What is Poetry? A Continuum of Consistent Renewal

Looking back at the first assignment I completed for Intro to Lit, I noticed that my answer to the question    "what is poetry?" has not fundamentally changed. 


I still believe that 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. 
And that the poem can be a snapshot into the poet's reality, allowing the reader to experience the sensations and emotions the poet wanted to convey through the words and imagery provided. 


I still see poetry as closely related to any form of art, and like any work of art, a poem can be interpreted distinctively by the individuals reading it -  but at the auditory nature of poetry in its rhythm and musicality, allow for it to be shared same time the poet's or artist's world is shared harmoniously by the collective audience.


Looking back at the first assignment I completed for Intro to Lit, I noticed that my answer to the question    "what is poetry?" has not fundamentally changed. I still believe that 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; and that the poem can be a snapshot into the poet's reality, allowing the reader to experience the sensations and emotions the poet wanted to convey through the words and imagery provided. I still see poetry as closely related to any form of art, and like any work of art, a poem can be interpreted distinctively by the individuals reading it - but the auditory nature of poetry in its rhythm and musicality, allow for it to be shared same time the poet's or artist's world is shared harmoniously by the collective audience.

Although the foundation of my definition of poetry has not changed over the course of Intro to Lit, I have gained and added a great deal more knowledge and insight about poetry in several different ways. Through the study and imitation of Whitman and Dickinson, I was able to gain an understanding not only about what makes these particular poets' work great, but what influenced their work, and how their work has affected and influenced many great poets since has helped me to see the importance of the context of poetry as well. 

Looking at the work of different poets in "Against Forgetting" continued to help me realize the importance looking at poetry in context. I have realized that poetry is not just born of individuals alone, and is not only a product of political systems. Carolyn Forche, in her introduction to the book, shows a third way to view poetry: the social realm, in which our social lives are made up of individual choices and beliefs as well as products of choices determined by political powers that we might not be aware of. This is the essence of the poetry of witness. By situating poetry in the social space of conscious resistance and struggle against forces outside the individual, we may be able to transcend some of our preconceived prejudices and limitations (31). Reading and listening to different poets' work in "Against Forgetting" helped me to begin to understand that poetry is far more complex than I had originally perceived it to be. I feel like I have only just grazed the surface of how deep the nuances of poetry can go. In my research of the Eastern Bloc, Poland, and Wislawa Szymborska during the "Against Forgetting" project, I found how the poetic voice and medium can be extremely powerful as both a product of and a reaction to the social realm.

I found that Szymborska's poetry is quite tangibly influenced by both Nazi atrocities, and Soviet governance. Looking at her biography and career, I discovered that her work and ideology move from starting out as being heavily influenced by socialism and"socialist realism" (a realistic style of art developed by the Soviet Union), but she ended up becoming distrustful of the ideology. Despite this change however, the poet continued to have a a deep element of humanitarianism in her work.

In researching scholarly journals to find more background on the poet's country and political context, I learned that Polish and European post-war poetry often seeks to refute both individualist subjectivity and vague ideas in the objective collective. This is especially the case with Szymborska, who brings the collective poetical element brings into light a specific element of poetry: that the mutual act of remembering is united with a responsibility also to forget. But this is not not the malignant form of forgetting which undermines or discounts the individual; to “move on” or continue without hereditary guilt as an act of forgiveness innate to healing of the individual life within social organism is much of what Szymborska’s “forward-looking clear-minded” work is based upon (Tapscott 43,44). This notion of individual life existing within a larger social organism as linked to a mutual act of remembering and responsibility to forget is an element that I found to be an essential addition to my definition of poetry.

The individual poetry project gave me a chance to experience the work of Denise Levertov through her collection "Life in the Forest," and this helped me learn how to look at individual poems as connected within a larger sections within a book. I also learned a little bit about different groups and movements of poetry, and although I still don't know much about the specific movements, this added nuances to my definition of poetry.  The spiritual and mystical elements of the poet's work showed me a whole new realm of possibilities for how poetry can be defined - with the ability to transcend definite barriers. I had chosen the poem “I’m Happiest When Most Away” as my favorite at the beginning of the course because it shows the poet's desire to transcend the barriers of the body and the Earth -

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.

