Definition of Poetry

Poetry can be considered as a writing of feelings or even ideas that could leave a specific impression or emotions to its reader through its meaning; so to speak from the formal definition of poetry according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. It comes with a diverse kind of length, sound or rhythm, thus contains distinct tones and meaning from each other. Different cultures in this world would have different kind of perspective in deciding which poems is a true art or not. Poems could not only inflict specific feelings to the reader, but also could give moral life lessons and even light entertainment.

Most of the poems that we read in class are emotionally-inflicting poems such as “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, in which the poem basically about a man who was mourning over the loss of his lover named Lenore- and slowly turns into a mad man as he talks to a talking raven; this is one of the interpretations that we came up with in class. The tone of this poem is heavy, dark, madness, sorrow and despair and it is proven by observing that the writer uses words that associated to dark and supernatural tone such as devil, prophet, death, and also the existence of the talking raven in the poem; the act of ‘talking’ itself is illogical to the reality. The poem also presents situations that can be related with the meaning of madness especially the repetition of word “Nevermore” and the confusion of the man, who is presuming the talking raven as a prophet or devil. Thus, any reader, either those who have deep knowledge in poetry or not, would experience some sort of gothic and dark sensation going on in their mind by reading the poem. However, from another perspective, this poem does not have any significant meaning behind it, and perhaps it is just a fantasy story by Edgar. Certainly, the reader would feel the creepiness from it based on its structure, tone, and meanings but there are nothing more than that.

Poetry could also contain important moral life lessons behind its written words, from which the reader could implement the appropriate values and lessons in their lives. This could also be the same case as some of the novels or short stories that exist out there. One example for such poetry is “London” by William Blake. The poem has four stanza and each stanza contains four line, and it is perceived that it is indeed significantly shorter than “The Raven”. While “The Raven” express the writer’s purpose in a form of fantasy story, the “London” is completely opposite from that and based on its written words, it is about an observation on the city of London; though both poems have same dark, gothic tone in a way that the writer included words that are associated with dark scene. The focus of our point in this poem is in its last stanza, “But most thro’ midnight streets I hear / How the youthful Harlots curse / Blasts the new-born Infants tear / And blights with plagues the marriage hearse/” (Blake). As morality suggests in our life, a newborn should be handled with utmost loving care as they are the most fragile human being at the time. However, in this poem, it seems that the prostitutes were corrupted to the point where they would do inhumane things to their baby and of course, it is terrible to know that this thing happens. The writer also suggests that Harlots could affect marriage in a bad way since he uses the “plague” words, which means the Harlots bring disease to the marriage. How the Harlots affect them? Well, through both themselves and the husbands. They, themselves, could bring deadly disease such as HIVs and AIDS, while the husbands could also become like them, corrupted, thus terminating existing house hold. Based on that light interpretation, any reader could take a life lesson from it. Either to a man, whom will learn to restrain himself not to indulge in pleasure inappropriately as he enters the world of marriage, or to a woman, whom will restrain herself in the same way as the man.

Another type of poem is the poem that could act as light entertainment to the reader. By light entertainment, it means in a sense of humor and comedy. An example for this is “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams. This poem is unbelievably short, yet it entertains the readers with its simple and direct language. While “The Raven” has more than 5 words in a line and it uses a lot of complex words, the poem by William Carlos unquestionably contradicts both “The Raven” and “London”. It only uses up to three words per line and each stanza only contains four lines, and it is perfect for audiences that demand a more casual and light-type of poem. At first, it looked nothing like a poem, but rather a refrigerator note perhaps. Even each line does not rhyme with each other. But since it was written by Williams Carlos Williams, it was considered as one of his masterpiece (Shmoop Editorial Team). “I have eaten / the plums / that were in / the icebox” (William). From these lines of the poem, readers will start to assume that it looks exactly like a note from someone who accidentally ate the fruit that we left in the refrigerator. For a reader who has very little experience with poetry, he might be laughing to the fact that he did not expect that there are such short and casual poem in the world of poetry. However, since William himself is the holder of the Imagism-type of poetry, it is no surprise to us that the poem consists of simple and common words (Poets).

All in all, poetry is not just any normal texts written by a writer and does not have any purpose behind, though some of it could only be considered as a fantasy story. Poetry could have influences on people such as giving them a life lesson and light entertainment. There are indeed numerous of other poetry that have such influences other than the included poems in above paragraphs. Readers should indulge themselves in the world of poetry in order search for the poems that suit the reader’s taste, a poem that tells a fantasy story, life lesson, or even historic fact.

Blake, William. "London." ed. Kelly J. Mays. 772.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Raven." ed. Kelly J. Mays. 838-841.

Mays, Kelly J., ed. The Norton Introduction to Literature Shorter Eleventh Edition. The University of Iowa Custom Ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.

Williams, Williams Carlos. "This Is Just To Say." ed. Kelly J. Mays. 797.

#WilliamCarlosWilliams #WilliamBlake #EdgarAllanPoe #poetry