Why do INTPs even write poetry?

[CreativeChaos]

I write poetry because I get inspired by reading other beautiful, meaningful poetry. It appeals greatly to my emotions, and refines meaning for me. But then I'm INFP.

It just seems so odd to me that so many INTPs here are into poetry. Why are you interested? What are you trying to convey? Do you like to write in peotry over prose because it can bring out new hidden nuances? (I do) But what are those nuances? Is this an N thing? Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right? :think: So why?

Just responded to a poetry thread and wondered.

[Exploding Candy]

I was actually sort of wondering the same thing :lol:. As an ENTP, I don't feel inspired or compelled to write poetry at all. I do write and keep a journal, but it's more ramblings, musings, and thoughts as opposed to structured emotional expression. I do enjoy reading poetry, though; especially darker, "mystical" material, like those of E.A. Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, or the incisive, witty writings of Oscar Wilde.

[raincrow007]

Moved to Creative Theory.

[earwax]

To get in touch with our feelings.

And then force them to submit to the logic of iambic pentameter.

[CreativeChaos]

To get in touch with our feelings.

And then force them to submit to the logic of iambic pentameter.

:rofl:

[Eileen]

One reason I really enjoy poetry (and I know, I know, I'm not an INTP - but I think this may make me an atypical NF) is that when well done, it's a clever puzzle from which I can extract meaning. And when I write poetry, while I am (yes) expressing feelings, I also try to maximize the layers of meaning with metaphors and symbols and stuff like that.

[Madrigal]

I write poetry because I get inspired by reading other beautiful, meaningful poetry. It appeals greatly to my emotions, and refines meaning for me. But then I'm INFP.

It just seems so odd to me that so many INTPs here are into poetry. Why are you interested? What are you trying to convey? Do you like to write in peotry over prose because it can bring out new hidden nuances? (I do) But what are those nuances? Is this an N thing? Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right? :think: So why?

Just responded to a poetry thread and wondered.

I like poetry in the sense that it offers me an opportunity to project feelings and thoughts onto something concrete by evoking images, for example. Finding external patterns that mirror an internal state that I want to better comprehend by envisioning it in a material form that can be contemplated and analyzed. In short, to seize something abstract and demonstrate its fundamental qualities and dynamics by disguising its form to reveal its essence.

[MacGuffin]

I totally have a poem picked out for Monday!

[Ka.avik]

Writing poetry well requires cleverness. The nuance, for me (I don't actually write much, but sometimes I will) is usually one of playfulness. Or, just of putting more weight into the words, such as the eulogy I wrote for my cat. Or just, because it's an interesting effect, putting such much weight on so few syllables.

By and large, reasons for poetry, are "nuance" and "cleverness"

[Conan]

The only time I've ever really appreciated poetry, I was on drugs. A friend recited it to us. It was a short one, just a few lines, I think by William Blake. I remember the imagery it created being pretty awesome for me at the time.

[Dr. Haight]

Do you like to write in peotry over prose because it can bring out new hidden nuances? (I do) But what are those nuances? Is this an N thing? Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right? :think: So why?I think the only appropriate thing to do is answer you with a poem:

When I'm alone and feeling blue,
I grab a book and my pink tu-tu.

When I'm alone and feeling grey,
I grab a book, and no, I am not gay.

When I am with friends and feeling social,
I drink lots of vodka and become very vocal.

When I am with enemies and feeling social,
I drink lots of vodka and then beat them fucking senseless.

So you can see, with regards to poetry,
it's best that I stay alone,
writing poetry in my home.

[Lee]

I have no idea why INTPs like or write poetry.

Being the cold-hearted, emotionless logicbot that I am, I find all poetry to be a waste of valuable time.

[Dr. Haight]

I find all poetry to be a waste of valuable time.Even mine? That really hurts, man. You are a cold, heartless, bastard. I spent three freaking minutes on that masterpiece.

Wait... I feel inspiration for another poem.

[Ka.avik]

Wait... I feel inspiration for another poem.

too slow. Not that this addresses
his "poems are stupid" attidute, but I'll just say,
that that 'tude is stupid.
'k.

poetry requires smarts
try out some haiku: much too hard
doggerel is easy

sometimes its about force
make words agree with you
pull down the thesauraus,
pull words out of the blue.

it takes too long however
to say what you're after
because of the spellchecker
and watching spiders in the rafter

I think I'll stick with being far too wordy, even if I later decide that whatever I was trying to say, didn't say what I was trying to bring to the table.

[Randomnity]

I don't know if my opinion's wanted, as I don't write poetry. But I'll answer anyway. :P

I have no appreciation for poetry. I really would like to appreciate it--I would feel all "cultured" and all--I just can't see the point of it. I also don't like flowery prose. Maybe it's because I'm more visual.

I can't for the life of me tell the difference between a good and a bad poem--they all sound the same to me. So I'm not about to try writing one.

I do admire the ability to fit words into a nice pattern though; I'm sure that must take some sort of talent.

[Zephyrus055]

I used to be good at poetry, but now I'm not. The appeal it had on me when I was 12-15 was that it allowed me to relieve my intensely negative emotions.

For some reason, I need to feel extreme negative emotions to write poetry well.

[Hustler]

If you write poetry and you think you're an INTP, you're really an INFP.

[nomir_dva]

If you write poetry and you think you're an INTP, you're really an INFP.

Shit, I've been living a lie!

But why am I interested in poetry? I suppose I like beautiful things, and good poetry is beautiful. I write poetry for a similar reason - I want to be impactful and to increase the amount of beauty in the world. I may not be very successful at this, but that's probably because I'm an INFP.

[Meliora]

I like the subtle challenges and joys of writing it. I've been reading a book of beautiful modern poetry lately, and it's really inspired my own stuff.

Edit: Leonard Cohen is an example of the kind of poetry I think an INTP could appreciate. Don't ask why.

[macr0]

I wrote poetry when I was 17. Damn phases.

