prose poem

1 7.1

A short piece of writing in ordinary sentences that reads like a poem

noun
/proʊz poʊm/

Literature

: prosa poética

Only natural, then, is the appearance of prose poems within Harjo's artistic evolution.
Ponge's prose poem
prose poem by Pierre Reverdy
prose poem "A une

And then Kasad says, did you ever finish your worthless prose poem?

Examples

A prose poem often blurs the line between poetry and narrative, capturing emotions in a unique way.
Ah, then I expect it's one of my prose poems.

Wilde (1997)
You provide the prose poems, I'll provide the war.

Citizen Kane (1941)
In a prose poem of 1851, he described a poisoned group of workers:

Academic text (1990)
The responsibilities placed on readers by Joy Harjo's prose poems thus support and reinforce the messages the poems themselves deliver.

Academic text (1999)
I was reading "Dichtung und Wahrheit" (poetry and truth), a prose poem by W. H. Auden, which he wrote in 1959.

Academic text (2009)
Before the war, S.J. Perelman wrote whole prose poems that consisted of nothing except showbiz jargon, restaurant menus, and billboards.

Academic text (2010)
Stein's readers have framed her book almost exclusively in relation to the visual, seeing its prose poems as an attempt at literary Cubism, a series of verbal still-lifes.

Academic text (2017)
The writer's latest collection features several prose poems that explore themes of love and loss.
She described her childhood memories in a heartfelt prose poem that resonated with many readers.

Synonyms

polyphonic prose

vsprose poem

Literature

9.9

Rhythmic writing that uses repeated sounds to sound like music

emphasizes poetic structure and rhythm within ordinary written language

Antonyms

poem

766 1.7

A short piece of writing that expresses feelings and ideas with rhythm and style

lyric

Literature

42 4.6

A short poem that expresses personal feelings in a songlike way

How Poetic

poetry

Literature

541 4.1

prose poem

Literature

1 7.1

prose

46 3.1

Surface Forms

prose poem singular

prose poems plural

Morphology

prose + poem

The meaning 'a piece of writing in prose that has poetic qualities' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'prose' (non-metrical writing) with 'poem' (a poetic composition), signaling a poem presented in prose form. Although it is a somewhat literary/technical label, the constituents make the concept predictable to a B1 learner and similar calques exist in many languages, supporting full transparency.

Etymology

Prose poem is a short piece that looks like ordinary writing but reads like a poem. It mixes prose, meaning regular sentences, with the images and rhythm of a poem, so it is written as a paragraph but feels 'poetic'.