Showing or Telling?

[annaswirls]

There are those two folks (far apart--they don't know each other, they don't know that the other even exists). They feel down, so, of course, they write a poem. They feel unique, they feel that their feelings are special. So they both write, independently:

I feel down
because I am unique
and my feelings are special
​

And they are not unique anymore, they are generic.

Amen.

 

[Senna Jawa]

Is it better to show rather than tell in poetry? Are there times when its better to tell rather than show?

am a little confused by this. What do you guys think?

Let me mention the other side of the coin.

On one hand all that a poem needs is the scene, the image, the sound, the movement, the smell... the sensual experience. On the other hand, the poem does not need anything that it does not, meaning that only the relevant elements, those which carry poetry, should be in the poem and nothing else. This is the next, more advanced stage of writing, once you got the discipline of "showing, not telling". Yes, show, but avoid junk and placebo.

Senna Jawa​