-Emily Bronte

This poem showed me the beauty of seeking an escape from the material confines of the world and the flesh through the beauty and simplicity of language. The structure is fairly traditional, written in iambic tetrameter with only two quatrains, but its simplicity allows for a very definite feeling of transcendence.

I found Levertov’s poetry in “Life in the Forest” to be very rich and diverse, and the structure of the sections and the thematic elements of the poems throughout showed me the poet’s ability to transcend the confines of individual reality, but remain within the very tangible expression of the mysteries of human experience.
           
In the first poem of “Life in the Forest” entitled “Human Being,” the poet confronts the existential reality of suffering and joy in stark but beautiful images of nature and life while simultaneously combining and transcending the physical realities of the Earth and the flesh:
           

Human being – walking

                In doubt from childhood on: walking

                a ledge of slippery stone in the world’s woods
                deep-layered with wet leaves – rich or sad: on one
                side of the path, ecstasy, on the other
                dull grief                     Walking

                the mind’s imperial cities, roofed-over alleys,
                                                              thoroughfares, wide boulevards
                that hold evening primrose of sky in steady calipers.

                Always the mind
                walking, working, stopping sometimes to kneel
                in awe of beauty, sometimes leaping, filled with the energy
                of delight, but never able to pass
                the brick that crumbles and is replaced of twisted iron,
                of rock,
                the wall that speaks, saying monotonously:

                                Children and animals
                                                                          Who cannot learn
                                anything from suffering,
                                suffer, are tortured, die
                                in incomprehension

                This human being, each night nevertheless
                Summoning – with a breath blown at a flame,
                                                                                                                or hand’s touch
                on the lamp-switch – darkness,
                                                                                 silently utters,
                impelled as if by a need to cup the palms
                and drink from a river,
                                                                the words, ‘Thanks.
                Thanks for this day, a day of my life.’
                                                                                                And wonders.
                Pulls up the blankets, looking
                into nowhere, always in doubt.
            And takes strange
                in having repeated once more the childish formula,
                a pleasure in what is seemly.
                And drifts to sleep, downstream
                on murmuring currents of doubt and praise,
                the wall shadowy, that tomorrow
                will cast its own familiar, chill, clear-cut shadow
                into the day’s brilliance. 

               - Denise Levertov


This poem is one of my favorites because though similar to Bronte’s “I’m Happiest When Most Away” in its mystical and spiritual elements, it shows a way of embracing both the joyous and painful parts of life through a beautiful poetic voice and vision.

One of the most valuable things I learned from the class came from Peter Fallon’s visit. He answered the question of which of his poems was hardest to write, responding with his realization after writing poems for many years that he has had to constantly reinvent both his poems and the concept of what it means to be a poet, as well. I felt that this was extremely significant to the implications of my own definition of poetry as both a concrete model and a constantly changing and growing organic entity.

 Fallon said in response to a question on the nature of lyric poetry, that not everything has to be autobiographical - and that while life experiences are at the root of his poetry, and all poetry for that matter, the shaping of language and composing a poem out of a specific experience takes patience, diligence, and commitment. I think this idea is exactly what Denise Levertov had in mind when she wrote and compiled the poems for “Life in the Forest.”
Fallon also spoke about the nature of poetry as containing a certain mystery - the mystery of meaning. He implied that the most important element of writing poems for him has been the question of whether or not he 'trusts' the poem. "If I trust the poem that is all that matters to me" he said. The poem as a matter of trust is one of the most practical and insightful things I have heard and will keep it in mind in both reading and the writing of poetry in the future. Fallon also  talked about the combination of the mystery element with a very ordinary routine and comfort in the writing of poems, and after having read “Life in the Forest” and learning about Denise Levertov, I felt that both poets must have had a similar perspective and ability to combine the stability of routine with the thrill of the unknown. 

Poetry is where the poet can truly be his or her self, to filter and absorb an experience through the shaping of language, to find a certain mysterious balance. Poetry is the multitudes of the soul coming out through the beauty of focused language, contained within a specific form and structure, through which the reader or listeners are able to connect with the poem to find a sense of engagement, in the arena of the benign.