[azurwarrior]

to submit to the logic of iambic pentameter.

I depend on form to transcend and exceed what I have written, and put it in a new light. Particularily forms such as the Ghazal where it is implicitly understood that there will be a part of the poem that can not be explained by logic or reason.

[Ghost-Girl]

Haikus can be nice
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator



Anyhow, sometimes I like poetry and sometimes I don't. There's a level of pretention that a lot of poems seem to have that just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe that's why I like Robert Service.

Sometimes I write poetry because I have fun with language...rhymings, setting up stanzas, creating imagery, it's quite nice. But don't think i'm going to post any of in on INTPc anytime soon. No Siree.

[Black Velvet Band]

I love writing poetry. For me, it's sorting out issues and releasing unwanted emotion.

[Ellipsis]

I think I write poetry not only because it lets me expose myself on an emotional level...the other reason is to to be witty or do something unique or something original...

[George_McFly]

In high school, my creative writing teacher introduced me to poetry. I wrote a lot of it and some of it was published and I even won awards. As an INTP, I like the conciseness of poetry. I dreamed of being a science-fiction writer. At 40, I'm afraid my creativity has dried up forever.

[azurwarrior]

Probably insanity.

[earwax]

I depend on form to transcend and exceed what I have written, and put it in a new light. Particularily forms such as the Ghazal where it is implicitly understood that there will be a part of the poem that can not be explained by logic or reason.
I don't actually write poetry, I write songs. Which is a very strict structure. But in many ways the "rules" help me distill the thought down to it's essence.

Of course, a good backbeat always helps.

[azurwarrior]

Of course, a good backbeat always helps.

I am a semi-pro drummer/percussionist. I can play some excellent backbeats.
I also like to write poetry. And I love the rhythms of rap/hip-hop (emphasis: if NOT always the content or intent of the lyrics)...
Anyways, I can't just put the two together!
You say a good backbeat helps you-to me it just stops me cold. As far as the words go, that is.
I really admire guys who can go up to the microphone and rap or improvise. I also consider it to be a form of poetry.
So I keep on writing. And drumming. I enjoy doing both. But I think I'd get even more out of it if I could do both together at the same time...

[shum]

i am a visual poet.

[Sackanaka]

So, CC, do you need any more reason?

I like poetry because:

1) I can appreciate the various things conveyed in poetry which are otherwise difficult or impossible by other written forms.

2) I've found joy in creating poetic works, as composers revel in the achieved harmony, as children shine hanging up their macaroni works on the fridge.


The source of poetry is the desire for expression and creation.

[TheFallandRiseOf]

I prefer clever, pithy, precise poems that invoke moods and memories/ideas of experiences and feelings (in both the emotional and sensational context of the word). I am not a fan of flowery prose or ballads, for which my attention span is too short. I'm IN*P and enjoy both reading and writing poetry, especially that which offers ideas (as opposed to that which states the obvious) and makes use of word-play through associations and juxtapositions. But that's just me; poetry is entirely subjective. One man's cake is another man's cabin bread.

I might be inclined to think that INTPs admire cleverness in poetry whilst INFPs admire romanticism, but that is probably much too simple.

[venerationOFrabbits]

I prefer clever, pithy, precise poems that invoke moods and memories/ideas of experiences and feelings (in both the emotional and sensational context of the word). I am not a fan of flowery prose or ballads, for which my attention span is too short. I'm IN*P and enjoy both reading and writing poetry, especially that which offers ideas (as opposed to that which states the obvious) and makes use of word-play through associations and juxtapositions. But that's just me; poetry is entirely subjective. One man's cake is another man's cabin bread.

I might be inclined to think that INTPs admire cleverness in poetry whilst INFPs admire romanticism, but that is probably much too simple.

I prefer cleverness, I know I'm INFP though. Another way you could say it is I don't see the value in romanticism so much.

[TheFallandRiseOf]

I prefer cleverness, I know I'm INFP though. Another way you could say it is I don't see the value in romanticism so much.

I do too (and I generally sway more F than T) - and yes - a fair call on the values. I'm wondering how many INFPs don't see the value in romanticism, though. I think we'd be a minority. Ok I'll clarify myself - I don't totally de-value romanticism, it's just a lot further down my list. At any rate cleverness is romantic to me, or at least it makes my heart beat faster.

[venerationOFrabbits]

I do too (and I generally sway more F than T) - and yes - a fair call on the values. I'm wondering how many INFPs don't see the value in romanticism, though. I think we'd be a minority. Ok I'll clarify myself - I don't totally de-value romanticism, it's just a lot further down my list. At any rate cleverness is romantic to me, or at least it makes my heart beat faster.

From a clever poster on the other forum I post at, this is fresh, posted minutes ago:

Endless Stumble

Head over heels, tripped over everything including himself and the century in which he lived, fell for a girl, tripped over the cat, slipped on his honor, dashed his head and bashed his brains.

If the dead could do it over again, if the living would think it over again.

Note --- he plagerizes sometimes, but most likely not

[intpgolfer]

It just seems so odd to me that so many INTPs here are into poetry. Why are you interested? What are you trying to convey? Do you like to write in peotry over prose because it can bring out new hidden nuances? (I do) But what are those nuances? Is this an N thing? Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right? :think: So why?
Just responded to a poetry thread and wondered.

Facts are prose - and opinions poetry. Must be an "I" thing - poetry is a way for an "I" to speak to the world, without speaking to the world.

Poetry is yet another way for all "I"s including INTPs to be opinionated?

[earwax]

You say a good backbeat helps you-to me it just stops me cold. As far as the words go, that is.
I was being slightly sarcastic. But songs are NOT really poems. While the "architecture" of your typical 3 or 4 minute song may be set in stone, you can get away with some lyrics just because they have a nice flow or rhythm to them.

