What is Poetry? (revised)

Poetry has evolved with language as civilization has developed and changed throughout time, making it as unique and diverse as the writer's own experiences, sensations and emotions. The poem can be a snapshot into the poet's reality of intimate thoughts and feelings. The reader often feels that he or she is experiencing and feeling the emotions of the poet in the expressions and imagery provided. As with any work of art, a poem can be interpreted distinctively by the individuals reading it, but at the same time the poet's world is shared harmoniously with the audience. In contrast to other literary styles, poetry is more auditory in its rhythm and musicality. The poet is often able to speak a language that surpasses the literal, to create pictures that transcend the two-dimensional words on the page. Poetry has the freedom of the figurative, allowing the reader insight into visceral and vivid realities.
Emily Bronte's poem, "I'm Happiest When Most Away," contains a definite meter and rhyme scheme, but in this structure the reader is given a glimpse of a brilliant vision. The meter of the poem leads the reader along through Bronte's rich imagery. A look at the technical aspect of the meter would be shown thus:

U I'm

/ hap

U pi

/ est

U when

/ most

U a

/ way

U I

U can

/ bear

U my

/ soul

U from

U its

/ home

U of

/ clay

U On

U a

/ win

U dy

/ night

U when

U the

/ moon

U is

/ bright

U And

U the

/ eye

U can

/ wan

U der

U through

/ worlds

U of

/ light—

U When

/ I

U am

/ not

U and

/ none

U be

/ side—

U Nor

/ earth

U nor

/ sea

U nor

/ cloud

U less

/ sky—

U But

/ on

U ly

/ spi

U rit

/ wan

U dering

/ wide

U Through

/ in

U fin

/ ite

U im

/ mens

U it

/ y.

<http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/scripts/meter_ex_check.pl>

The parallel rhymes provide musical clarity and a delicate flow like that of a dream. Bronte rhymes the ends of the lines using assonance: away - clay, bright - light, beside - sky, and the final rhyme is different enough (wide and immensity) to allow the reader to come out of the dream at the same time as allowing him to envision the immensity depicted. The reader finds a juxtaposition of earthly and ethereal images in the poem that denotes the poet's desire for an escape into an immense other-worldly ideal. Bronte speaks of bearing her soul from its home of clay. This image of clay could be an allegory for her body - soft, supple, moldable, allowing for a smooth spectral transformation to another plane. This image could even be a reference to a biblical passage in which humans are created by God from clay. Job 33:6 states: "I am just like you before God; I too have been taken from clay." The poet's vision is drawn to the night sky, with the moon giving rise to other mysterious realms. In this case, the moon in the night sky is an allegory for the mysterious realms she desires to attain. The poet writes:

 "On a windy night when the moon is bright / And the eye can wander through worlds of light-"
presenting a revelation of clandestine yet intense portraiture. Bronte transports the reader beyond even the moon in the cloudless sky and the sea below. The reader is unhindered by nothing but his or her imagination to envision the symbolism of the soul's exploration of the unbounded universe.
This poem conveys immense sensation and feeling even in two brief stanzas. The reader is given insight into Emily Bronte's fantastic dream and passion for mystery. Imagination and creativity can be cosmic in poetry, as the poet pours out elaborate fantasy with the use of imagery, symbolism, allegory and connotation, that could fill volumes of prose. In "I'm Happiest When Most Away," the reader is inspired to use his own mind's eye to release his soul, and soar beyond earth and sea and cloudless sky to the infinite immensity beyond.

I'm Happiest When Most Away

by

Emily Brontë

I'm happiest when most away
I can bear my soul from its home of clay
On a windy night when the moon is bright
And the eye can wander through worlds of light—

When I am not and none beside—
Nor earth nor sea nor cloudless sky—
But only spirit wandering wide
Through infinite immensity.


<http://markandrewholmes.com/imhappiest.html>