Hey all! I stumbled across a Reddit post in r/writing where someone expressed their pet peeve for overly descriptive prose in fiction. There was a comment that said “unless your narrator is a mortician and the character is dead, stop writing autopsy reports.”
This got me thinking about my own pet peeves when it comes to poetry, and I think I have to say it’s double/triple adjectives. I think adjectives in general are like the “lite beer” of metaphor and imagery. My issue with them is that they tell the reader things when the poem should truly be showing them. I’d almost always prefer and strong metaphor or image over a string of empty adjectives.
My personal rule is “you only get to use one.” If I am writing a piece and I’m using multiple adjectives to describe a subject, I force my self to a.) pick one and can the rest or b.) toss them all and rewrite the line.
Of course, this isn’t an absolute rule - there can always be exceptions when I think double or triple adjectives can work. But if your piece is littered with them, maybe consider stronger metaphors/images.
And that brings me to ask - what are your poetry pet peeves?
I think both you and Adam nailed it here. I'm not a fan of the Rupi Kaur style of writing, and it seems to be influencing a lot of young poets as of late. I will say that her use of lowercase letters is based on her culture. So that doesn't bother me nearly as much as the clichés and one liners that take up a whole page. I'm sure @Adam knows exactly what frustration I'm talking about here.
Another pet peeve of mine is when someone purposefully writes works that are vulgar and manipulative when they fully know what audience they are selling this BS to. I mean who are they fooling. For example, I read a poem about racial injustice (the intention was to tell a story from their point of view) and the message clearly stated that they teach their children to fear the injustice. This threw me for a huge loop and I was simply disgusted by it.
The last pet peeve of mine (because I'm sure I could go on for days) is poems that are simply nonsensical. I can't count how many times I've seen someone try to create a metaphor that later contradicts itself, or use an adjective that doesn't describe the noun its attached to by any means. Misuse of words really irritates me. Kind of makes me wonder if they even know what the word means. "I will literally buy you a dictionary to stop doing this" is what I want to say.
Anyone that has seen a review video of mine will know a big one for me when it comes to poetry publication. Too much blank space. 🌲
I also am not a fan of not using punctuation and capitalisation for the sake of it. I know it seems edgy and cool thanks to Bukowski and the like, but there was a reason behind what they were doing. A big 🖕. Now I feel like people just do it to SEEM edgy and cool. I wont lie, there are poems of mine where I’ve done this too, some are in my new book coming out... but there’s always a reason.
Those are mine for now 🥸
EDIT: Oh yeah, and when people pass off the most generic, relatable statement as poetry. With a bit of enjambment thrown in (and sometimes not even that) to seem poetic.