Then again, I don't really get most poetry. Occasionally I'll hear one of the spoken word artists down at the poet's night that has some interesting ways of using words. Or they may have a good delivery. I used to think the rest of it was just bad, but now I understand that I just don't connect with it. I'm probably not a good judge of poetry.

[abathur]

I write poetry because I get inspired by reading other beautiful, meaningful poetry. It appeals greatly to my emotions, and refines meaning for me. But then I'm INFP.

It just seems so odd to me that so many INTPs here are into poetry. Why are you interested? What are you trying to convey? Do you like to write in peotry over prose because it can bring out new hidden nuances? (I do) But what are those nuances? Is this an N thing? Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right? :think: So why?

Many intps have a deceptively developed Fi. If we're going to talk about our quintessential INFP poet, (introverted feeling, extraverted intuiting) they also typically have a rather well developed Ti lurking. I don't know about everyone else here, but my Fi isn't more than a stones throw from testing more developed than my Ti on the cognitive process test. So, what I'm saying is, we don't have this function developed if we don't use it, and INFPs don't have Ti developed if they aren't using it.

Even for the INFP, writing is still a logical process. Language is still a logical construct in which they paint a picture of an interior emotional landscape. If I had to postulate, where the two probably differ as poets is around subject matter and the comfort of the two types in expressing feelings and thoughts.

Now, more generally, I think poetry writing is a more common activity among those who feel socially alienated and I'd imagine you'll find a reasonable introverted intuitive bias among a sample of poets.

I'm not sure why I write poetry, but I could always speculate. I'd probably have killed myself by now without the emotional and creative outlet, for example. It's an intimate, yet impersonal (at least, in the ways that count) medium, through which I can express my inner world.

[NoahFence]

Words are Legos.

[booyalab]

beats me

[TheFallandRiseOf]

From a clever poster on the other forum I post at, this is fresh, posted minutes ago:

Endless Stumble

Head over heels, tripped over everything including himself and the century in which he lived, fell for a girl, tripped over the cat, slipped on his honor, dashed his head and bashed his brains.

If the dead could do it over again, if the living would think it over again.

Note --- he plagerizes sometimes, but most likely not

I like that. Which other forum is it from?

[Leftfield]

I write poetry because I get inspired by reading other beautiful, meaningful poetry. It appeals greatly to my emotions, and refines meaning for me. But then I'm INFP.

It just seems so odd to me that so many INTPs here are into poetry. Why are you interested? What are you trying to convey? Do you like to write in peotry over prose because it can bring out new hidden nuances? (I do) But what are those nuances? Is this an N thing? Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right? :think: So why?

Just responded to a poetry thread and wondered.

Well, I dont read or write poetry because it is a lot of softness and doesn't do anything for me internally, so I stick with technical writing to learn or philosophical writing to think outside the box.

I write philosophical shorts that integrate well with NT and in some cases NF thinking. I write because I can and want to examine anomolies or interesting/unique experiences that need further clarification and to have documention, through writing, to examine it at a later date to edit/realize/inspire/motivate/reflect about myself.

I came to this point as a result of my English 103 class junior year, literature was the focus, our book was 1,500 pages and cover a lot of interesting subjects:

"Arguing through Literature: A Thematic Anthology and guide to Academic Writing ~ Judith Ferster (http://www.amazon.com/Arguing-through-Literature-Thematic-Anthology/dp/0073048909)

Get it shipped total around $35, it's worth every penny, plus the professor that uses this book was ENFP. C-Chaos, add it to the list with Geert :)

I wrote one creative piece in this class that was optional and my professor loved it, mainly because she was an atheist and the story was of related material, so imagine that!?! This added the needed motivation.

So I took this class the quarter before I worked six months in Germany, so with the in-depth readings (book on hand) tacked onto a one-of-a-kind experience, it was unlimited insight absorbed in which I had to start writing to both make sense of it all, and look back to this writing to come up with new ideas from previous experiences. That is the origin. The hand-written journal, that I wrote in almost everyday, is the main source.

As a result came about ten pieces, all written in July and August of 2005 (the latter months - which is also when I joined INTPc), that question the experience within the bounds of philosophy (which really isn't bound too much). I have only shared one of these shorts/stories with one person on this forum (notaprettygal - INTJ thing) and one that I will and was inspired to write as a result of CapnEnnui's INTP-INTP relationship and situation (INTP thing).

I also took a Creative Writing class my last quarter in college, which allows me to review my writings and edit them more appropriately, despite my writings following the non-fiction, memoir route.

* I will offer such advice, mostly "coming-of-age", to the people that I feel could benefit from reading it when I see them in a rut or a state of confusion.

So I write, because:

1) to examine it at a later date to edit/realize/inspire/motivate/reflect about myself. To make sense of it all (big picture).

2) follow the *

3) To pass onto my family, children, grandchildren, etc... mainly for historical reasons, also for them to know what type of confusing and interesting person I was. An NT at hand.

[airjaw]

I write mostly short philosophical essays , these just come naturally to me.

As for poetry, its therapeutic for some. It's also a creative process.

and its also a chance to be intellectual and witty, which INTP's love.

[naruto littles helpers.jpeg]

i subscribe to the idea that everything can be poetry; that it's simply a matter of sight:

"What is a black hole? It is a region of space -or of space-time- within which the gravitational field has become so strong that even light cannot escape from it. Recall that it is an implication of the principles of relativity that the velocity of light is the limiting velocity (pp. 194,211). Hence, if light cannot escape from a black hole, nothing can escape." -Roger Penrose


Safe in their Alabaster Chambers-
Untouched by Morning-
And untouched by Noon-
Lie the meek members of the Resurrection-
Rafter of Satin -and Roof of Stone!

Grand go the Years -in the Crescent -above them-
Worlds scoop their Arcs-
And Firmaments -row-
Diadems -drop- and Doges- surrender-
Soundless as dots -on a Disc of Snow-

-Emily Dickinson

[Notsweetynice]

I don't even know if I'm an INFP or an INTP, but I know I have never gotten poetry. I don't find it beautiful or enjoyable in any way. In fact, when poetry is read aloud my brain stops attending to it. I also never liked nursery rhymes as a child and I don't read fiction.

