Character is a Poet - Risky to include 'their' work?

Katharine Tree said:

FWIW, I always skip poems and song lyrics in novels. They aren't what I'm there for.

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I skip any novels with poems and song lyrics in them.

While I can't say that I've ever done something like this myself, as I don't have enough skill, in my own opinion, in poetry, I have seen this done several times in the work of others. Sometimes it comes out quite well, and some of the books I remember best from my childhood and later had poetry in them. However I have also seen it come out so poor that I was forced to immediately put down the book, never to pick it up again. I would say it probably depends entirely on your skill with what you are writing. If you yourself are an accomplished or even a passable poet it could add to the story. If your skill at poetry is not that great, then the poems you write for your character will have the same issues that your own would, as you are still the one writing it. If your character is supposed to be a great poet, and you do not have such skill yourself, than writing poor poems for the character will appear as poor as they really are, and your character will not be believable. It depends entirely on your own poetic skill.

Only if you can write funny or the poetry is essential to the plot, etc.

Otherwise: naw, son. Don't do it.

Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache books have a poet, and some of her poetry. I like it. But I believe most of it is actually from other poets, like Margaret Atwood. Can't remember where the credits are, but they must be there somewhere.

Hmm... I'm actually torn on what to tell you. I've read a few books that included snippets, lines or a full stanza, some were done well enough that I didn't mind that the poetry was included. Some on the other hand were done awful enough that I learned to be apprehensive when I learn of poetry being included into the novel. That's the tricky thing about poetry: not everybody enjoys it.

For me as a reader I'll admit song lyrics I do always almost skip it as with poetry, however if only a snippet is provided I'll read it.

It's a gamble really. I honestly didn't know so many were dead set against it! Good question to bring up.

My advice would be not to put them in -- the risk outweighs the reward. It's one case where tell wins out over show.

I've enjoyed poetry in novels. I liked the poems in The Hobbit, for example. I see nothing wrong with this, and if it's relevant and not boring, I won't skip it.

The issue is, what's important? The words themselves, or their effect on the other characters?

There's a scene in "Watership Down" where a rabbit recites poetry. The poetry is good enough, and of course, you're aware that it was probably better in the original language, but the point is how the others react to it :

"As he began to speak, he seemed to grow less and less aware of his audience and continually turned his head, as though listening to some sound, audible only to himself, from the entrance tunnel behind him. But there was an arresting fascination in his voice, like the movement of wind and light on a meadow, and as it's rhythm entered into its hearers the whole burrow became silent. "

And then the reaction of Fiver, the highly sensitive seer, is also described - "at one and the same time he seemed to accept every word and yet to be stricken with fear."

These reactions are the real point, not the poem itself. The inclusion of the poem probably does not make much difference one way or the other - except that in this case, if it were left out, you might wonder what you had missed. As it is, its inclusion makes clear that Fiver is not reacting to an obvious controversy in the words - which seem harmless - but to something much more subtle and profound, which is completely lost on us, as it is on the other rabbits.

As ever, what serves the story?

I think it would depend on what you were trying to do. There's some video I saw before where the main character spouted lines from a made up romantic poem/book thing from their universe and it consisted of the cheesiest lines. No one really cares about the quality of that book; it's just accepted that it exists and the main character is going to spout it all the time. If you were trying to show that your character is a gifted poet, then it might matter depending on the circumstances.