A Dance Between Expression and Form

Trying to place a definition on poetry is much like trying to catch someone in a race who always seems to stay one step ahead of you. Right when you think you have the runner pinned down, he shoots beyond your grasp. Poetry is the same. Every time I think I have a concrete definition, I see some new poem or hear another’s perspective that opens a whole new array of possible definitions. At the beginning of the year I thought that poetry was a form of written expression that just did not fit into any other category. At this moment in time, however, I believe that poetry is type of expression that balances form and and creativity in such a way that it connects with the reader and works for the writer.

Coming into this class I had all of the presuppositions of an advanced placement English student. I thought poetry was the form of art that deals with the lofty imagery that says a lot about everything and even more about nothing in specific. In other words, poetry was not for me. However, the semester that I have spent in this class has taken my view of poetry and molded it into a entirely different perspective. I now appreciate poetry.

The way that a poet uses every word, line, period, comma, dash, rhyme, and rhythm is important in poetry. Each poem uses these structures and embellishments in a different way to accomplish the goal of the poet. Emily Dickinson is known for her interesting way of using punctuation. Dickinson often ends lines of poetry with a long dash, which often indicates a pause. Dickinson also used hymn meter in her poems paired with slant rhymes and other variable inflections unique to her style, to give an almost mysterious song like feel to her poems. Other poets rely on different types of form to meet their objective. Walt Whitman used long lined poems of free verse to describe the American way of life in the mid 1800s. As Dickinson and Whitman show, form is important to the overall function of their work, but their work is not defined by this form. I think of form as the backbone from which a poem is built. For example, when we had to write sonnets, I thought that the form would be limiting, but I found that the form helped my to organize my thoughts in a more powerful and emotive way. Form and structure, when balanced with emotion and expression, make a poem more expressive. 

Poetry draws on emotion and expression to compliment form and to connect with the reader. I consider a poet a good poet when I can feel what they are describing. Primo Levi wrote about his time in Auschwitz in his poem “Buna.” He described the way that his time transformed him from a once proud, ambitious adult to the world-weary, and emotional scarred man. By his sensual description of the camp and its conditions, I could imagine myself trudging through the mud through which he trudged. Brian Turner, in his book Here, Bullet, described the atrocities of the Iraq war and his experience there through vivid imagery. Turner’s poem “2000 lbs.” describes the event of a car bomb through the perspectives of seven different people present at the explosion. Each perspective provides a different raw emotion, ranging from longing of a lover to the nervousness of detonating a bomb. Turner makes the reader feel all of these. 

The use of emotion in poetry is not hindered by form, it is enhanced by it. According to Mary Oliver’s book The Rules of the Dance, line length is directly proportional to the amount of breath needed to speak that line, and depending on that amount the reader feels something different. If the line is short, the breath is short and concise, thus the poem moves quickly. However, if the line is long to the point of expending the last gasp of breath, the reader basks in that line, taking in everything that it has to offer. Rhyme provides a connection between lines, stanzas, or poems depending on how it is used. 

Peter Fallon called poetry a composition, and I completely agree. A poet must work at a poem until it conveys exactly what he or she desires. Not only does a poem need to express what the writer wants, it must also evoke a response from the audience. Carolyn Forche created an anthology of the poetry of witness in her book Against Forgetting. Her introduction to the text tells of the struggles of the poets against violence in the past one hundred years, and how many of them died during their respective struggles. The poets featured in her anthology successfully convey their situations through their poetry. They constructed their thoughts into a form that is both accessible and relatable to readers. 

I also define poetry by what it does for the poet. Kate’s individual poetry project author, Anne Sexton, was prescribed poetry by her doctor to help deal with her depression. It successful kept her from suicide for fifteens some years, but eventually her mental illness was too overpowering.  After taking this class, I see how poetry can be a prescription. For example, after listening to the convocation about the Invisible Children in Africa, I was filled with concern for humanity’s role in social justice, so I wrote a poem to sort my thoughts:

Shame

Shame is knowing

through action

or not-

the bodies we're reaping

I modeled this poem after Emily Dickinson’s style of writing definitions in short, concise poems. It helped me to express my feelings on how our actions, are always affecting others, even when we do not realize it. 

Poetry goes beyond the poet to function in the world by filling the social space. Poets have used poetry to raise awareness for social issues, to pinpoint the atrocities of humanity, and even to bring readers into their plights. The book Against Forgetting is filled with poetry of witness. The poems fill all of the roles that I just mentioned. Specifically, Primo Levi wrote “Buna” and brought readers into Auschwitz and into the transformative situation into which it brought him. 

Before this class, my definition of poetry was limited. I had no real experience with poetry, so I did not understand how powerful of a tool it can be. Now, however, I feel confident in picking up a modern book of poetry and understanding the message it has, or at least forming my own understanding. The art of poetry uses both expression and form to work for the reader and the poet.