Poetry

[prophet_marcus]

Did school ruin poetry for you?
I hate poetry. In school, we are forced to study and analyze and dissect poems. Like biology class without the formaldehyde. Depending on your teacher's aftershave/perfume.

I was reading Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" today and ran across the line "Best damn poet in America." And for some reason, I thought the protagonist's reply should have been, "That must suck."

Why are we taught to study poetry? Why are so many poets writing stuff now that can be studied? It seems to me that poetry is not meant to be thought about - just felt. A good poet is trying to express emotions. Emotions come from the pre-rational part of our minds and language isn't designed to deal with them. Sure, we have labels for emotions, but after unknown thousands of years, we still haven't come up with a good definition for or explanation of love. I've complained in the past that while the French are self-proclaimed master lovers, they have no verb form of love. You cannot say "I love you" in French.

Maybe they realize something I didn't. That love is not something you do, it is something you have, something you feel. (Or not as the case may be.)

So poetry is the attempt to put into words moods and feelings and emotions which are intrinsically non-verbal experiences. Any attempt to analyze it rationally will end up like a bad session with a psychoanalyst. I think I'll go back and read some poetry now. And I will not ask myself "What do I think about this?" Instead, I will ask myself "What do I feel about this?" And then I will accept the answer and not ask "Why?"

Perhaps I will come to love poetry again.

Comments

[sagittaria.livejournal.com]

Studying poetry in earlier years did nothing for me. But my 12th grade teacher somehow made me love poetry, so much that I took a poetry course in college.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

It's a personal taste thing, but you might try some Robinson Jeffers.