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26 August 2005: In discussing form, I said that every artwork has it, since every artwork must have some kind of shape. I forgot to mention a minor point, that there are two kinds of form. The first is one that is repeated in more than three or four artworks of the same kind--poems, so far as this discussion is concerned--and has, usually, been named. Sonnet-form or haiku-form, would be two obvious examples. I call these forms "classiformular." They are what most people mean by form.
The other is the kind that is particular to one artwork only. Generally, when successful, it arises out of that artwork naturally, or "organically." In any case, I call it "idioformular."
Classiformular poems' shapes are much more richly referential than those of idioformular poems since they will remind knowledgeable aesthgagers (aesthetic engagers) of poetry of a tradition a given classiformular poem partakes of. The down side of classiformularity is that it increases a poem's predictability. It also makes prevents the creation poems of all kinds of valuable innovative poems. Ergo, there's a place for both kinds of form in poetry.
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