Emo Poetry: Good or Bad?

http://emo-poems.greatestjournal.com/

That's the link I found for my introduction to Emo Poetry. As you can see, it's mostly people whining about their problems.

However, this link was better:

http://www.emo-corner.com/emo-poems/

Now I can't make up my mind. Any other evidence for and against Emo Poetry?

Well, it hangs upon what you mean by "emo" and good/bad (for/against). So let me try some possible questions and my answers.

1. Are the poems you linked to quality?

Eh, not really, I couldn't stand to do more than quickly read a few of them. I suspect there'll be a couple good twists of phrase in there, but they sounded so bland to me that I didn't look.

2. Do poems like the ones you linked to have a role in society?

Definitely!

For some of the writers you linked to the poems will serve as early experiences--some people's juvenilia is "emo," some people start in Hallmark doggerel, very few start "good."

For others it will help them be interested in literature, society, etc.

And for most of them I would guess it helps them get through some emotional times and/or connect with their peer group.

3. Does dark emotion have a place in poetry?

Yes, I would say so. Indeed, in general poetry helps us to speak the unspeakable (among other roles). I would point you to what you might call the "flashback" in Hopkins' Carrion Comfort ( http://www.bartleby.com/122/40.html ), some of Sharon Olds' work, many others...

4. Do you need to be a "dark" person to write "good" poetry?

A dark strand might be useful if you want to use it, but it doesn't mean you have to be depressed, crazy, dying of consumption, etc. A wiser, well-regarded poet once said that if you have one of those problems, go get counseling (or antibiotics), because it's wrong to think you will stop being a poet if you do. I find if I live my life and keep an appropriate amount of busy that I have things to write about, and I like to think I can be funny and serious at the same time.

5. Other questions??

sorry, bad. then again, my only exposure to emo poetry is through the music and, although i love the music (dashboard confessional, Snow patrol, a few others), i have the same opinion my younger niece stated when we heard DC's second album, "you're a rock star, stop griping about your girlfriend dumping you and go get another one."

TeenAuthor > While the whole emo thing often irritates me, the 2nd link you posted was actually alright. Sure, some poems were whiny and pathetic, but others were decent.

While I find it annoying, I do understand why many teens are so emo these days.

Emo poetry isn't just for young people. On a Grief Site, a lot of people write poems mourning the death of a loved one. Other people write poetry about the divorce, the separated children, parents who no longer remember anything, the lost job, the home foreclosed. Poetry therapy, like art & music therapy is a way for people to express their feelings & have them validated. It's not the poetry that's important, it's the person who manages to find a way to put their feelings into a form that they can communicate to others.

Yeah, but that's actual grief, not whining about broken iPods or how their girlfriend doesn't like them.

What I now see in Emo poetry is a shift from whineyness and older Emos from the first wave or experienced Emos tending towards providing an actual commentary on society, rather than poems about self inflicted wounds that the genre once was.

But I still think William Blake > Emo in his Songs of Experience...

Emo poetry has been around for many a moon. Here's an item from the cro-magnon era, I believe.

---------
People say I’m the life of the party
‘Cause I tell a joke
Or two

Although I may be laughin’
Loud and hearty
Deep inside
I’m blue

So take a good
Look at my face

You’ll see my smile
Looks out of place

If you look closer
It’s easy to trace

The tracks of my tears.

Ooh ooh ooh ooh

-- Edwin Arlington (Smokey) Robinson

>7 jburlinson: - but the difference is that once you add the music to Smokey Robinson's lyrics the result is a (pop) masterpiece; when you add most emo lyrics to the banal heavy rock that seems to be the preferred style of music to whine to the results are soporific.

i think snow patrol's "Hands Open" and "Chasing cars" stand up alongside the Miracles just fine. If there's one thing emo bands can learn from the past, it's in order to stay interesting they'll have to grow. As much as we loved Motown, what killed their domination of that corner of the market was the eventual sameness of the music: we just grew tired of shelling out for the same songs with a few new words. But yeah, Smokey was incredible. Still is, in his own way, although i admit, i haven't found the need to have his stuff near at hand, having heard so much of it and gone through so many copies in vinyl over the years ...

Snow Patrol - the equal of Smokey Robinson? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. SP are a bunch of chancers who develop their sound to suit the market - over the last decade they have proven their ability to completely remove anything slightly original, or different, from their music. In truth, it is not music anymore, it is muzak.

What really killed Motown was moving to Los Angeles in 1972 and getting caught up in show business; attempting to break into television and movies while forgetting to nuture new talent, and letting established talent leave.