Indefinable.

Poetry is whatever you want it to be. A poem can rhyme, but it doesn't have to. It can be broken up into lines or it can be in paragraphs. Poetry can be about anything or any subject matter. So, what makes something a poem? The author's intent has a lot to do with it. Poetry is an art form and therefore can come in any size, shape, or style imaginable. It can have any meter or verse. It can be conventional or shatter the mold of what we think a poem should be. It is truly impossible to define what a poem is; but Webster's dictionary makes a valiant attempt: "A piece of writing that usually has figurative language and that is written in separate lines that often have a repeated rhythm and sometimes rhyme." Even this official definition is very vague. It uses words like "often" and "sometimes" to try to cover as many bases as possible while still leaving wiggle room. There are no rules as to who can write poetry or what it can mean to a reader. That is why I think it is ridiculous to have multiple choice questions based on poetry that deal with meaning or interpretation. If I do not interpret the poem the same way as the person that wrote the question, I have no chance to get that question right. You cannot force such an art form into such a rigid mold.