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I added this essay to my website for
the simple reason that I like it! Every so often I write
something that represents who I am, and what I would like to be.
This essay is one of those pieces.
It was
written in March 2003.
Copyright 2003 by
Benjamin Boulden |
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In the
dictionary poetry is defined as, "a composition in verse." (Mish
898) With this broad definition we are given no real direction or meaning
of the complexity and relationship poetry has to humanity. There is no
mention of the powerful images and emotions that poetry captures, and that
we can come back to time and again. There is no mention of the beauty, the
rage, the hate, or the love that poetry portrays, and there is certainly
no mention of the link between poetry and humanity.
It is a logical
question to ask then: What purpose does poetry serve for humanity?
Poetry has been a
part of the human experience "since human beings discovered pleasure
in language." (Meyer 674) It is noted by scholars that the earliest
rituals performed by man, even before there was a written language, were
poetic in form – such as chants, simple songs and even rhythmic dance.
These ancient cultures "expressed [with poetry] what people regarded
as significant and memorable in their lives." (Meyer 674) They told
the tales of great courage, savage storms, formidable enemies and terrible
sorrow, or in other words they used poetry to chronicle the history of
their people, and themselves.
It is commonly
believed that poetry is of little regard to our modern society, and it is
true that very few people actively seek out poetry from books, or
magazines, but we are awash in the rhythms and sounds of poetry with
modern music, advertising jingles and greeting cards. It is debatable
whether these forms can be considered good poetry, but they are,
none-the-less poetry, and they are used for many of the same functions the
ancients used poetry – they express our fears, our desires and our hope.
There is no easy
answer, or answers, to the basic question of what poetry is for, but
instead there is a web that links our plight as humans to the way we use
and express ourselves with language. Poetry is the vehicle we use to build
a model of human emotion through "vivid images, rhythmic patterns and
pleasing sounds. . ." (Meyer 674) We attach ourselves to the feeling,
the flow, and allow our senses to be overwhelmed with the power and
strength of humanity through language. A language that is structured,
rhythmic, and drenched with emotion, beauty, and joy, as well as the
ugliness of being human.
We can see
ourselves in the sorrowful lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s song Streets
of Philadelphia, "I was bruised and battered and I couldn’t
tell / What I felt / I was unrecognizable to myself" (Meyer 695) and
understand that we have a relationship and a connection to all of
humanity. It is not necessary to have experienced the images of the poem
to recognize the isolation and fear that is portrayed and felt by
everyone. We often feel isolated from others, but poetry allows us to
share, with language, our common bond. It allows us to feel the anger, the
hurt, the love, the passions, and the dreams of others, and in so doing we
gain an understanding of our culture, our world, and most importantly
ourselves.
If we look closely,
we can find meaning in all poetry. Who cannot relate to the idea of
failure and renewal as portrayed by Rudyard Kipling in his poem, If,
"If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken / Twisted by
knaves to make traps for fools / Or watch the things you gave your life
to, broken, / And stoop down and build’em up with worn-out tools:"
(Meyer 698) How many times have we failed, and been forced to look upon
the wreckage of what was, or what could have been, and simply started
again.
It does not matter
if we have never experienced the anguish, or triumph trumpeted by a poem,
because there is something larger about language that allows us to connect
with the underlying current of human emotion. It is not required that one
have a meaningful and complete understanding of depression to understand
the angst, terror and anger that Sylvia Plath portrays in her poem, Daddy.
"There’s a stake in your fat black heart / And the villagers never
liked you. / They are dancing and stamping on you. / They always knew
it was you / Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through." (Meyer 1179)
The diction, the
rhythm and perhaps more importantly the images that this poem generate
have a surreal emotional power that allows us to gain an understanding,
even if it is pale in comparison to what the author felt or intended, of a
feeling that we have all felt to lessening degrees, and in so doing make
ourselves better, and stronger with the knowledge that we are not alone.
We are all separate, yet we are connected one to another as living,
breathing human beings.
Our fears, our
joys, our victories and our defeats have all happened before, to others,
and they will happen again and again. The overriding theme of poetry must
be: This is what it is to be human.
It seems that much
of poetry is devoted to the suffering of humankind, and there is a popular
notion that life is suffering, but there is so much more. There is the
beauty of an autumn day, as Keats so aptly captured in To Autumn,
"While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, / And touch the
stubble-plains with rosy hue;" (Harmon 13) or his elegant, dreamy
verse about the beauty of the Nightingale’s song from Ode to a
Nightingale, "Now more than ever seems rich to die, / To cease
upon the midnight with no pain, / While thou art pouring forth thy soul
abroad / In such an ecstacy!" (Harmon 53) The words seem to capture
the very essence of beauty and joy, and they remind us that there is more
than the daily drudgery of toil and hardship. The words speak to us at
some primary level and even if our understanding is not clear, their
beauty echoes and catches hold of us like a mother with her child.
Poetry is the
language of lovers. Its power is real, yet it is borrowed from our own
emotions. We use it to describe the delight and joys of sexual love, and
the short time we have to enjoy and live, as in Robert Herrick’s To
the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, "Gather ye rose-buds while ye
may, / Old Time is still a-flying; / And this same flower that smiles
today, / Tomorrow will be dying." (Meyer 726)
It also has the
ability to go beyond the simplicity of sexual love, and furrow deeper into
the emotions of the more platonic love of a lasting relationship. The
words capture the tenderness, the caring and the gratitude of the human
spirit. Pablo Neruda wrote The Queen to his long-time wife, Matilde
Urrutia. "I have named you queen. / There are taller ones than you,
taller. / There are purer ones than you, purer. / There are lovelier than
you, lovelier. / But you are the queen." (Neruda 5)
The force of love
and acceptance echo in the words, and they capture the beauty of the human
spirit. The ideals are wonderful, and the reason they resonate is the
desire we all have to secure a level of acceptance and love within our own
lives.
The use of poetry
in our lives and our society is crucial. It helps bind us together in a
fashion of understanding, and peaks our self-awareness. It reminds us of
our past, our future, of our love, and our hate. It compiles a record of
who we are, and what we wish to be.
Poetry is humanity,
and humanity is poetry.
*
* *
Works Cited
Harmon, William. The Top 100 Poems. New York: Columbia
University Press 1990.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 6th
ed. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s Press 2002.
Mish, Frederick C. Collegiate Dictionary. 10th Ed.
Merriam-Webster 1998.
Neruda, Pablo. The Captain’s Verses. Trans. Donald S. Walsch.
New York: New Directions Books 1972. |
