Prose Poems
| No. of Players: | 1+ |
| Type of Game: | written |
| What you need: | pen, paper & books |
Goal
To find a poem in prose writing.
How to play
Prose poetry is written in prose form. But while it does not have the line breaks typically associated with poetry, it nevertheless makes use of poetic devices like metaphor, symbolism and rhyme. In this game, players challenge themselves or others to find prose poems in books and other written material. Alternatively, players can set a piece of prose writing into poetic form in an attempt to pass it off as poetry. The player with the best result – one which most resembles poetry – wins the game.
Examples
The opening paragraph of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities might pass as poetry, if the lines are broken appropriately:
It was the best of times,
It was the worst of times,
It was the age of wisdom,
It was the age of foolishness,
It was the epoch of belief,
It was the epoch of incredulity,
It was the season of Light,
It was the season of Darkness,
It was the spring of hope,
It was the winter of despair,
We had everything before us,
We had nothing before us,
We were all going direct to Heaven,
We were all going direct the other way.
Here is the published diary entry of an anonymous author, re-arranged as a poem:
I left my state of apples
For one of rain.
We had little time.
"Betrothed, be ready packed,
Wearing spring dress, low heels,
Purple petals in hair – by noon
Our escape is underway!"
