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Poetic license is when writers or poets take liberties with facts to enhance their creation. It is most common in fiction, but can also be found in biographies and autobiographies. It can involve changes to grammar, word order, and content. It can be esteemed or criticized depending on the nature of the distortion and personal opinion.
Poetic license occurs when a writer or poet takes liberties with facts to enhance their creation. Poetic license can occur in all forms of literature and poetry, however, it is considered bad form for non-fiction work, which is supposed to tell the truth. For this reason it is most commonly found in works of fiction, but can also be found in biographies and autobiographies.
The idea of poetic license refers to a metaphorical license from a higher authority to distort the facts present in a story. It insinuates that higher authority, be it art or literature, allowed the little lie to enhance the story/poetry. This term is also called artistic license, which refers only to art. In dramas and comedies, this can also be called dramatic license.
Some argue that taking license with grammar can count as poetic license. This means making small changes to what a person says or how something is described to improve the flow of the story or poem. An example is Julius Caesar’s “veni, vidi, vici” or “I came, I saw, and I conquered,” which William Shakespeare made more poetic by removing the grammatically correct “e.” Another example transformed René Descartes’ “I am thinking, therefore I exist” into “I think, therefore I am”.
Poetic license can also rearrange the order of words. A common example of this is the movement of an adjective from before the noun to after it. For example, transforming “she gave her a red rose” into “she gave her a red rose”. This can be done to look more artistic, to change the emphasis of a word, or to help the rhyme scheme.
A broader form of poetic license is fact-shifting. This brings him closer to artistic and dramatic license. Rather than changing the form, the poet or writer changes the content. Some of these can be used as symbols. For example, the black rose is symbolic of death and evil, but it is poetic license because they do not exist except in some workshops.
Concrete changes in poems might make small changes to times, events, and places so that the poem or story works better. Perhaps a poem about New York could bring the landmarks closer together. A poem about a historical figure like Richard the Lionheart might make him meet Saladdin in person, when in fact they never met.
Poetic license may be esteemed by some and criticized by others. This depends on the job, the nature of the distortion and, very often, politics. This is often a matter of personal opinion on the part of the reader/listener.
