THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT

We often question how long or short our poetry ought to be. To long and we risk the audience getting bored and nodding of before the end. But have you ever wondered what is the long ever poem, my brain asked me that question this morning.

The answer apparently is said to be ‘The Mahabharata’, written by . Telling the tale of love and warfare between rival families It is seven times the length of The Iliad and The Odyssey combined. And would definitely exceed the word count on any social media platforms, and on here. I’ll let you find it for yourself if you desire to do so.

The longest poem in English is ‘King Alfred’ by John Fitchett (1766-1838) of Liverpool, Merseyside, which is said to be 129,807 lines and took four decade’s to write. His editor, Robert Riscoe, added the concluding 2,585 lines. ‘Phew’ and I think beyond 16 lines is to big, and to when it was written there will have been no technology, no spell checker back then, possibly all written by hand and memory; is it any wonder it took over 4 decades to complete.

So if that was the longest, then what is the shortest poem ever written. That honour allegedly belongs to American poet Strickland Gillan with a poem called “Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes”, or simply known as “Fleas”, written as a couplet in the early twentieth century. Although the Guinness Book of Records, claims it to be “Me, We” by boxer Muhammad Ali written in. Yet there’s been some debate as to the poem’s origin, the three predominant theories being (in order of likelihood):Ali improvised it on the spot, Ali wrote it in advance, or it was written by Gary Belkin, the man behind Ali’s spoken-word album I Am the Greatest (1963).

The shortest poem in United Kingdom by an English poet is not widely known but my research suggests it could possibly be by John Keats. But I’m happy to be proven wrong in my research and theories.

 

“Long poems don’t win us prizes”

 As poets, for which I’m one we are often faced with the dilemma of how long or short can our poems be? In my own experience I try to stick to sixteen lines in four by four. Recently I learnt the harsh lesson of submitting a longer poem of 24 lines and having it rejected. In hindsight I now can understand this, as at the time I wrote the following quote; “Long poems don’t win us prizes”. For long works we risk the readers concentration to wander off. Can you imagine today if Veda Vyasa tried submitting his poem ‘The Mahabharata’’ into a competition or anthology it would take the poor panel an eternity to process and deliberate.

So to summarise, I guess the ‘long and short of it’ depends on the writer themselves. Most Anthologies or organisations may give you a word count suggestion. No one can write it for you, and I guess it’s up to the individual writer own discretion and discernment . Remember “if you get a knock back, fight back” (poetically not physically).

Thanks for listening, I’m of to write more poetry now. 😂

Midlife Writer