Free Verse(mostly prose form) is much easier for me now, as it gives me more freedom to write what I really feel, without spending too much time editing, and plotting rhyme schemes.

I started out writing songs, and always rhyming, then I went to college and had to write prose poetry. It was hard at first to get the rhymes out of my head... when I did, I had real renaissance in my work; the freedom of expression, and the sharpness of my meanings, drove me to pretty much give up rhyming poetry. Is one easier than the other?

Both come easy to me now, but I think rhyming is easier. Prose poetry requires finding an individual voice with your own rhythms, inner line rhymes, use of the space on the page, idiosyncratic uses of punctuation -- or none, and a lot of other tools that work better than rhyming (for me... there are no absolutes -- I love some rhyming poetry, though most of it is from another century).

To rhyme without meaning is to lose what you were trying to say - I find rhyme harder because when you create a rhyming piece you are being clever / intelligent - of the mind; when writing without rhyme the word you find to say what you want to say is right regardless and it comes from another place.

I think the beauty of writing - especially poetry - is the freedom writers have to work with! I always thought of writing as a natural gift, almost something I HAVE to do as an outlet for my thoughts and emotions. I tend to write from the heart and let words flow from me in a natural, unfiltered way.

Then, of course, I polish and edit the snot out of my work - I don't think I have EVER produced a finalized write. On the contrary, I always find more editing I could do!

I absolutely understand the "need" for structured writing styles, as I sometimes worry that my intended flow will not be captured in the freestyle way I write, and I can definitely see how guidelines will help to preserve the writer's desired rhythm. In my humble opinion, though, restricting oneself to a certain format or with specific "rules" is much harder than simply rhyming a bunch of words!

Howeverrrrr.... (haha) since prose is described as "the ordinary form of spoken or written language", I think it's more difficult to rhyme than to simply write in a common manner. The trick here is that it's easier to find rhyming words - especially since there's SUCH an abundance of words to choose from - than it is to make ordinary language sound extraordinary enough to capture an audience! Since prose and poetry are kind of conflicting terms to begin with, prose seems to be the more difficult of the two when writing.

I know I should shut up now but I just realized that my first poem ever was a simple rhyming poem, and now I feel as if I am more of a rhyming-prose poet... Which I guess supports my reasoning that rhyming is easier since it was my stepping stone into the world of poetry.

This is a hard one because it depends...one day it will be easier to rhyme and the next it is a free verse day. The muse is a fickle beast...and we writers must bow to it's dictates. When I first started writing poetry, and this was quit a few years ago..in school, I was a slave to rhyme...it didn't sound like poetry to me otherwise.

Then I discovered free verse and prose...I was hooked and the creativity felt brand new. So the best thing is not to strugle with form write what flows from the soul and let your Muse run free!

I find it harder to do rhyming poetry,,, of course I don't put too much emphasis in catagory or genrae,,, I just go with the flow.

For me personally, I think poems that need to rhyme or have line restrictions are more difficult to write.

Prose Poetry is harder to write because it has more requirements to it and seems like more work. Rhyming poetry is more fun to write and read.

I agree that all of it is difficult because you are putting yourself out there like an open book exposing your feelings whether it be about love or something else...they all take good concentration and a certain mind set to write...

The only way it "seems" difficult is some people think too long and hard and end up getting blocked, such as when you are writing a rhyming poem, you think too long and hard on what rhymes with this word and so on....

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.