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What is a prose poem? It’s an interesting question, so much so that many of the 25 pages in the introduction to this book are spent trying to answer it. In my youth, I went through a phase of thinking that all prose was really poetry; apparently Shelley was of the same opinion:
“The distinction between poets and prose writers is a vulgar error.”
These days I’m inclined to regard beautifully written prose as akin to poetry, and certainly not the banal, dead sentences that comprise much of the modern landscape (I’m thinking of advertising, corporate guff and other aspects of “diseased English”.)
Reading through this book, I think that is the simplest definition. More importantly, prose poetry may appeal to people who would never dream of reading anything labelled “poem”.
This book is a treasure trove of wonderful writing from many countries, where translations were available. For example, some are Arabic in origin, others Bengali, Icelandic, Japanese…. In other words, the kind of writing which one would not ordinarily encounter.
Some of the pieces, such as Rape Joke, are very hard-hitting. Indeed, I think that particular one should be taught in sex education classes when the topic of consent is covered. Others, such as Hell Is Graduated are interesting, not least because of their unusual approach to mundane topics. Yet others, such as Short Talks and Borges and I (by Borges), seem to me to belong to the world of Oulipo.
A personal disappointment is the absence of anything by Kahlil Gibran. His most famous work, The Prophet (Amazon affiliate link) is nothing if not a collection of prose poems. Furthermore, its inclusion would have added “Lebanese” to the list of cultures represented. Still, I suppose something has to be left out as the book is not infinitely long!
The book is organised in a very interesting manner: in a reverse chronological order. Starting at 2017, it ends in 1842. Along the way it divides the pieces into sub-genres:
The prose poem now
The postmodern prose poem
The modern prose poem
Working backwards from the present (more or less) means that you can start with perhaps more familiar themes and trace how the forms changed (or not) over time. Alternatively, you could focus on the pieces by sub-genre. My own preference is to simply open the book at random and see where I land.
Some of the items are difficult, and require a lot of thinking about. Others are less complicated, although that perception is somewhat deceptive: there is more to meet the eye than first appears.
If you are a teacher of English or creative writing, you will find this book to be a rich source of material to discuss and analyse with your students. And if you are a writer, this book will I’m sure prove to be a good investment in extending your craft.
Even if your “only” goal is to discover new sources of pleasure from great writing, the Penguin Book of the Prose Poem is bound to help.
From the back cover
This is the prose poem: a ‘genre with an oxymoron for its name’, one of literature’s great open secrets, and the inspiration for over 150 years of extraordinary work by many of world’s most beloved writers.