Poetry
is vital language. Poetry relies on the writer's feelings, history and
perceptions, so every person has the background needed to write poems.
Because poetry draws on the senses and the senses give deep access to
memories and feelings, poetry writing is relevant and interesting.
Poetry is ancient. The most primitive people have used it, and the
most civilized have cultivated it. In all ages and in all countries,
poetry has been written – and eagerly read or listened to– by all kinds
and conditions of people – by statesmen, lawyers, farmers, doctors,
scientists, clergymen, philosophers, soldiers, kings and queens. In all ages, poetry has been regarded as important, not simply for
pleasure, but as something central to each individual'’s existence,
something of unique value, and something which makes us feel better off
for having and which we are spiritually impoverished without.
Initially, poetry might be defined as a language that says more and
says it more intensely than does ordinary language. In order to
understand this fully, we need to understand what it is that poetry
“says”. Poetic language is employed on different occasions to say quite
different kinds of things. Therefore, poetry is language of different
uses. While novels, short stories and plays bring us a sense and a
perception of life, their concern is with experience. The poet may
create new experiences for the reader in which the reader can
participate and which will give him or her a greater awareness and
understanding of the world.
Poetry takes all life as its province. Its primary concern is not
with beauty, not with philosophical truth, not with persuasion, but with
experience. Beauty and philosophical truth are aspects of experience,
and the poet is often engaged with them. Poetry as a whole is concerned
with all kinds of experience – beautiful & ugly, strange &
common, noble & ignoble, actual & imaginary. One of the paradoxes of human existence is that all experience, when
transmitted through the medium of art, becomes enjoyable. Even painful
experience is pleasurable when poetry romanticizes hard labour, poverty
and even death.
Poetry comes to us bringing life, and focuses on giving us a better
understanding of life. Between poetry and other genres of literature
there is one sharp distinction. Poetry writing is a friend to all
writers. Engrossing and honest, poetry extends universally to all
members of society. Poetry exists to communicate significant experience
imaginatively and creatively, deepening our knowledge of the senses more
poignantly.
Poetry can be inspirational on the highest level, when it provides
the reader with a precious affair, frequently incandescent, giving off
both light and heat. Finally, poetry is a kind of multi-dimensional
language. It is directed at the whole person, not just at his
understanding. It must involve the reader’'s senses, intelligence,
emotions and imagination. Poetry achieves its extra dimensions per word
by employing devices including metaphor, allusion, sound, repetition,
rhythm, irony, symbol, connotation and imagery. Using these resources
and the materials of life, poetry, in its highest form, comes alive on
the page.
Info taken from the web page http://www.chapterandverse.ca/worth-reading/60-why-poetry-is-so-important.html
These are just some of the assumptions people have created about poetry over the years. However, it does not mean it is still accurate just because it was true at one point. So, taking that into account, i would like you to comment on the following:
- Is poetry relevant nowadays? Why?
- Does it have an important role in students' academic life?
- Do you appreciate poetry right now? Why?
