This is a very engaging exchange!
Quote:kipling
[Yondo]...has been called a Prose poem, and isn't one.
I can easily see it as sort of straddling the prose poem/short story category, if push comes shove. Let's see...I'd like to personally work thru what constitutes a prose poem independently, just from my own limited exposure to them and what I perceive sets them aprat from a short story or other such short prose.
A prose poem won't introduce, then develop, a character. It may use a character as sort of narrative vehicle, to provide a POV, maybe, but it seems unlikely that the character will develop or change.
There should be minimal plot. This is because plot, itself, is the device to develop character, or to show evolution of a dynamic of some sort. If you have plot, you'll have change, and prose poems seem to me to be more in the nature of a vivid snapshot, and not a linear film clip.
You mention "...the phonetic patterns and rhythms sublimating the narrative content," and I certainly can see this as an important element, but would like to slightly diverge. I have never actually read passages and "heard" the phonetics, although I can detect a sort of rhythm, sometimes. But what is very much more common for me is to *see* the imagery described, and this is where CAS excels. Coleridge, too.
In fact, I'd tend to call this attribute "cinemagraphic" in that if this was presented as a screenplay, it would make visual sense to me. And this *visual* component is, to me, one of the definitive traits of a prose poem. So that it's possible for me to imagine a short story that is not very visual (this is easy because many SSs are not visual, to me at least), but I'd have trouble imagining a prose poem that is not visual.
So, to get back your response, you mention that you'd hesitate to label Sadastor as a prose poem, and having just re-read it I can see the structural narrative similarity to Yondo: you have a sort of a framing device whereby the bulk of the of description--which is the artistic payload--is preceded by a bit of plot. In Yondo, the POV has offended some vengeful priests who after torturing him, seem to release him at the edge of Yondo, which is described as he moves thru it. Then, he flees back to the priests.
There's also a sort of plot in Sadastor, where a demon tells a sort of travelogue to a lamia ("a demon and a lamia walk into a bar..."), the point of this narrative is that as bad as you think you have it, I know of worse. But the actual payload is, as you say, the description of the demon's travels and activities.
But then I look at The Forbidden Forest, which is to be found listed among CAS's prose poetry, and it too, shares the device of a plot, like Yondo and Sadastor, and is structurally and descriptively very similar. In fact, the main difference I detect is simply length.
Can it be that the defining feature of a prose poem, and what differentiates it from highly descriptive short stories like Sadastor, is length?
--Sawfish
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~