What is Poetry

What is PoetryCONTENTS Introduction (1)Chapter One Literary review (1)Chapter Two Poetry—A derivation of disillusion (3)Chapter Three Poetry—Poets’ emotional expression (5)Chapter Four Poetry—A device of inspiration (7)Conclusion (8)Bibliography (9)摘要本文就广义上的诗的概念，从历史上名家的各种不同观点入手，运用很多例证侧重在主体意蕴方面作了文本分析，并结合自身的理解对其进行了进一步的阐述和展开。

关键词幻想破灭情感激励Abstract<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><!--[endif]-->As to the definition of poetry, there’re numerous different arguments. According to var ious ideas of famous writers and poets, author of this article gives textual analysis and evidences as to the definition of poetry, and made a further presentation from an original point of view.Key words: disillusion emotion inspirationIntroductionWordsworth once had said: “People who did not wear fine clothes but could feel deeply.” This was the subject of many poems in which he judged as true humanity, a quality found in every station in life. Poem helps readers to understand and interpret life. When we see through the eyes of a good poet we can make sense of our experiences, understand our world more fully and see more possibilities for living in it. Through it we can contact with the essential truths of human existence. As to the definition of poetry, there're numerous different arguments. Even the most famous writers and poets, their opinions are various, sometimes widely divergent, even opposite. I just choose several important figures. Let's have a look at what brilliant expositions they have before we form our own opinions.Chapter One Literary review“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”.---William Wordsworth“If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that ispoetry;”--- Emily Dickinson“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.”--- Dylan ThomasPoetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.---T.S. EliotHe beginneth not with obscure definitions, which must blur the margin with interpretations, and load the memory with doubtfulness, but he cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the sweet enchanting skill of music; and with a tale forsooth he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner. And, pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue"--- Sir Philip Sidney “Defense of Poesy”“metrical composition; the art or practice of writing poems”---Samuel Johnson“An art, which “brings the whole soul of man into activity.”---Coleridge“emotion put into measure”---Thomas Hardy“What is poetry? The suggestion by the imaginations, of noble grounds for the noble emotions.”---John Ruskin “ Lectures on Art”(1870)"Poetry is to hold judgment on your soul."- Henrik IbsenIt may become a problem when you first read these lines, for all these expressions are reasonable. No wonder that Samuel Johnson expressed the most accurate definition. Mr. Hardy also displayed his concise style. Eliot and Sidney, their concepts were beyond my understanding. Among these ideas, I found I more agreed with Wordsworth, Dickinson, Dylan Thomas, Coleridge and Ruskin.Chapter Two Poetry—A derivation of disillusionYou'll find that Dickinson had a pessimistic view of poetry. “it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me” suggested that she saw dreadful scene by read ing a poem. Some poems are really very gloomy, frustrated or desperate. In our textbook, you'll find "Aubade" by louis Maeneice: Aubade"Having bitten on life like a sharp appleOr, playing it like a fish, been happy,Having felt with fingers that the sky is blue,What have we after that to look forward to?Not the twilight of the gods but a precise dawnOf sallow and grey bricks, and newsboys crying war.Its literary comments said, " Here is an expression of how the best of human desires for beauty is often frustrated by reality: instead of an eternal skyblueness and divine twilight, we discover a dull, gray reality of buildings and news of human conflict. The expression of the contrast is sharp." After a night of love, dawn brought them fearful things. People couldn't help feeling despair if morning brings horror.There're many poems of this kind, such as Marge Pieray's "Barbie Doll"; Etheridge Knight's "Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane"; William Blake's "London" and Diane Wakoski's "The Photos". All these poems were dismal and pessimistic, illustrating speaker's desperation. At certain times, poems were a derivation of poet's disillusion.From this perspective, poem must be a vivid record of the time. They keep down with events and lives of their times. In the past the poet has often been the spokesman of his society. Sometimes, because of political reasons, poets couldn't explicitly declare their attitudes, so they used lots of rhetorical approaches, which at the same time added the charm of the poems. That is, the art of using simple words to represent other meanings. Every good poem cries out the voices of the time and the people. Following was a poem of this kind:Robert Frost Us. 1946 King's XHaving invented a new HolocaustAnd been the first with it to win a war,How they make haste to cry with fingers crossed,King's X--no fairs to use it any more!This poem was very short, but its four lines vividly expressed the child's fear of war. It was written not long after American exploded two atomic bombs on Japan and showed us the effect of this nuclear war: spread-out pessimism and hatred of war. It revealed another strongpoint of poem. In order to talk about same theme, literary masters such as Hemingway had to write a novel with several chapters, whereas poets used only four condensed lines. Similar type your can find Richard Armour's "Hiding Place" in which was the same kind of children's fear towards war. Without being considered their attitudes towards certain historical events, poets sometimes record "a particular moment or event". Except for wars, poets try to describe various themes, like materialism and money worship in W. D. Snodgrass' "Here in the scuffled Dust". W. H. Auden's "The unknown Citizen" depicted government's aspiration of everyone being a tamed standard citizen. Langston Hough's "Harlem" portrayed the black's disillusion of getting equal civil rights in America. William Blake's "The Garden of Love" showed the church and central government's actual indifference to ordinary people and did nothing of help and salvation as expected in their roles. Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid” gave us a clear picture of a modern prostitute and her thought and feeling. Jonathan Swift’s “A Description of the Morning” told us how lords maltreated their servants and common people’s miserable lives. All these served as examples of poet’s keen observation of social life.Chapter Three Poetry—Poets’ emotional expressionIf poem is just a record of time, poets will be doing the same jobs as reporters. However, poems also have other features. Since they’re written by poets, they more or less carried poets’ emotions like Wordsworth’s statement. Poems of this kind were numerous, inc luding very famous ones. Among these love was a usual theme. “Western Wind” written by an anonymous poet in 15th century vividly depicted a wife’s long for her husband to return, proving that this tradition dated back to very ancient time. Critics said, “This is only the expression of the emotion itself.”Looking at Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How do I love thee?” everyone will be moved from the beginning line till the end:“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,I love thee to the depth and breath and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sight… …… …I shall but love thee better after death.”This directly uttered the speaker’s love to his spouse or lover, and was really a typical example for one to follow when he wants to say some words to his sweetheart. “It suggests a wide range of things that love can mean and notices a variety of emotions.” In this book there’re many good similar poems. Jarold Ramsay’s “The Tally Stick” used an ordinary object the coupled have operated together for many years to indirectly depict their love. This object might seem less romantic, but more real and touching. “Both poems are powerful statements of feelings, each in its own way”. Shakespeare’s “Let me Not to the Marriage of True Minds” emphasized the impor tance of the unity of tow minds beyond body contacting. He refined the connotation of love, elevating it to a higher level. Claude Mckay’s “America” expressed the speaker’s love of his motherland. There’re also poems for memorizing and missing of their pas t beloved, such as Howard Nemerov’s “The Vacuum”; Dorothy Livesay’s “Green Rain” and Wordsworth’s “She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways”. Sometimes, poems don’t always like Ruskin’s “noble grounds for the noble emotions”, they could also transfer negative feelings. For example, Robert Browning’s “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” vividly pictured the speaker’s intense hatred towards a fellow monk.Chapter Four Poetry—A device of inspirationPoems are not only for appreciation and entertainments, it also have practical significances. As we all know, a poem can be read differently by different person and aims. People tend to use certain poems to inspire and encourage themselves. It’s “an art which brings the whole man into activity” and “the suggestion by the imaginations, of noble grounds for the noble emotions.” Take Yvor Winter’s “At the San Francisco Airport” as an example.“This is the terminal: the lightGives perfect vision, false and hard… ….… …And I remain in light and stare—In light, and no thing else, awake.”In its literal sense, it was the departing scene of father and daughter. It’s the father’s monologue when he saw her daughter off. However, this poem can be dig out deeper significance. The father was sending his daughter to fly to the unknown future. At his point his feelings were mixed. He was worried about her, but at the same time he must perform his responsibility to urge her to seek her life by her own. Readers will get resonance at this point. Everyone must at a certain time break from the protection of his family and have to face his difficulties. We all have to solve problems by ourselves when we get mature. This poem made readers thinking deeper.This kind of positive function can also be seen in John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”; Lucille Cifton’s “Daddy”, Sylvia Plaths’s “Point Shirley”, Donald Justice’s “Here in Katmandu” and many other.ConclusionAs stated before, although poem is a literary form, it has social significances as good novel and prose. It can be interpreted in its literal sense. In another word, we can just read it loudly and recite it to get its beauty. That’s the aesthetic appreciation. However, we can also use it as a weapon, a device or a lamp to lead us in our lives.Although this article is trying to find out what poem is, at the beginning of this searching process the result is definite. Poetry can not be limited into any fixed extent. Each definition is reasonable, but each is not complete. It’s also difficult to say we fully have it if we put all t he definition s into one. Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people.Poem’s a special genre of literature, for all their meanings were buried in economical lines. It was its condensed lines that founded poem’s forever-lasting charms. Therefore, good poems demand good readers. Sometimes a poem is really difficult when you read it the first time. It requires readers to read and read, until its implications gradually disclosed. Readers must be patient. Once you understand it, you’ll really suck the honey.BIBIOGRAPHYStrachen, John, and Richard Terry, Poetry, Edinburgh:Edinburgh University Press, 2000. Thompson, Denys, The Use of Poetry, Cambridge: Cambridge Up, 1978.。