Below is a comment that Frost had made on a poem I had submitted in the poetry section titled "Just", and after reading his comments I have noticed what he is saying is the truth. I have read many poems that are dark natured and a lot of them tend to fall into this dark poem trap. I know a lot of us write differently with the usage of imagry and metaphors and so forth, but when you analyze the piece properly you can see the most common traits of each and every piece.
I am really glad you brought this up Torana, because lately I have been thinking the same thing. It is so hard to break through that common barrier but i look forward to the challenge. I hope to shock you all. muawhahahahahahaha. jk.
Agreed: an excellent quote. I think also something that can plague dark poetry is generalization - that the whole is stressed rather than the details...and usually it's a strange and telling detail that's the most unsettling. So observations of ordinary things, close observation, coupled with a more sinister spin... this to me makes poetry both dark and effective.
Well done to Frost. Classic Dark poetry is not scary in the way that formulaic teen-slasher movies are not scary. We are jaded, we need new horrors to tickle our palates, not the same old tired images of teenage pseudogothic angst. Demons - ooh..! Dark twisted skeins of absolute evil - arrgh..! liddle bitty babies with maggoty tongues - eugh..! etc. So life is ****. We know. Move on.
Thats why I stopped writing poetry when I was 18. I've written two since then, both depressing, but I avoided all of those cliches. Unfortunately its way too easy to fall into those traps. So I tend to just not write poetry.
I too have fallen into this trap and find it a hard one to break free of which is why I have made sure that this topic was brought up for all to see so that we can all see where we are going wrong and together work towards finding the escape path from this trap rather than giving up on poetry. So now that we are aware of the traps, how do we avoid them? What can we do to break free from the traps? This is something that I am going to be looking very closely at over the next few weeks and will be seeking advice from a lady I know quite well who has helped me out on a number of occassions now with escaping poetic traps and cliche lines/topics. Although I have only just begun seeking her help, hence why I am still stuck in these poetic traps. But hopefully together we can work through this and improve on our skills as writers together. And as The Spartan says, well done to Frost, after all it was he who came up with this crit and shed some light on the problems with dark poetry. So thankyou Frost for this and I am sure it will help many of us. ~Torana
I don't mean to poke fun or anything, but I don't have so much trouble with writing stuff too dark as with writing too much doggerel: Darkness came down like a slap. Madness took me on its lap. A stench of blood, A gore-soaked thud: Again I'm in the Dark Poetry Trap. (You can just messenger the Pulitzer over, no need to bring it 'round personally )