I do have an imaginitive artistic side, but it is totally visual, not word related.

[Ellipsis]

I love poetry becuase of it's great analytical potential thus I find my T part enjoys that, My F enjoys the fact that it deals with feelings, the I likes it becuase it is a form of expression other then opening my mouth, my N function likes it becuase a poem can mean different things, my P likes it becuase of the loose rules of poetry....

[FranG]

I got into poetry as a result of a painful life experience and I needed an outlet. Writing poetry is like speaking freely, not being bound by the rules of grammar, or the political correctness of content. It's almost like non-verbal communication because it's certainly different than verbally comunicating a message. It's like communicating telepathically with your pen and pad as your thoughts transfer from one realm to the next. INTPs like to live in their own world and poetry provides a way to do that. You can create something that is uniquely yours.

[formerly known as]

I can't stand most poetry. I find most of it devoid of meaning.

[Mr Pink]

Any poetry that goes over 5 lines bores the hell out of me.

[AMDG]

WRITING: It's a challenge - to see how concisely I can say something; to find a way to condense the maximum possible meaning into the fewest possible words, avoiding the obvious words that people would normally think of to describe this concept.

READING: I seldom read poetry. If I do, and enjoy it, it's either Middle English or Old French stuff that's basically prose in poetry form (i.e. stories told in rhyme), which I'm reading for the stories and the humour, the characters and the plots, or the enjoyment would come from trying to analyse and figure out what the author was trying to express in the condensed form that I'm reading.

[MacGuffin]

Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right?
Why not?

[Notsweetynice]

I don't even know if I'm an INFP or an INTP, but I know I have never gotten poetry. I don't find it beautiful or enjoyable in any way. In fact, when poetry is read aloud my brain stops attending to it. I also never liked nursery rhymes as a child and I don't read fiction.

I do have an imaginitive artistic side, but it is totally visual, not word related.

I should have added that I do like SciFi, but only a minority of SciFi books/films. They have to be original and impressive. Too many are completely derivative.

The Island impressed me, especially because the man-made people were the good guys. Usually it's the robot/computer that is the bad guy. How many times have we seen that?? Yeah, technology is scaarrrry, but c'mon.

[Toonia]

From one perspective i'm surprised that INTP's would not be interested in poetry. It is essentially distilled language. Bad poetry is about flagrant emotions placed in a mindless rhyme scheme, but thoughtful poetry uses metaphor, rhythm, timbre of words to drive home with the greatest effect using minimal means. The great poets write more challenging concepts, not just frittering feelings.

[George_McFly]

My high school creative writing teacher turned me onto poetry. As an INTP, I love the brevity of poetry.

[NightCrawler]

Creativity
- word choice
- imagery
- style/form
Help balance that 4th preference Fe
- express latent emotions
- communicate thoughts

[Utopmk]

Poetry by it's self is missing something... muzik.

[songbird36]

I write poetry because I get inspired by reading other beautiful, meaningful poetry. It appeals greatly to my emotions, and refines meaning for me. But then I'm INFP.

It just seems so odd to me that so many INTPs here are into poetry. Why are you interested? What are you trying to convey? Do you like to write in peotry over prose because it can bring out new hidden nuances? (I do) But what are those nuances? Is this an N thing? Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right? :think: So why?

Just responded to a poetry thread and wondered.

I don't write poetry to express emotion (generally). I write it as a non-linear way of exploring the stylistic and substantive dimensions of an idea, or single phrase; outside the boundaries or strictures of prose syntax. For me it is probably a mental/sensory exercise that coincidentally happens to be emotionally satisfying.

[Limey]

Why are the top four threads in Life, the Universe and Everything about poetry?
I don't remember poetry in the Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy - I'm pretty sure the answer is 42, not poetry.

[Notsweetynice]

Poetry by it's self is missing something... muzik.

I agree on this. I am unable to appreciate poetry, but if it is paired with beautiful music, then yes, I am able to appreciate it.

In yoga, there are many chants that people repeat. Many find chanting to be spiritual and soothing, but I just never do....unless the chants are to music.

[brakedown]

i have never been interested in poetry, not that it cant be imaginative/beautiful/ deep or whatever. just not for me. i'm much more visual.

[Ferrus]

If you write poetry and you think you're an INTP, you're really an INFP.

Agreed. My attempts to write poetry have always been lambasted because they lack any sense of emotional acuity.

[Prothero]

If you write poetry and you think you're an INTP, you're really an INFP.

After writing several hundred of the beasties, I tend to agree. I know it was an attempt to understand the world of feelings; a need to try and grasp some small part of the world I could not share.
I wouldn't have written so many, except that someone actually paid me to write one for him to claim as his own. His generous offering seemed out of balance to the value of what I produced, but it had a nice free market feel to it.
Women, and their reactions were another reason to continue writing them, but eventually that caused me to stop when I realized they thought I was the man portrayed in the words. The benefits weren't worth the pressure of trying to live up to their expectations. Even writing love negative words didn't seem to diminish the notion, yet it was true, the romantic existed only on paper.

[Sojourner]

If you write poetry and you think you're an INTP, you're really an INFP.
I've always been a little unsure as to my T/F and J/P alignments, especially the former, but periodic batteries of tests continually confirm my INTPness. Of course, there's so many possible errata that you can't really take that seriously... but still.


It just seems so odd to me that so many INTPs here are into poetry. Why are you interested? What are you trying to convey? Do you like to write in poetry over prose because it can bring out new hidden nuances? (I do) But what are those nuances? Is this an N thing? Surely it's not an F thing with you. It's not to convey nuances in emotion and meaning, right? :think: So why?

A self-assessment is never accurate, but my best guess is that I read poetry for the empathetic thrill, and I write it so that I can crystallize a moment's... emotional ambience, I guess you'd say. It's just so overwhelmingly sublime when the meanings and the sounds all fit perfectly, locking together to complete a five-dimensional snapshot.


