What is poetry? Is it worthwhile?

Feb 13 00:50 UTC 2006

This is *not* a poem; this is (hopefully) the start of a discussion.

What is poetry? And is it even worthwhile?

Some quotations from two novels by one of my favorite authors to start the
discussion:

From _The Curse of Chalion_ by Lois McMaster Bujold:
"'Oh, it is a great infection of poetry, a contagion of hymns. The gods delight
in poets, you know. Songs and poetry, being of the same stuff as souls, can
cross into their world almost unimpeded. Stone carvers, now ... even the gods
are in awe of stone carvers.' He squinted in the sun and grinned back at Palli.
        'Nevertheless,' murmured Palli dryly, 'one feels that your quatrain
yesterday morning to Lady Betriz's nose was a tactical mistake.'
        'I was _not_ making fun of her!' Cazaril protested indignantly
....
        Palli snorted, and bent forward to pick up the paper from the top of
the pile, the only one so far with writing on it. He glanced down it, and his
brows rose. 'What's this? This isn't about ladies' noses.' His face sobered;
his gaze ttraveled back to the top of the page, and down omce more. 'In fact,
I'm not just sure what it's about. Although it makes the hairs stand up on the
backs of my arms...'
        'Oh, that. It's nothing, I fear. I was trying--but it
wasn't'--Cazaril's hands waved helplessly, and came back to touch his brow--'it
wasn't what I saw.' He added in explanation, 'I thought in poery the words
might bear more freight, exist on both sides of the wall between the worlds, as
people do. So far I'm just creating waste paper, fit only for lighting a fire.'
....
Palli shook his head in wonder. 'And so now you leak poetry. Huh.'
....
'Poetry--poetry might do it,' said Cazaril. 'I need wods that mean more than
they mean, words not just with height and width, but depth and weight and other
dimensions that I cannot even name.'"

From _A Civil Campaign_, by the same author:
"So, how to approach her? _No more poetry, methinks. I was not born under a
rhyming planet._ Judging from yesterday's efforts, which he had prudently
removed from the wastebasket and burned this morning along with all the other
awkward drafts, any verse flowing from his pen was likely to be ghastly. Worse:
if by some chance he managed something good, she'd likely want more, and then
where would he be? He pictured Ekaerin, in some future incarnation, crying
angrily _You're not the poet I married!_ No more false pretences. Scam just
wouldn't do for the long haul."

Again, the questions for discussion (i.e., set drift=on) are:

What is poetry? And is it even worthwhile?

response 2 of 4:

Apr 19 17:37 UTC 2007

This might be just my opinion or my style, but here goes...

Poetry is an expression that works to relate an idea or experience 
beyond just the functional aspects of language.

For example, I can tell you that "I'm hungry," and it's a straight-
forward statement, telling you directly and without embellishment my 
present state.  Embellishing upon this "one dimensional" statement 
through poetry may give the reader a better or more detailed 
understanding of the state, severity or cause of my hunger.  (It's fair 
to note that this embellishment technique can sometimes go very well or 
very poorly; like all art, sometimes too much fluff can ruin the lines 
of a piece.)

Inversely, poetry can use a singular, stark statement that appeals to 
one sensation in order to drive home the idea being communicated in the 
poem.  A simple statement such as "I'm hungry" can be powerful in the 
right context -- it can be used to evoke the reader's idea of hunger 
and make the poem more personal to the reader, or it can be used as a 
pivotal point inside the larger idea being expressed in the poem.

Expression, versus communication - poetry is capable of communicating 
in linear, daily-life terms an idea, but reaches a step beyond that to 
express and evoke response.  Much art is like that, and many people 
would probably say that that's the function of art, to evoke.

response 4 of 4:

Apr 19 23:51 UTC 2007

Well put, all.

Since February I have had spent some more time thinking about this, including
writing an essay to submit to the Calvin literary journal that in its original
form touched on the topic. (That part was subsequently cut, to make the essay
-- ostensibly about literary filters and the role of convention -- much more to
the point.) In that part of the essay I quoted a website about reading Latin
aloud <http://tutor.bestlatin.net/about/meter_reading.htm> which says in
passing something I very much like: "Poetry, however, is special, because _all
poetry is meant to be read out loud._ When poets create poetry, they apply all
their inspiration and imagination to the words of the poem. The work on those
words, choosing the best word order, playing with the style, all in order to
produce _pleasure_ -- pleasure for the person who reads the poem out loud, and
pleasure for the people who listen to that reading."

Continue discussing ...