I do understand that studying the analytics can kill enthusiasm for poetry. That's the 'music theory' of poetry: if you're a poet, it really helps to know all that stuff, but a reader of poetry doesn't necessarily need to have it all. I do teach some of the underlying 'theory' when I teach poetry in the Intro To Creative Writing classes and the Intro to Lit classes, but hopefully there's enough 'play' along with it. It is something I continue to worry about as a teacher.
I do use music (including rap -- though I usually use Blackalicious -- with the contention that lyrics are poetry. Poetry, to me, is a form that almost demands 'sound': being read aloud, or being put to music.
I find poetry essential for various purposes, including:
* expressing ideas for which English does not have words. * making people think. * stirring emotions. * dumping unwanted emotions to get rid of them. * intellectual entertainment.
I tend to think of poetry as a liqueur, a distillation of language down to its essence (though the metaphor isn't entirely accurate, since liqueurs often have flavorings added..). I don't call myself a poet even though I've written and published a few poems over the years, but I do enjoy reading good poetry.
Like you, I don't much consider myself to be 'good' at poetry despite occasionally writing a piece. My heart is really in fiction. But I do enjoy and appreciate poetry.
Depending on one's definition of poetry, I agree that it can enhance one's intellectual development. Can poetry make us better people? Possibly (although someone will probably name a famous Nazi who read poetry). Can poetry make us more interesting? Probably, again, depending on one's definition of poetry.
A distinction should be made between prose broken into lines (as well as lines written to rhyme with the previous line) and poetry. The latter usually takes more out of the reader because it expects more imagination on the readers part. A not-so-pretty analogy would be to compare a straight-forward sentence to one that circumlocutes, talks around its subject. This allows leaps (Robert Bly), wisdom (Frost), and/or spiritual connections (Parini). In fact, some poetry specifically utilizes the line to draw connections between things that cannot exist in prose. The style and sensuality in poetry is often heightened to create lived-in moments: The words in a poem beg for readers to linger, touch the furniture, relax in the easy chair--perhaps due to the words' wisdom or perhaps their texture or taste.
Now it's been long debated whether a poem ought to have wisdom orlanguage, but it's a false dichotomy. You can have both. Without both, in my estimation, a poem becomes dull and not worth revisiting, which is the opposite of what they should be doing: "Hey, big boy, take a second look at my apartment." The more you look the more the character of the apartment comes to life.
I'd argue that nearly any creative outlet can enhance intellectual development and make us more interesting as people.
One of the things I do in my Intro To Lit class is take Frost's poem "Mending Wall" and give it to the students in its normal form as a poem, and also as a piece of prose, set in paragraphs and dialog, and ask them which they prefer, and why. They seem to invariably prefer the prose version -- I suspect because they read prose regularly, but no poetry.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
I do use music (including rap -- though I usually use Blackalicious -- with the contention that lyrics are poetry. Poetry, to me, is a form that almost demands 'sound': being read aloud, or being put to music.
From:
no subject
More than electrons or ink
When pointed and brief
From:
no subject
From:
Thoughts
* expressing ideas for which English does not have words.
* making people think.
* stirring emotions.
* dumping unwanted emotions to get rid of them.
* intellectual entertainment.
From:
Re: Thoughts
From:
Re: Thoughts
http://www.irosf.com/q/zine/article/10426
You have to be logged in to read the articles, but they have free subscription options.
From:
Re: Thoughts
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
A distinction should be made between prose broken into lines (as well as lines written to rhyme with the previous line) and poetry. The latter usually takes more out of the reader because it expects more imagination on the readers part. A not-so-pretty analogy would be to compare a straight-forward sentence to one that circumlocutes, talks around its subject. This allows leaps (Robert Bly), wisdom (Frost), and/or spiritual connections (Parini). In fact, some poetry specifically utilizes the line to draw connections between things that cannot exist in prose. The style and sensuality in poetry is often heightened to create lived-in moments: The words in a poem beg for readers to linger, touch the furniture, relax in the easy chair--perhaps due to the words' wisdom or perhaps their texture or taste.
Now it's been long debated whether a poem ought to have wisdom orlanguage, but it's a false dichotomy. You can have both. Without both, in my estimation, a poem becomes dull and not worth revisiting, which is the opposite of what they should be doing: "Hey, big boy, take a second look at my apartment." The more you look the more the character of the apartment comes to life.
From:
no subject
One of the things I do in my Intro To Lit class is take Frost's poem "Mending Wall" and give it to the students in its normal form as a poem, and also as a piece of prose, set in paragraphs and dialog, and ask them which they prefer, and why. They seem to invariably prefer the prose version -- I suspect because they read prose regularly, but no poetry.
From:
no subject
Poetry is difficult--and scary. I remember seeing the words broken up and feeling at a loss as to how to go about reading it.