I wonder if it's possible to guess at someone's type by reading samples of their poetry?

[abathur]

If you make unilateral statements and think you're an INTP, you're really an ISTJ?

[Sojourner]

Whom are you addressing, Abathur? Being unfamiliar with the term "unilateral" (dictionary definition does NOT equal familiarity), I'm not quite sure about the context of your post.

EDIT:
Never mind me. I don't have enough sleep.

[rhinosaur]

Poetry is a great way to address Fe when I'm overwhelmed with an emotion. I've always tested INTP, by the way, very strongly on I, N, and T.

My poetry doesn't always flow to other people, but reading it later I get a sense of what I was experiencing at the time.

An example:

There is poetry in everything.
I find it, here, in these clouds.
A vast golden mass 'cumulates behind me.
Illuminated by this flame
That quenches the ocean
Steaming the yellow cloud.
The ocean reaches up to suck it down
And I hear a roar of defiance
From the selfish cloud.

People, turn around!
Don't you see
The flame eludes your frame cage.

Like fish in a lake,
Protected by distance,
The density of air,
And a thick human skull.

Look not into space.
Look around this place
Golden changed faces
By the flame's radiation.

[Sojourner]

Would I find a correlation if I asked everyone for a) their type, and b) whether they wrote poetry for themselves or for an Other-audience? It's just that I, too, write poetry mainly for my own reading enjoyment... not for others.

[Petroleum Prole]

I'm not into reading poetry. It bores me.
But on some rare occasions I'll write some poems of my own.
But it's less about expressing emotions than it is me being fascinated with structuring the words around each other to recreate a sort of image using words.

[rhinosaur]

Would I find a correlation if I asked everyone for a) their type, and b) whether they wrote poetry for themselves or for an Other-audience? It's just that I, too, write poetry mainly for my own reading enjoyment... not for others.

Maybe. I always write poetry as if I'm speaking to someone, but knowing that I'll be the only one who'll read it.

[Marston]

Maybe you guys are writing sissy love poems. All my poems are about fucking.

[MacGuffin]

Maybe you guys are writing sissy love poems. All my poems are about fucking.

We have a whole subforum (http://www.intpcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=19) for you to share in!







so we can rip everyone's expressions to pieces

[scroggzen]

I enjoy writing poetry, but I believe a lot of it is because I enjoy writing in general. English has always been my strongest subject, and I can easily pick up the meaning of poems or songs. I think at a young age I began channeling my thoughts into more artistic expression, and it just kind of stuck.

[NoahFence]

I enjoyed writing sonnets, played around with random verse, and ultimately dwindled to Haiku and Lymerics. I like flipping words around to find rhymes, or flopping words about to find synonyms.

It's like algebra...only with words.

[Sojourner]

This makes me curious. Are there any famous INTP poets we can point to and be proud of?

[ZHASH]

'Poetry is the spontaneous outflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity'. William Wordsworth

It's an imaginative response to experience reflecting a keen awareness of language in its high form.

When stressed, it has been known that many "Ns" will exhibit OCD tendencies. Some NT/NF poets manipulate language through the use of rhythm, metre, and rhyme almost as an obsessive form of meditation and reflection on themselves and the human condition. I call them, genius.

I've attached a link http://www.nencki.gov.pl/pdf/an/vol65/obituary.pdf to a great scientist and poet. It is an example of a complex NT scientist that used poetry to release feelings. Based on this obituary, any idea of what personality type he may have been? I'm speculating INFJ or INTJ. Your thoughts?

[MacGuffin]

The ultimate reason INTPs write poetry: to show the other types how to best do it.


I've attached a link http://www.nencki.gov.pl/pdf/an/vol65/obituary.pdf to a great scientist and poet. It is an example of a complex NT scientist that used poetry to release feelings. Based on this obituary, any idea of what personality type he may have been? I'm speculating INFJ or INTJ. Your thoughts?
I think it is impossible to type someone from a three page synopsis of their life.

[songbird36]

Everyone has different reasons for writing poetry, and gets something different out of it. A bit later I will post a little verbal ditty I wrote on holiday last week (a study into the word "over", using images/ideas I'd collected during the course of the week).

[airjaw]

I write lyrics. I enjoy the process - I get in a trance, or get "in the zone"
It's a creative process and there are so many things you can do with words - it's just fun. Like someone said, it's like algebra, but with words. All that limits you is the structure of the poem and your own skill and creativity.

It's also a chance to show off a bit. I write more rap lyrics than I do poems and its fun to express your ideas, to boast about the things you've done, jokingly insult others, all with an artistic touch.

[skip]

Poetry is another form of wordplay which INTPs often enjoy. I've been writing poetry since I was three - mostly an enjoyment of word sounds back then. I still write poetry but it's not for publication, just fun. My roommate and I leave notes for each other in haiku, for example.

[jleonardbc]

I've been writing a lot of haiku lately. trying to frame an idea through a concrete object or observation helps me to think through it and contemplate it. here are a few recent ones:

the winter skylark
singing for no one at all,
not even itself

---

another breaker—
a shark rotting by the shore,
the tireless cadence

---

a withered cactus,
ribs of wooden arms lifted
to the cloudlessness

---

lovers' initials
stretched beyond recognition
as the trunk lengthens

[alienhated]

I usually don't writte emotions but ideas, thoughts... but when I do it's in a rationalized way, you can see the reason and the emotion in battle which is what happens in my head when I feel things, most of the time I feel emptyness, thats my main emotion.

[moe0303]

I mostly use poetry as way to express my inability to express feelings.

[Roger Mexico]

How else would I inform the world that my soul is like a caged bird, yearning to fly free?

Or that the pain in my brain is driving me insane?

[Vildechaya]

The only poems I write are satire.

[Limey]

The only poems I write are satire.

