When I first joined Twitter at the beginning of this year, I was immediately struck by the way people try to describe themselves in a few words. One term that crops up on a regular basis is "writer and poet". Well, I'm sorry, but this just sounds wrong! A poet is a writer. The latter is the generic term in which we'd include the former. Of course, I'm being slightly pedantic: I know full well that users mean they write prose as well as poetry, but my question is why they phrase their description in such a way.
One possibility is that I'm over-interpreting things, and the explanation is simply that Twitter lends itself to abbreviation. On the other hand, I do have the feeling that people sometimes view verse as a separate entity to be kept apart from all other writing. As Twitter shows, even poets themselves can end up falling into this trap.
DISPLACED They called her aloof, impractical, clumsy, plain. It was, they
say, difficult for her not to fall in love.In spite, that is, of the first
coughs...
One suggestion I might make as to why this happens is that many people perceive "poet" as a different sort of identity from "writer" - an identity which may not even have all that much to do with writing.
ReplyDeleteI could be wrong, but this is an impression I have. I'm not sure it's a good thing, either. Personally, I sometimes describe myself as a writer (I do other types of writing, too) and sometimes as a poet, but I doubt I'd bother to describe myself as both at the same time. It's one or the other depending how I am categorising things.
Hi Clarissa,
DeleteYes, I know what you mean.
I still feel very self-conscious and awkward when mentioning I'm a "poet". It can be a perfect conversation killer!
Dear Matthew
ReplyDeleteI describe myself as 'a poet and aphorist' because I'm hopeless at prose. The last time I had to write any serious prose was at university almost forty years ago.
Best wishes from Simon R. Gladdish