Literature has been entangled with everyone at the very inception of their lives. Just like any other form of art, literature too is divided into different segments. One can be more keen to poetry where as another individual can be prone to prose.
What is prose?
Prose can be any passage written form of literature. Generally, such style incorporates grammatical sentences and does not have any metrical structure. Prose can be a biography, novel, memoir, script, dialogue or any creative writing.
What is poetry?
Poetry is a form of writing which is based on an individual’s imagination, emotions or experiences. Such write ups are arranged in a rhythmic pattern, and they are also a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.
The mere definition can explain one regarding the differences between the two writing style. But there are a few intricate details that one should be acquainted with while learning about them. The differences are as follows –
- Prose is one of the writing forms which mainly incorporate a sentence structure. Whereas, poetry, on the other hand, is comprised of various literary technicalities, such as rhythm, sound, meter, cadence.
- In case of language, the sentence structure and diction is relatively straightforward. But, poetry is comprised of a rather expressive language and the usages of sensory words are also seen.
- Even though prose is a part of creative writing but as this style has a vast range of write ups, one can use this form for sharing information and anecdotes. But, in most cases of poetry, it is used to provide amusement and delight to its readers.
- The structure of prose can be varied, and they are broken into different paragraphs. The essence of the topic can be found in each paragraph while poetry incorporates a structure which allows a poet to share their perspective in each stanza.
- One of the intricate factors of prose is that it can be paraphrased, whereas poetry can’t be accurately paraphrased.
- Prose can be relatively pragmatic, but writing poetry, in general, is figurative.
- One of the unique factors of prose is that other than sharing information, it may also be crafted to convey any moral lesson or idea. But for poetry, it is generally crafted to express one’s emotions or experience.
- Prose does not include any broken lines and maintains a specific structure. Poetry, on the other hand, has the liberty to include broken lines. A poet can write a long sentence within their poetry or can add one or two words to rhyme. Such variations are used to emphasise an idea or a situation through a poet’s imagination.
- In some cases, prose can look like a chunk of words to maintain a balance with its structure; whereas, poetry can be of any format depending on the fancy of a poet. Few modern poets do not follow a specific structure for writing poetry to bring out their aesthetic sense.
By learning a few differences between poetry and prose, pursuing and creating one becomes simpler for one.
