The Art of Poetry

“Poetry’s like painting: there are pictures that attract
you more nearer to, and others from further away.
This needs the shadows, that to be seen in the light,
Not fearing the critic’s sharp eye: this pleased once,
that, though examined ten thousand times, still pleases.”
-Horace

There is more than one way to appreciate poetry.  How I’ve learned to appreciate poetry is the same as how I’ve learned to appreciate a painting.  This method of comprehension, for me, also leads the way to writing poems.  As an example to demonstrate this way of appreciation, let us study a beautiful poem written by Sara Teasdale:

One reads a painting from three perspectives: up-close, at a medium distance, and from a far distance.  To see up-close is to examine the techniques employed by the artist upon the painting: the types of paint, the specificities of color, and the brushstrokes.  It speaks much of the artist’s personal style.  From the first perspective, the poem makes use of the quatrain, composed of 4-line stanzas and the ABBA rhyming scheme, having rhyming couplets between the 1st and 4th lines and the 2nd and 3rd lines.  The poem was written in iambic trimeter, with an iamb composed of a pair of unstressed and stressed syllables and a line made of three iambs.

As much fun as it is to dissect a poem technically, it is more important to read it out loud to see if it is lyrical to the ears.  That poetry has evolved from a popular art form enjoyed by the large public to the “cult of the special soul” is unfortunate, and the overconcern with technicality is partly to blame.  Modern poetry, especially, has largely abandoned strict usage of rhyming techniques for blank verse and free form.  The choice of words is important.  In the first stanza, the four words, tide, pool, shore, and sea, swiftly catch my eyes along with the word pair, ebb and flow.  It conjures for me clearly the image of the ocean.  In the second stanza, I see the word pair worship and heaven, and in the third, burn and deep.  Not only are these beautiful words, but they strike at depth, rousing specific emotional reactions.

From the second field of view, one analyzes the painting’s composition: its harmony and contrast among the elements, their colors, and light and shade dispositions.  It is akin to looking at the architecture of the poem.  Noted is the usage of similes.  Firstly, peace comes and goes as the tide.  Secondly, the author likened herself to the pool.  To paint the pool, she took a pair of complementing colors, blue and gold.  By calling herself the pool, she would reflect the brilliance of the sky, which was likened to her lover.  Here, another word pair catches my eyes, which is to contrast between sky-high and skies-dies.  The poem flows effortlessly by the order of time, first describing the tide flow in early morning, the daytime sky, then sundown, and lastly the nighttime sky, which brings about an easy and natural feel to reading it.

To look from a far distance is like having a bird’s-eye view, to attempt to understand the philosophy, depth, and layers.  I read a clear sense of humility from this poem.  The author compared herself to the pool in contrast with the sea to imply her smallness.  Yet smallness was the reason peace could flow within her.  In the vivid day sky, she placed all of her high hopes in her lover.  When the glory had burnt away, she held his radiance in the deep night sky.  The peace that she held, however small, came from him.

Poets themselves are not likely to keep square every field of view in mind while writing.  Rather, they write from intuition.  A good poet writes better and out of a background richer than they are consciously aware.  An in-depth analysis may well bring out beauties in a poem that the poet did not intend.  Yet beauty in a poem is not the only sight for sore eyes; it should also awaken emotions within the audience, those of which the poet should feel so very deeply themselves.

“It’s not enough for poems to have beauty: they must have
charm, leading their hearer’s heart wherever they wish.
As the human face smiles at a smile, so it echoes
those who weep: if you want to move me to tears
you must first grieve yourself.”
-Horace