What is Poetry? a la Shmoop. Easy question, right?
Poetry is an ancient, antiquated form of art, like pottery-making or cave painting, that
holds no place in our modern world, unless it comes to us in the form of a radio jingle.
You wish. Like it or not, poetry is here to stay.
While there may not be too many millionaire poets living on your block…
…the art of poetry is just as important today as ever, and it can help us reflect
and learn more about ourselves and our place in the universe.
… slightly more valuable than a freshly baked clay pot.
So why is there such a stigma attached to poetry?
Why do we picture stuffy old folks in leather armchairs, puffing away on their pipes and
speaking in a faux British accent?
Honestly… because it can sometimes be difficult to understand.
We just assume it’s for the cultural elite.
So not true. Yeah, interpreting poetry can be tough. But
for those who put in the work to decipher a poem’s hidden meanings, the rewards can
be great.
Not like… winning the lottery great. But still… it can lead to some important self-discovery.
But why do poems have to read like they’ve been written in some sort of secret code?
Do we need a decoder ring to crack these things?
Is the CIA hard at work attempting to get to the bottom of Pablo Neruda’s poems?
This “secret code” is what makes poetry… poetry.
Straightforward speech… that’s for novels and short stories.
Poetry experiments, not only with ideas relating to the human experience, but with language itself.
Because it is free from many of the usual restrictions of style and grammar…
…it can sometimes allow us to stumble on certain ways of thinking we might otherwise never have considered.
You’ll notice that many poems are jam-packed with figurative language,
which can be used to convey meaning.
For example, you’re thinking right now about how much jam can be packed into a jar. Yeah.
Poetry is just like that.
Again, the frequent use of metaphor and simile help the reader draw unfamiliar connections…
…that will occasionally inspire little “eureka” moments.
But it’s not just the content that sets poetry apart.
There are stylistic elements, such as repetition… repetition… repetition…
…rhyme, and meter…
…that make a poem feel different than prose.
And it makes no bones about being its own animal.
“Iamb what I am.” When poetry got its start, it was nothing
more than part of the oral tradition…
…words and phrases in metered form that were passed from one person to another via memorization.
Those rhythms and meters helped folks remember the words…
…and by the time poems were written down, the art form had just kind of adopted these techniques.
Which explains why poems often seem sing-songy.
Don’t hesitate to bust out a little Walt Whitman at your next karaoke party.
Because poetry is so much about inventiveness, it can sometimes be tough to pin down just
what a poem is.
Notes on the fridge, grocery lists, pop music…
All are arguably forms of poetry. Although some are clearly more artful than others.
Even if your mom can put together quite a catchy shopping list.
But while poetry is a bit all over the map…
…there are certain types that pop up often enough that we had to devise a name for them.
Sonnets are romantic poems with a ton of meaning and not too many lines…
Villanelles are nineteen line poems with a rigid rhyming scheme…
Limericks are light verses that often feature a comical twist at the end.
“There once was a man from Madrid, Who sautéed his oldest boy, Sid
He threw in some spice And claimed it was nice
To be putting in thyme with his kid.” And then there’s plain old free verse…
…no rules or restrictions, just words on a page, in whatever order and length that
the poet feels is necessary.
In that case, it’s all about letting the subject matter be your guide.
So while you may feel that poetry isn’t your cup of tea…
…we urge you to give it a chance.
It’s not all flowery language and structured verses…
…although even some of that flowery language might open your eyes a little wider and teach
you something new about the world…
…or… flowers.