What do you consider beautiful prose?

Roxxsmom said:

"She was almost ready to go, standing before the hall mirror, putting on her hat, while he, his hands behind him, appeared pinned to the door frame, waiting like Saint Sebastian for the arrows to begin piercing him."

I wouldn't call it beautiful, but it does evoke a clear image. I can also imagine how a writing group or freshman fiction class would lampoon the author's use of a "To be" verb and a filter word.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, often, but I would call that good writing. Certainly that image is evocative.

Don't see the filter word, but even if there is one, so what? If there's a freshman class somewhere who would pick this part for perceived flaws (and there are none that I can see), then they're being taught the wrong things. Usually this is the kind of story that a freshman class would be given to read in order to provide a good example for them. Or at least, that's what happened in my high school and college classes.

jdp1886 said:

I enjoy terse prose. Hemingway comes to mind. Give me a bare minimum, and let me explore it for myself.

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This.

A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami -

“I guess I felt attached to my weakness. My pain and suffering too. Summer light, the smell of a breeze, the sound of cicadas - if I like these things, why should I apologize?”
― Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase

“There are symbolic dreams-- dreams that symbolize some reality. Then there are symbolic realities -- realities that symbolize a dream. Symbols are what you might call the honorary town councillors of the worm universe. In the worm universe, there is nothing unusual about a dairy cow seeking a pair of pliers. A cow is bound to get her pliers sometime. It has nothing to do with me.”
― Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase

“It is cognition that is the fantasy.... Everything I tell you now is mere words. Arrange them and rearrange them as I might, I will never be able to explain to you the form of Will... My explanation would only show the correlation between myself and that Will by means of a correlation on the verbal level. The negation of cognition thus correlates to the negation of language. For when those two pillars of Western humanism, individual cognition and evolutionary continuity, lose their meaning, language loses meaning. Existence ceases for the individuum as we know it, and all becomes chaos. You cease to be a unique entity unto yourself, but exist simply as chaos. And not just the chaos that is you; your chaos is also my chaos. To wit, existence is communication, and communication, existence.”
― Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase

I've read you shouldn't start out with the weather, but James Lee Burke's novels set in Louisiana use it to good effect in setting a mood and location. I'd say it depends on a lot of things, including the eye of the beholder. Done with skill, anything goes. All types of writing has been published, hopefully always will. "Just write" may be a cliche' but there's truth in it.

I mentioned Michael Ondaatje in another thread, so I'll vote for him here too. Outstanding, poetic novelist with a strong sense of language.

I think I might have an obsession with Meg Rosoff. But I really do think her writing is the most beautiful thing. Honestly there is lots of it, lots of examples out there but, I just love direct - potent - non-fancy but never-the-less full of detail imagery that just.. gets you right in the heart