Attempting to define poetry is similar to catching a flowing stream of water in a jar. One can hold the water, but it becomes just water. The water loses all of its motion, that which makes it a stream. When one focuses only on rules and definitions on poetry, this expressive art loses its freedom to be. However, by examining how poetry is used, one can formulate an idea of what poetry is. For me, poetry is a tool. It is used by the writer as a medium for contemplation with an inner struggle, as a mural to evoke a response from the audience, and as a resource created by someone for use by another person.
One of my classmates shared a poem that was written as an open letter to the author’s parents. That is a perfect example of how an author used poetry as a tool to deal with an inner issue. Poetry brings these emotion or intellectual struggles to the surface where they can be dealt with. In Akdamut, Meir Nehora uses hyperbole in his poem to express how vast and secure God’s love is(Silverman). For many who have inner struggles of some fashion the cut and dried format of an essay does not provide a means of finding solace, but the free structure of a poem frees those individuals from the confines of textual oppression. However, the particular style of a structured poem can provide some writers with a framework to which they can mold their ideas.
Poetry also functions much like a painting does: to evoke some response from the audience. As is exampled by many poems featured in “Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century of Poetry of Witness," poetry is used as a form of witness to the injustices committed against humanity. There Was Earth Inside Them, and they Dug by Paul Celan uses repetition of the the word ‘dug’ and ‘dig’ to awaken a sense of mechanization of the body and mind overpowering humanity in people who were forced into labor during World War II(Celan 382). On the other end of the emotional spectrum, The Love of God deals with a positive emotional response; it pours contentment and peace into the soul of the reader.
Depending on the subject, style, and context of a poem, a poem can be actively used. Poems exist beyond the intellectual and emotional realms. They can elicit a response in the consciousness of an individual that manifests itself in a physical change. A man during the late 1800s was incarcerated in and insane asylum. During a time when mental illness was misunderstood, the treatment of the patients was less than humane. After the aforementioned individual died, his room was inspected, which revealed the poem The Love of God inscribed on a wall(Maynard). It is assumed that the man, during spouts of sanity, clung to this verse as a cornerstone of God’s love to help him deal with his present condition. It provided him with comfort in his greatest time of need.Then, in 1917, Fredrick M. Lehman, a Nazarene pastor, penned two accompanying verses and created the well known hymn “The Love of God”. This hymn continues to bless many with its message of the vastness and limitlessness of God’s love.
Poetry exists as more than words on a page, but to define it is to place rules on it, which limits the freedom of the poet and poem to express their messages. This freedom from textual imprisonment allows the author to delve into his or her inner issues and come to some type of physical conclusion that exists in the form of words on a page. Also, the freedom of a poem allows it to grasp at the soul of an individual and to elicit some form of response. Lastly, poetry does more than intellectual and emotional feats; it can be used, which makes it a most valuable form of art.
Works Cited
Celan, Paul. "Poems of Paul Celan."
Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness. Carolyn Forche. New York/ London, 1993. Print.
Maynard, Brother. "Mightier than the Sword."
Subversive Influence. 14 Sept. 2005. Web. 31 Aug 2011.
<http://subversiveinfluence.com/2005/09/mightier-than-the-sword/>.
Osbeck, Kenneth. "The Love of God."
A Hymn and its History. Web. 31 Aug 2011.
<http://www.hymnalaccompanist.com/Story/The%20Love%20of %20God.html>.
Silverman, Morris. "Akdamut - Translated from the Aramaic and Source of the hymn: "O Love of God"." Light to Israel and All Peoples Web. 31 Aug 2011.
<http://www.edhaor.org/Akdamut.html>.
"The Love of God." Cyber Hymnal. Web. 31 Aug 2011.
<http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/o/loveofgo.htm>.
The Poem "The Love of God" and the hymn playing in the background can be found here:http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/o/loveofgo.htm
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