The definition of poetry

Lovers of poetry have been searching for an accurate definition of it for at least two thousand years. The ideal definition would be short. It would enable us to know a real poem when we hear it, and help us understand the power and long life of great poetry. But the search for this definition has not yielded a single description or formula to satisfy all admirers of this various art. Like most things human, poetry will not be reduced, tagged, or made to sit in one corner for very long. And there are as many ways to account for its power as there are poets.

W. H. Auden's description of poetry as "memorable speech" applies to most poetry but also to many things that are not poetry, such as advertising jingles. Matthew Arnold called poetry a "criticism of life," a characterization that is certainly true of his own poetry and discounts advertising jingles, but that is not a useful description of limericks or of nonsense poems such as Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky." William Wordsworth believed that poetry was "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," a dramatic but broad definition, and Robert Frost viewed it as that property of speech that is "untranslatable."

All these poets would agree, however, that poetry is markedly different from the prose of legal contracts, encyclopedias, or newspapers. Poetry is more intense than other writing—more intense with feeling, and more intense in its concen­tration of meaning. Poetry is the true language of emotion. We have all had the experience of joy, love, or sadness so great that no matter how urgently we need to express it, words fail us. The birth of a child, the return of a friend after long absence, the death of a parent: these events can leave us speechless. At such times we might wish we were poets. For poetry succeeds where ordinary speech fails to communicate those urgent and subtle feelings that are most essentially human. That is why poetry is the most enduring form of literature.

By saying that poetry is the language of emotion, we do not mean to suggest that poetry does not engage our thoughts and ideas. Poets may praise the theories of relativity and economics as well as the colors of the sunset. Like Hamlet, they may pose an abstract question: "To be, or not to be, that is the question." But if the writer does not communicate the emotion of discovering thought, we are not likely to find poetry in that writer's work.

Ezra Pound said that "literature is news that stays news." He must have had poetry in mind, for great poetry is eternally fresh. The poet writes what is most important in a given moment, and writes with such intensity and clarity that years later the verse can still seem important to a reader. How does a poet do this? Suiting the words and the rhythm of language perfectly to the experience, the poet says it so that we cannot imagine it being said any better.

How to start analyzing poetry?

Before tackling any poem a reader should give himself time to reread it several times. We can do no more than read carefully. Then ask yourself the following questions:

ü Who is speaking?

ü To whom is he or she speaking?

ü What has made the speaker talk?

We can do no more than read carefully. Do not ask questions for unnecessary information. The poet gives us exactly as much as it is necessary. Where the poem is silent, we must be silent too.

The Persona or the Speaker and the Poet

Keep in mind that the Persona or the Speaker should never be confused with the Poet. Even in poems in which the speaker is not clearly distinguished from the author, it is often useful to think of the speaker as a fictional character. Nevertheless, the poet can have various relationships to the persona of a poem. Sometimes the speaker is not a poet, but a fictional character. However, there are poems in which the speaker is unquestionably the poet. Biographical information may be useful for appreciating such poems. At still other times the speaker does not even appear as a character in the poem. Whatever relationship the poet adopts to the speaker, we should listen closely to the speaker’s words and base our assumption on the text of the poem and context of the speaker.

The Title

The title of the poem is often crucial to out understanding of it. Titles are always important and should not be overlooked.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14