What makes poetry?

I have read lots of poems during this class and each was different from each other, but if there is any chance to define what poetry is I would define it as the one full of rhythm and having specific intention from the author of writing the poem. These two distinctive features of poetry could be seen on London by William Blake and The Raven by Edgar Ellen Poe that we dealt from our class.

The first feature which can be noticed exclusively on poetry is that it includes rhythm and if spoken, it sounds like a lyric of a song. I think, from my own perspective, this is the most salient part of, especially, American poetry. A significant number of Korean poems have no such rhythmic sound compared to American. Poems dealt during class usually had the similar format; the last word of lines in each stanza ends with similar sound; for example in London, the last words from each line in the first stanza are “street – flow - meet – woe” so the simplified version would be “a-b-a-b”. It lets poetry run with the flow and have readers feel like as if listening to music. In addition to London, The Raven also has its distinctive flow. The last words of each line in first stanza are “weary – lore – tapping – door – door – more,” which can be substituted into “a-b-c-b-b-b”. More interesting things which can be found in this poem are that first of all, fourth and fifth lines of each stanza are the exact same word, and the second, the last lines of each stanza always end with “– more.” For instance, the fourth and fifth lines of first stanza are both “door,” and “Lenore” in the second stanza. The sixth line of the first stanza is “nothing more” while the second is “evermore,” and as it proceeds, “Nevermore.” It has an effect of having a rhythm as if singing a song and therefore aesthetically beautiful to listen to the poem.

On the other hand, generally Korean poems relatively lack cadence compared to American. There are many poems which are rhythmic, indeed, but the way to make it so is quite different. One common way to make poetry sound like a song is to use liquid consonants such as “-ng, -r-, -l-.” It sounds as if the poem is flowing up and down like river flowing. Let me give a poem named Chungsanpyulgok(청산별곡) written around 10th to 14th century as an example.

“우러라 우러라 새여 자고 니러 우러라 새여

널라와 시름 한 나도 자고 니러 우리노라

얄리 얄리 얄라셩 얄라리 얄라” (quoted in anonymous)

The third line of this poem has no meaning at all but is just a group of meaningless words. It exists only to make the poem rhythmic when spoken. The consonant “ㅇ” and “ㄹ” are liquid consonants which are pronounced similarly as alphabet “r” or “l”. Therefore, the anonymous writer would have used such words intentionally to be heard like a song. This is one example of poems written long ago that has cadence, but most of the modern poets do not use special techniques to make their poems rhythmic and tend to be less engaged in formality.

Furthermore, there is specific purpose of writing poems, which I believe is one of components of poetry. London by William Blake, for example, is written to tell the shadow of the Industrial Revolution. It was written in 1794 when the Industrial Revolution was actively going along in the United Kingdom. While the domestic economy has skyrocketed, there were serious side effects on the other hand. It can be seen in “every Infant’s cry of fear,” “mind-forged manacles,” “the Chimney-sweeper’s cry” and so on. By writing this poem, William Black would have wanted to share the pain of common people. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe also has its own written purpose. It is not same as London in that it does not reflect the reality or society, but has fictitious storyline. Mill has once commented that the true poetry is “in the form of fictitious narratives” (2). London tells the story about “I” losing his lover and being lamented and is proceeded with a dialogue between “I” and the raven, even though the raven seems not saying a word but only “Nevermore.” In addition to its “a-b-c-b-b-b” format, the content of the poem makes it look like a fiction or story that has its own rhythm so that it can be seen as a song.

Most poems fit into the definition of poetry – to be rhythmic and to have its story or aim for readers. However, This Is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams seems to be exception of the definition. First of all, last words of each line do not make similar or same sounds but totally different. To analyze the format, words each line of the first stanza are “eaten – plums – in – icebox” which would be substituted into “a–b–c–d”. This poem consists of just several sentences which are divided into 3 stanzas like an ordinary poem does, but actually does not serve as a lyric of song. Also, the content of this poem is only just a memo from the author to his wife. While his wife went out, he had eaten plums that were in the icebox and left the sticky note for her. This one sentence is the whole content of the poem and nothing more. It does not imply any other meanings, has no social impacts, or has no story in it. What Williams did was just to capture the trivial moment of his real life to write the poem. However, as it is analyzed thoroughly, it can be felt like a song. The words itself do not make it rhythmic, but the lines and stanzas function that way. The reader has to read it with pauses between lines and the pauses create rhythm. Not only that, while the content seems too trivial to be a poem, it is possible to extend the readers’ imagination and to draw their own stories. In this way the poem could have fictitious storylines.

From these two poems – London by William Blake and The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe – poetry could be defined as having its own cadence and intention. It is undoubtable that there are lots of poems which do not fit into these characteristics, such as This Is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams, but those poems are also somewhat rhythmic and has its own aesthetic value from the content. To sum up, almost every poem, even some look quite different from existing poems at first glance, consists of these two basic properties.

#poetry #London #Raven #WilliamBlake #EdgarAllanPoe #WilliamCarlosWilliams