This thread has gotten so long, and I didn't get into it from the beginning, so I'm just going to post my opinion on the main topic without reading everything that's been said.
I really think that it's rhythm that sets poetry apart from prose. How regular or definable those rhythms should be is debatable, of course. In prose, the stresses are all related to the meaning, whereas in poetry, the rhythms have a purpose all their own (to please the ear). Prose tends to be spread out, with fewer stresses per line. If, for example, I were to scan the sentence I just wrote, it would look something like this:
PROSE tends to be spread OUT, with FEWer rhythms per LINE.
In poetry, however, the stresses are more frequent and rhythmical:
prose TENDS to BE spread OUT, with FEW er RHYTH ms per LINE.
Note that the "poetic" scansion of that line results in a shift in stress from "prose" to "tends", so that the rhythm is affecting the meaning. Such a thing never happens in prose.
It is because rhythm is so important in poetry that I despise the prosaic "plain" style that has become so prevalent.
[This message has been edited by Caleb Murdock (edited August 12, 2001).]
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