I write parodies of satire.

[Vildechaya]

I write parodies of satire.
I write jokes about parodies of satire. I sing of them in my travlin' minstrel show.

[Limey]

I write jokes about parodies of satire. I sing of them in my travlin' minstrel show.

One time, after singing "mammy", I scoffed and poo-poo'd the idea of writing jokes about parodies of satire.

[HoneyCyclical]

How else would I inform the world that my soul is like a caged bird, yearning to fly free?

Or that the pain in my brain is driving me insane?

Isn't that the "pain in the membrane" or is that too 1990's for you?

[Vildechaya]

One time, after singing "mammy", I scoffed and poo-poo'd the idea of writing jokes about parodies of satire.
I often sing "Mammy & Poo-Poo" (a new ditty of mine!), while scoffing entire libraries. *best done in the privacy of the home library*

[Roger Mexico]

Isn't that the "pain in the membrane" or is that too 1990's for you?

http://istealyourmoney.com/suicide.html

http://www.intpcentral.com/uploads/6bff28902ef3c0bc3782517814966961daily echo.gif

[edge walker]

From the Paul James INTP profile:
Introverted Sensing often plays an important role in the private world of the INTP. When he visits a place, whether new or already known, his Si function gives an overriding concern for the atmosphere or mood of the place. In his subconscious, he connects the present experiences of his surroundings with memories of his past, sometimes deep past. A sense of history, of universality, is almost always invoked. When on holiday, the INTP wants to experience above all the ambience of each location. Specific details in the present are relatively unimportant and will not be well remembered. However, the atmosphere or mood will be remembered long after, as though it were a solid object. Since people encountered on a holiday usually count as details, unless more personal contact develops, the INTP tends to be drawn more to lonely, isolated places where atmosphere is less disturbed. Nevertheless, the presence of people does add its own ambience which can also be appreciated considerably. The net result of this concern for past experiences and of mood/atmosphere is that INTPs belong centrally to those types referred to as melancholic. The INTP melancholic is typically drawn to wild polar expanses, to mountain ranges and all places on the edges of civilisation. Whatever his particular yearning might actually be, it has a common root. The homeland of the INTP's psyche is a small and cosy community, isolated in the middle of a vast expanse of wilderness. I always thought this one of the most astute parts of the profile.

It is this sense of mood or ambience which I find that poetry, of all forms of writing, can capture best -- to evoke the experience, by first engaging the Ne with plays on the implied and the omitted and with the interplay of rhythm and content; which then draws out the Si to conjure up moods as they are triggered by memories associated with Ne constructs.

All that said... most poetry still leaves me cold. And I have only ever finished writing one (very short) poem. Of the 3 or 4 I even started.

But I appreciate the form.

[Arachne]

Poetic language allows the concise (yet imprecise) conveyance of complex notions. What's not to love?

[kali]

Psh, I'd be more incredulous at INTPs hating poetry. It's the expression of ideas in the most structured way possible.

It's the content of the poem which differentiates the T and the F.

[Daaf]

IMO INTPs are not as creative or as naturally creative as ENTPs and therefore require slightly more structured environments within which they can be as creative as possible, but with rules to help if them if they get stuck.

Poetry fits the bill, as rhyme and meter can be excellent tools to help structure a creative thought.

IMO if an INTP was just left to write, the result would be a lot like the following :

I've had an idea that blah blah blah, but on the other hand it could also blah blah and then if you look at blah blah which could lead to blah blah and on the flip side of that blah which leads me to believe my original thought might have been based on faulty assumptions so maybe blah blah (and the cycle repeats, until the power cuts or the ink runs out) And honestly it would be painful to read even , if not especially, to the author...

[mortabunt]

IT's because INTP's have such bad F that we have to keep it covered even while in use.

[stuck]

I love writing poetry far beyond any fear of being foolish, which is formidable.

That's because it's the smallest, most resourceless way to create a miniature world. Prose has more rules. Music takes a codec these days. A poem, you can do that anywhere.

They are like computer programs made of autumn and caramel.

[poetrygirl]

I've always wondered that as well. I have an intp friend who writes poetry but she's very shy about her work and only lets me see a few.

[Technical]

Poe's just about the only poet I'll read, and he's INTP! Not that I've been scouring the fucking globe for poetry I might like.

[Ptah]

Psh, I'd be more incredulous at INTPs hating poetry. It's the expression of ideas in the most structured way possible.

Then be even more incredulous. I either dislike or find no appeal in poetry at large. I certainly never felt the need (or saw the appeal) to write it, nor do I think I will ever suffer to.

[rhuarch]

I write poetry so that I can intentionally misuse traditional symbolism and give the bird to high school English teachers everywhere.

I remember in high-school English, we spent a lot of time on poetry. The text book, along with my teacher was going over the "rules" of symbolism. I.E. if the poet mentions sunlight it's a reference to being happy and other ridiculous things like that. I raised my hand and announced I thought the whole concept of assigning rules for interpreting poetic symbolism was ludicrous. There are only two useful references for meaning when interpreting a given poem; what the symbolism means to the reader, and whatever meaning the poet may have explicitly assigned to the poem, and then communicated in some form of explanation. She wanted to send me to the principal's office for insubordination. I can't imagine why...

[iwakar]

I've been pleasantly surprised and impressed by the poetic interest of INTPs I've encountered online.

[pioneer_167]

I write poetry because I like to play with words. Make them rhyme, arrange them in strange ways. Meaning or metaphors are usually secondary. Sometimes though, a poem is the only way I can get what's in my head out in the right way.

[Mickehh]

I write poetry because I like to play with words. Make them rhyme, arrange them in strange ways. Meaning or metaphors are usually secondary. Sometimes though, a poem is the only way I can get what's in my head out in the right way.

Exactly same reasons for me. It's always best if I can find a deeper meaning to get in there amongst all the witty word-play.

[1104]

it maintains the precision of verbal communication, but its more efficient than prose, there are no rules, and it isn't direct- the implications are what's important.

