re: In Your Own Words, How Do You Define Poetry? page 5

...all writing is autobiographical and all writing reveals the writer to the reader...

That's an interesting way of looking at it. But are the two the same? For instance, Darwin's Origin of Species certainly reveals some aspects of the writer to the reader; but would we call it autobiographical?

MrP

According to Heung Ling in the "Dream of Red Chamber", Chapter 48:

"I think the great thing about poetry is this: readers, upon some thought, can make vivid what cannot be expressed easily, and makes great sense of what does not seem to make sense."

I apologize for my poor translation.

MrPedantic
For instance, Darwin's Origin of Species certainly reveals some aspects of the writer to the reader; but would we call it autobiographical?Would The Pope write a book entitled

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

I think that it should be possible to glean a great deal of detail about the id of the author of such a book. The title alone infers that he was stubborn, singleminded, well organised, unconventional and willing to risk his reputation.

I am confident that his phraseology and writing style would identify him even more. It is possible that scholars of English would be able to identify some of his schools by his style of writing. The mere fact that he could devote such a huge portion of his life to the research and writing of such a book speaks volumes about him as a man and his position in his society.

Charles Darwin reveals himself with truth while Samuel Clements does the same with lies.

Robert

Our choice of words reveal who we are.

I don't disagree with a word of your post. But is that quite the same thing as autobiography?

Or to put it another way: isn't there a difference between what an author presents of himself, and what an author reveals of himself?

MrP

There is a huge difference between writing being autobiographical and autobiography. I believe that autobiographical writing can be far more revealing of the writer than an autobiography which is often sefl serving and focusses on areas that the writer thinks may be of interest whereas the writer has written of concepts that the writer is interested in and this can be more honestly revealing of the writer than a life story.

Robert

poetry is the best words in the best order.

Poetry is the use of words in the most intense way to convey how the writer is feeling/feels about a subject. That is how I would describe it.

Yep, it's a way of expressing your feelings about something, love, hate, the world..

Poetry, i think, is the reflection of a man's total being. In other words, it is expression of a man's feelings and emotion in words with the help of his intellectual capacity. It is the expression of a man's inner and outer being.