What is Poetry? (Essay)

Poetry is the language of the soul. It expresses everything from the everyday trifles to the profound wonders of the universe. Poetry can be visual as well as emotional or even comical. The possibilities are truly limitless— anything that a poet writes about is valuable because it stems from their poet’s soul. When a poet writes from the soul, they are writing organically and allowing the thoughts, ideas, and emotions flow out through language. When that language is written, with stylistic or artistic choices, it transcends to poetry.

Poetry should be written, read, and shared. While prose can conventionally be comprehended in one reading, poetry requires more diligence. Poetry requires reading and rereading. It should be read out loud and read silently. Every word is selected with precision, and every word is worthy of analysis. There is so much to unpack from a poem. What time period did the poet write this poem? Why is the title of the poem significant? What is the meaning of the poem? What is the poem’s figurative language? Why did the poet select a certain word? What does the word mean? The questions are infinite. Some of these questions may never be answered. Some poems are written by anonymous poets; therefore, we will never know who to accredit the poem to. While some poems are so complex that we don’t understand it’s true meaning, but we can appreciate the poet’s language. However, out of all the questions, answerable and unanswerable, the most important question is the reader’s interpretation of the poem. In Susan Holbrook’s brook, How to Read (And Write About) Poetry, “how [the reader] responds to the tensions and music and images and themes of a poem will constitute the heart of any analysis” (7). The poet is expressive of language while the reader is receptive to the language. What is shared between the poet and the reader is an intimate conversation. However, the poet will understand their work differently than the reader. The poet’s perspective goes into their production while the reader’s perspective goes into their interpretation. For instance, the poet may write a poem about a bird as a metaphor for their beautiful sister. However, the reader may interpret that poem as a feminist work that symbolizes freedom from the patriarchy. Just because there are different interpretations of a poem, doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Everyone has their own set of experiences; therefore, everyone reads a poem in light of their experiences. The writing and reading of poetry is a subjective experience that is not limited to any one view. No one single interpretation will be the same because we are not entirely the same. That is what makes poetry so extraordinary. It is a shared intimacy that is reserved for the writer and the poem or the reader and the poem. Sometimes this intimacy cannot be translated into words, it is just something that the poem evokes in the writer or reader.

Poetry celebrates the depths and complexities of language. According to the Romantic poet, William Wordsworth, he discusses in his “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” that poetry is an experiment of subjects that “can interest the human mind” (1). When subjects are of interest, they are relatable or meaningful to the poet and reader. That is the secret to poetry as the soul’s language, it’s meaning-making. Wordsworth also asserts that poetry is experimental because of the possibilities that language and form offers the poet. From meter, to rhythm, to rhyme, a poet has the power over these stylistic decisions.

The language that is used in a poem is important; however, the presentation of the language itself is even more important to the production of poetry. Wordsworth proposes that poetry is the selection of common language with “a certain colouring of the imagination” in which “ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way” (2). In other words, poetry should be thought-provoking. The reader should read a poem and meditate on the language of the common man in a new light. When the common language is presented to the reader in a new or unusual way, the reader is deepening their appreciation of language and its meaning. Language is elevated through the artistic translation of poetry. The production of poetry itself engages the imagination because the act of writing is stemmed from the creation of thoughts and ideas. The poem would not exist if thoughts and ideas were absent in the production. Wordsworth suggests that the formula to poetry is common language and the imagination.

Defining what poetry is and how it should be written is quite debatable, even Wordsworth himself contradicts his own claims. He asserts that the production of poetry comes from “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (3). However, Wordsworth also believes that in order to produce a poem, it must be “thought long and deeply” upon (3). How can poetry stem from spontaneous thought while it also stems from long and deep thinking? Well, perhaps it’s both. Poetry may flow out of the poet organically or it may be reflected upon thoughtfully. The poem can come to the poet as naturally as breathing or the poem can come to the poem through the challenge of the mind and its higher-level thinking. It is also important to note that Wordsworth defines the production of poetry as an “overflow of powerful feelings” (3). This suggests that emotion should be central to the poem. What compels a poet to write about their subject is the feelings that come from within, the feelings that are worthy of expression.

On the other hand, the Modernist poet, Audre Lorde, the production of poetry is driven by experience. In her essay, “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” she claims that poetry is the “distillation of experience from which true poetry springs births thought as dream births concept, as feeling births idea, as knowledge births (precedes) understanding” (Lorde 1). In other words poetry is the translation of experience into art. The poet engages in self-reflection by identifying a real experience and writing about it in the light of the new revelations that language reveals. In a way, poetry, according to Lorde, is an artistic form of journaling. Through voicing experiences, there is a sense of validation in the poet’s experiences. The production of poetry itself is therapeutic through the power of expression upon real events.

Through Lorde’s perspective a Black, female poet, poetry is a vital form of expression. The language is raw, real, and vulnerable. What is expressed through poetry is true to the poet and their experiences. While Wordsworth claims that poetry is a product of the imagination, Lorde claims that poetry is a product of the poet’s reality. She believes that poetry is “vital to [a Black woman’s] existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action” (Lorde 2). Poetry takes on the role of a necessity rather than a hobby. It is also important to note that Lorde addresses poetry as vital to Black women specifically. Lorde herself knows the need for having a voice. The voices of Black women in particular are often absent from the media, school curriculum, and other narratives. However, poetry is an invitation of expression. Hopes and dreams and lived experiences can be transcribed onto the paper. Poetry is vital for the survival of Black women because their voices are valuable and deserve to be written and heard.

From Romantic poetry to Modernist poetry, there has been a transition in the intended audience. For instance, Wordsworth suggested that poetry is the presentation of language that can be “found in every subject which can interest the human mind” (1). It is significant that Wordsworth uses the term “every” because it claims that poetry is the language of the universal experience. Poetry is something that appeals to everyone and ties to the existence of being human. Wordsworth’s intended audience is anyone and everyone. He uses the everyday language of the common man to appeal to a widespread audience. However, Lorde does not make the generalization that poetry is a universal experience that is inclusive towards all. In Lorde’s own poetry, her intended audience is Black women. She writes from the perspective of the “Black mother within each of us – the poet – [who] whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free” (2). Lorde writes from her perspective as a Black woman for the audience of Black women. She encourages Black women to follow their intuition and also write poetry, as poetry is the gateway to freeing the unheard voices. Lorde also does not make the assumption that her experiences and poetry are a part of the universal experience. Her intended audience is specific because she knows that not everyone can relate to her poetry. In other words, Lorde is critiquing the poetry that aims to encapsulate the universal experience. Amongst all of our differences, how can a poem capture the truth of humanity? How can a poem relate to all readers when they do not have the same experiences as the poet? The idea of the universal experience is a faulty assumption that degrades the complexity of humanity to a cookie-cutter walk of life.

So what is poetry? Poetry is a personalized experience. Poetry is whatever the writer or reader makes of it. In other words, whatever poetry means to you is what is true.

Sources:

Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” (1977).

Holbrook, Susan. How to Read (And Write About) Poetry. Broadview Press, 2015.

William Wordsworth, “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” (1802).