[HeighHo]

Seriously, most people that write poetry now are just puking up their mental guts onto the cheap canvass of the screen. Or paper. In music we call that "self-indulgence" and it's the cardinal sin of the authentic artist.

Once, when I was still Baptist, I was talking to a pastor in the hallway and I mentioned that I enjoy poetry. This particular pastor was one of the more logical people I'd met in my experience and I expected him to share my enthusiasm. His face turned darkly cautious.

"My wife likes poetry. I guess I'm just in love with a more concise mode of expression."

Or maybe he only said "a different way" but that's how I heard him. I was dumbfounded. I tried to explain how poetry is actually the most concise, direct way of saying a thing, that truth is beauty, that to say a thing in the fewest most elegant words possible was the greatest self-discipline in learning to express any thought, belief, or feeling and that no thought, belief, or feeling could be properly served by people too stubborn to try their hand at the ancient disciplines.

As he edged away and I died down, humiliated and betrayed by my enthusiasm for an idea once again, soft music began to play over my shoulder, and the world turned shimmering and pink as tears formed in my large green eyes. I convulsively reached out my hand and pleaded, "Please, don't walk away. I am worthy of your attention."

"But you are wrong," he said.

"I know. I've always been wrong. As long as you love me, that's OK. My ideas aren't worth pigeon poop."

Then a dark swirling hole opened beneath my feet and large pink Baptist devils, sucking lollipops instead of cigars, dragged me down to a place where everyone takes turns forever going to the front and pointing their behinds at the congregation while we all sang "Love Lifted Me."

I think I meant to tell someone why INTPs write poetry.

[dynamiteninja]

If it's any help (hopefully it is) here is my list of famous INTP poets:

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Henry David Thoreau
Edgar Allen Poe

These all write/wrote some, although they are best known for their prose:
Joyce Carol Oates
H P Lovecraft
Margaret Atwood
J R R Tolkien


Poe was in it purely for the money wasn't he? Could be wrong. Also wasn't Lovecraft? Again, may be mistaken. I'm sure that Thoreau and Coleridge's motivations are out there if anybody cares enough to look for themselves.

[1104]

Poe was in it purely for the money wasn't he?

so much for that. ha.

given his reputation, he'd probably be typed as a Feeler. i don't know enough about him to consider him INTP, but i know enough that he isn't necessarily F.

what is it about him that makes him INTP?

[dynamiteninja]

so much for that. ha.

given his reputation, he'd probably be typed as a Feeler. i don't know enough about him to consider him INTP, but i know enough that he isn't necessarily F.

what is it about him that makes him INTP?

Well he's a real toughie to type, and the jury's still out on him I guess. INFJ was a popular typing for him, followed by INFP, but I think the INTP argument is winning out- ~for now~ :)

[helsabot]

Just like some of you, I've always had an affinity for words. I like rearranging them to capture exactly what I'm thinking or feeling but in an abstract manner.

In college, one of my professors explained that obsessions are a driving force behind most writers. I've come to agree with that time and time again. For me, I always have thoughts tumbling around in my head. And since I am horrible at expressing any sort of feeling or precise thoughts to the outside world, I just roll everything around for awhile until I feel I have perfected the presentation and can put it on paper. During the whole "incubation" state, I sometimes go for months trying to dissect all of the thoughts and feelings to understand them before putting them back together. Most of this is done subconsciously for quite a long time until I realize that I have been continuously mulling over said obsessive thought underneath my conscious thoughts.

[Henry]

"It has to come out, like a good hot beer shit," said the poet Charles Bukowski. "A good hot beer shit is glorious man. You get up, you turn around, you look at it and you're proud. The fumes, the stink of the turd, you look, you say, 'God, I did it. I'm good.' Then you flush it away and there is a sense of sadness when just the water is there. It's like writing a good poem, you just do it. It's a beer shit. There's nothing to analyze, nothing to say, it's just done. Got it? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1e5Jeh2Fk0)"

[Scarecrow]

Poetry is nothing but condensation. So instead of reading a novel to get a certain feeling, you can read a haiku.

Brevity is key. That's also why I don't like most folk songs.

[Will2009]

It's like algebra...only with words.

I realize I'm responding to a 2 1/2 year-old post, but that's brilliant.

I agree with several others here who have expressed sentiments equivalent to "I just don't get poetry." The exceptions I make, the kinds of poetry I do appreciate, are: 1) some haiku (although I can't write them); 2) some clever limericks (although again, I suck at writing them); 3) interesting/clever/profound lyrics in music I like (if I don't like the music, then it should be self-evident that I don't care what the lyrics are).

I do not enjoy poetry for emotional responses, or the lack thereof. The small subset of poetry I enjoy is for the imagery (I'm very much a visual thinker, like several others here), humor, or cleverness of it, the latter which can include brevity and conciseness.

I'm very much a prose writer. I wish I could be more concise.

[Scarecrow]

I'm very much a prose writer. I wish I could be more concise.

I'm very much a lyrics creator. I wish I could be more elaborate. I'm trying to work on a novel, but after two pages I've said everything valuable that is there to say. Sigh. And another short story to file.

[Martavious]

The artful potential to say all that is existence in a few short lines. In other words, abstraction gives me a hard on.

[Wolfpine]

Whenever I write poetry
It's never as direct as this
It's iNtuition running free
Internal rhyming, as you will see:

Discussions on the repercussions
Of enacted action, it lacks in tact and
My style and form is wild and worn
But whole-scale pictures, painted words

Make me proud when a tale is perfected
In all subtle modes that can be effected
No logic for me, though I'm INTP
This is trust in some fiery, unbreakable spree
The magic of pure spontaneity

Oh, and it makes me feel awesome to be able to just write that as easily as non-poetic things. Maybe that's my driving motive - to show off to myself. :D

Actually, I think it is to get in touch with the incredibly abstract ideas that Ne and Ni pick up/create unconsciously, so that I can bring the ideas forth into the conscious and, therefore, to Ti.

