Whether the verse is formal, experimental, or “free verse,” we appreciate poetry that adeptly uses a poetic line and stanza and explores the tension that exists between the sentence and the line. A poem is an artifact—a made thing—wrought from words and separate from everyday speech. Colloquial speech, of course, appears in many great poems, but somehow it is exalted into something memorable to human sensibilities. It is wholly possible to make a cliché fresh—just not easy by any measure.

At Merion West, we believe that form precedes content. Merion West welcomes a vast range of themes.

We have a keen appreciation for skill with prosody—i.e., the music of a poem—whether that music is sweet or hard and clashing. The use of consonance, assonance, alliteration, enjambment, and a feel for the drama of the sentence broken by the line is encouraged. We believe that poetry is written first with the ear, second with the eye.

We enjoy a balance of imagery versus rhetoric, with pride of place going to sharp, memorable images. When a poem is discursive, one hopes the discourse is subtle. Even outrage may be sung—thus, opera.

Poems ideally are serious but not self-serious. As such, we invite wit and satire.