what is poetry?
There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry;" and Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."
Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people. Homer's epic, The Odyssey, described the wanderings of the adventurer, Odysseus, and has been called the greatest story ever told. During the English Renaissance, dramatic poets like John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, and, of course, Shakespeare gave us enough to fill textbooks, lecture halls, and universities. Poems from the romantic period include Goethe's Faust (1808), Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn."
Perhaps the characteristic most central to the definition of poetry is its unwillingness to be defined, labeled, or nailed down. But let's not let that stop us, shall we? It's about time someone wrestled poetry to the ground and slapped a sign on its back reading, "I'm poetry. Kick me here."
Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it's a paint-spattered canvas - but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you...I believe we can render an accessible definition of poetry by simply looking at its form and its purpose:
One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words to a page. Carefully selecting words for conciseness and clarity is standard, even for writers of prose, but poets go well beyond this, considering a word's emotive qualities, its musical value, its spacing, and yes, even its spacial relationship to the page. The poet, through innovation in both word choice and form, seemingly rends significance from thin air.
from contemporary literary expert Mark Flanagan.
Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people. Homer's epic, The Odyssey, described the wanderings of the adventurer, Odysseus, and has been called the greatest story ever told. During the English Renaissance, dramatic poets like John Milton, Christopher Marlowe, and, of course, Shakespeare gave us enough to fill textbooks, lecture halls, and universities. Poems from the romantic period include Goethe's Faust (1808), Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn."
Perhaps the characteristic most central to the definition of poetry is its unwillingness to be defined, labeled, or nailed down. But let's not let that stop us, shall we? It's about time someone wrestled poetry to the ground and slapped a sign on its back reading, "I'm poetry. Kick me here."
Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it's a paint-spattered canvas - but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you...I believe we can render an accessible definition of poetry by simply looking at its form and its purpose:
One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words to a page. Carefully selecting words for conciseness and clarity is standard, even for writers of prose, but poets go well beyond this, considering a word's emotive qualities, its musical value, its spacing, and yes, even its spacial relationship to the page. The poet, through innovation in both word choice and form, seemingly rends significance from thin air.
from contemporary literary expert Mark Flanagan.
Interpretation of Poetry
Poems can be complex open to many different interpretations. Your interpretation is as good as anyone else's - as long as you can back it up with evidence from the text. Avoid just analyzing parts of the text such as symbols and metaphors, but look at the poem on the whole.
....from thin air
understanding poetry
Can we rate poetry? Can a score be given to feelings, pain, joy, suffering?
When rating pain, do you think everyone feel the same pain?
why do you people write poetry?
poetry and feelings...sending a message
Think about every poem that you read and ask yourself: "What message the author sending ?" Think about every song you listened to: "What message is the author sending?"
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What is the author trying to say? What does the wagon wheel represent? Why is he traveling through the song/video? To do what? What does he mean by "Mama, rock me"?
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A poem can have layers and different meanings to different people. This song is often played at weddings to signify the love of the newly married couple, but it is actually written from the perspective of a stalker.
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What are the things that the author describes? The bad things? What is his reaction to the bad things? Does the music give away the tone of the poem/song? Does this represent mindfulness? In the moment?
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How about a Barbaric WALP!
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File Type: | mp4 |