[Harion]

^^ i don't like poems like this

[nirmohi]

I write... to get rid of my nostalgia *sigh*

[composer]

I think because it's the most precise and technical - as it were - form of writing. Precise - each word in a poem carries weight, much more than a single word in a novel or newspaper. The exact sentence and stanza structure has meaning. Everything in a poem matters, even how it looks on the page. By technical, I mean poetry often follows some form, like haiku or sonnet. Even free poetry follows conventions.

Novels are much more loose, and it goes from there. I enjoy poetry on occasion, but I don't attempt to write any.

[Jonah Davids]

i do not write poetry
because i despise poems.
never have i encountered one
that meant anything to me
at all.

[starjots]

Poetry is private
I think that's when its best
For if you dare to speak it
Someone criticizes you for the rhyming
Or other suckage

And have you ever wondered
When clothed up in a song
Millions memorize the stuff
And play it all day long

But throw a naked poem their way
Trust me bud
You'll rue the day

[Wolfpine]

^ That has REALLY sucky rhyming. :)

[avolkiteshvara]

I had a period for about 1 year where I thought in poetry.

[gator]

For me it's about achieving precision with my words, condensing a thought into as few as I can manage.

[Jack.is]

As said from the beginning of the thread, for me it's not any feeling thing. Some things I think into poetry are definitions of or caused by feeling, but the whole of poetry for me isn't a bunch of unbridled release of emotion or outpouring of the heart or whatever. The enjoyable part is the nuance and linguistic play involved in the process of forming into poetry this concept or feeling that demands to be expressed. I could just as well write it down in explicit prose, but this is more fun.

jack.is/poetic/

[Toonia]

For me it's about achieving precision with my words, condensing a thought into as few as I can manage.
This defines poetry well. In the end it is about the distilling of ideas, of which feelings are a subcategory.

[starjots]

I had a period for about 1 year where I thought in poetry.

Was your life, thoughts, happiness or whatever different because you thought this way? Any other observations? The concept of thinking in poetry is quite interesting.

[Llewellyn]

I have no idea why INTPs like or write poetry.

Being the cold-hearted, emotionless logicbot that I am, I find all poetry to be a waste of valuable time.

But you do find your time valuable.

[Llewellyn]

Reasons can be creating something beautiful, and in feeling truthful. A poem can be something elaborate or more spontaneous, often catching an experience. That sounds wikipediish... Maybe it's because I'm not as inspired in poems anymore as I used to when around 17-23... But I still like it and have revived it somewhat, sometimes doing it on inspiration, sometimes more as an exercise.
It comes down on 'catching down' something (catching something from the air?). But that can get lengthy. Also new meaning can arise.
But beauty would be the biggest reason.

[avolkiteshvara]

Was your life, thoughts, happiness or whatever different because you thought this way? Any other observations? The concept of thinking in poetry is quite interesting.

At the time, I was writing alot so I think that had something to do with it.

I don't know if I'd call it poetry exactly.

It was more like rhythmic thought patterns with a dabble of metaphors. It was no better or worse. Just a different flavor.

[Zelda]

I like poetry because I love to find the meaning behind the words and find that, along with beautiful words and phrases, to be inspiring, but I suck horribly when it comes to writing poetry and tear it up and toss it almost immediately after writing any.

Writing an article, biography or textbook, on the other hand, is much more appealing to me.

[Geminii]

Spring's first bright flower
Uncalled, yet gladly welcomed
A change from white frost

[kali]

I usually don't write poetry. I think it limits the way a concept can be conveyed.

Poetry is form over function. If I've listened to a poem that I've particularly liked, I may be inspired to write my own; words can suddenly flow out with ease and they just fit (this is rare).

I don't pretend to understand this, but this spoken poem (http://www.poeticgenius.com/assets/Fever.mp3) really got to me. Just something about the language used was right. It does sort of sound like he was grasping for any rhyming word he could find, though.

[naruto littles helpers.jpeg]

Spring's first bright flower
Uncalled, yet gladly welcomed
A change from white frost
very nice.

[MontyBrogan]

1.) Poetry is a system or paradoxical anti-system of linguistics, differentiating from prose but consisting of various methods. Haiku, Modernistic, Ironic, Epigram, Free Verse, Limmerick, Ode, Narrative, and on, and so forth, create a galaxy of styles.

2.) Aesthetic qualities of poetry interrelate within the previous reason. Words create music through lone stance and interactions. A few literary tools are rhythm, stress, accent, oral pitch, alliteration, hyperbole, simile, metaphor, iambic meter, tetrameter, etc. The dirty mechanics of poetry and its skeletal structure intrigue me. I learn through language and the beauty involved.

3.) Poets are often aware of the expression and expansion of the human spirit. One woman described poetry to me as medicinal. I agree. In addition, when reading poetry, you step inside perspectives, cognitive processes, and an accompanying ambiance. Words beget images, stir emotions, and engross the psyche. You engage in a conversation with the poet and invoke their disposition.

[durentu]

The arts gives emotions voice. poetry included.

[Kaydje]

I write poetry because I have a lot to say, and I cannot seem to communicate much of what I have to say literally... So I do so by using poetry to project imagery of my abstract idea.

Sometimes, you just can't speak what's on your mind through typical communication. I love art. :D

[JollyBard]

I like poetry when it's clever. I don't care about the feelings behind it.

[Hermione]

It is very much like solving a puzzle and writing an acrostic or something in some sort of code that resonates with your insides. It combines many systems and different types of thinking and linguistics all into one coherent product. It can also be very exquisite if you are lucky. They don't all "hang together" so well, but when they do, it's artful and shows skill and cleverness of mind. That's plenty.

[YHWH]

Poetry is form over function

Or it's form leading function, like architecture.

[silly sally]

Or it's form leading function, like architecture.
i love that. :wub: