Ehn

Hey is anyone feel like the "best" poets have studied a thesaurus.

it seems dumb to me how people feel like "ouu they have interesting words, their good at poetry"
like you can't judge poems on the words, but only on the feelings and how well the relate, i don't care if you can say "sad" 100 different ways, its wether you can reach the person that is actaully sad. thats what counts,

ehn you prolly disagree
Ill get a life
Monks

i don't know about studying a thesaurus but reading alot of literature helps with your vocabulary. i believe poetry is all about the language some of the most beautiful poems have such powerful imagery which can only be expressed with intense description and the use of 'interesting words'. that is after all what makes poetry beautiful. but i do believe that a person's favourite poem is usually one that touches them and one they can relate to.

To the reply above: I couldn't agree more.

Personally, I think the best poetry comes from raw emotion. Obviously, it has to flow well and everything, but if as the original poster said, if it seems as thought they have just looked up different words for 'sad' or w/e, then to me, it's not usually a good poem; powerful imagery and such don't always make the best poems.

The best poems I have read tend to be ones where the poet hasn't worried about making it structurally perfect, or stuck rigidly to the rhyme pattern; they have just poured out their emotions onto paper.