Is poetic inversion or anastrophe really a characteristic of "forced poetry"? Anastrophe is a technique in which a writer changes the normal order of words. Many critics online argue that one of the qualities of a "forced poem" is that a poet inverts the words in a poetic line just to make a "proper" fit. Please enlighten me.
For one thing, to call poetry forced is to presume you can tell, and not many people can. For another, there are lots and lots of techniques that can make a poem stink, and forcedness is only one, so don't get hung up on it or you'll miss inadvertant alliteration or wrong words or bathos. There are lots and lots of kinds of poems, too, and some of them probably benefit from a little forcing.
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For one thing, to call poetry forced is to presume you can tell, and not many people can. For another, there are lots and lots of techniques that can make a poem stink, and forcedness is only one, so don't get hung up on it or you'll miss inadvertant alliteration or wrong words or bathos. There are lots and lots of kinds of poems, too, and some of them probably benefit from a little forcing. J