What defines good poetry?
I would have to say good poetry is where someone has chosen a style and then stuck with it. These days, you see so much poetry on the Internet (where everyone can be published) where they start out in one meter and switch to a different meter, sometimes with a little blank verse thrown in for good luck. It drives me crazy. Give me iambic pentameter any day!! But I think the most important quality in a high-quality poem would have to be that I like it. Because if I don’t like it, if it doesn’t move me or I don’t connect with it, then I think it missed the point. Poetry needs to make a connection or it really isn’t poetry.
