Poetry as an Art Form

sanctus

The Padre
Oct 27, 2006
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Ontario
www.poetrypoem.com

C. G. Vaillancourt

Poetry as an art form is possibly the most demanding, requiring sustained effort, a varied apprenticeship and unusual gifts. Rewards are pleasure the work affords to a wide readership, a deeper understanding of literature generally, and a kinship with past writers.


Discussion

Poetry comes in many forms. Much turned out in schools, creative writing courses, prisons and rehabilitation units aims at something other than art. The poetry attempts to teach the rudiments of literary composition, to encourage self-expression, to explore the writer's psyche and to penetrate the sources of distress or antisocial behaviour. Splendid. So why is poetry that has none of these more generous aims given critical acclaim? Why do we prize something that has no practical benefit?

Because the arts are one way of expressing our larger humanity. Poetry, and that means all poetry, is the language closest to human experience. Poetry, said Aristotle, is superior to history because it uses words in their fuller potential, and creates representations more complete and more meaningful than nature can give us in the raw. Man needs coherence and consistency in his affairs, and the arts provide meaning, significance and purpose in a universe that seems increasingly strange and hostile. Words are not neutral entities, say the Postmodernists, but have intentions, associations and histories of usage. What we understand of the world is largely through language, and poetry may indeed clear the portals of vision.

Poetry may even achieve a special mode of knowledge — an essential, full and vital representation of the world where other representations are abstract and abbreviated. Facts are not rendered more exact by being expressed in a grey, abstract, bureaucratic language, and indeed philosophy's extended attempt this century to find a logically transparent language has been an heroic failure. Language is irremediably metaphoric, and speaks through analogies and parables. Poetry is aware of the past usages of words, their latent properties, their aspirations, deceits and corruptions, and it is therefore poetry that records the greater truth.

Or can do. We call serious the poetry that causes us to see ourselves and the world in greater depth and clarity. Its truth, its moral dimensions and its wider social significance are things that seize us immediately. The blood is chilled, and we see for the first time what should have been obvious. Life and poetry occupy very different spheres, but with poetry we travel with our eyes open through a world that is cruel, uplifting and beautiful. We understand our place in the larger scheme of things, which was possibly our birthright before science and the minutia of everyday life locked us out.


Some Points to Bear in Mind

Remember that:

1. Dedication to poetry is a vow of poverty. Scant reward comes in money or reputation. As in other arts, a more decent living is to be found on the periphery — in teaching, commentating on and/or performing poetry.

2. Poetry is a calling, not a career, and only adolescents strut around as "wannabe" poets.

3. Despite exhortation, hype and extensive funding, poetry is no longer the queen of the arts. It has minority status — worthy, but not courted by publishers or the media.

4. The rewards of poetry are those of a skilled craftsman in a difficult medium, one that gives great opportunities, and enormous pleasure when the work succeeds.

5. Poetry is still the workshop of language, and things can be explored in poetry that escape prose. Indeed, for all the current difficulties, poetry has the most innovative, exciting and significant of today's writing. To contribute here is to join a select community, and to enter into a kinship with the serious writers of the past.
 

canadarocks

Electoral Member
Dec 26, 2006
233
6
18

C. G. Vaillancourt

Poetry as an art form is possibly the most demanding, requiring sustained effort, a varied apprenticeship and unusual gifts. Rewards are pleasure the work affords to a wide readership, a deeper understanding of literature generally, and a kinship with past writers.


Discussion

Poetry comes in many forms. Much turned out in schools, creative writing courses, prisons and rehabilitation units aims at something other than art. The poetry attempts to teach the rudiments of literary composition, to encourage self-expression, to explore the writer's psyche and to penetrate the sources of distress or antisocial behaviour. Splendid. So why is poetry that has none of these more generous aims given critical acclaim? Why do we prize something that has no practical benefit?

Because the arts are one way of expressing our larger humanity. Poetry, and that means all poetry, is the language closest to human experience. Poetry, said Aristotle, is superior to history because it uses words in their fuller potential, and creates representations more complete and more meaningful than nature can give us in the raw. Man needs coherence and consistency in his affairs, and the arts provide meaning, significance and purpose in a universe that seems increasingly strange and hostile. Words are not neutral entities, say the Postmodernists, but have intentions, associations and histories of usage. What we understand of the world is largely through language, and poetry may indeed clear the portals of vision.

Poetry may even achieve a special mode of knowledge — an essential, full and vital representation of the world where other representations are abstract and abbreviated. Facts are not rendered more exact by being expressed in a grey, abstract, bureaucratic language, and indeed philosophy's extended attempt this century to find a logically transparent language has been an heroic failure. Language is irremediably metaphoric, and speaks through analogies and parables. Poetry is aware of the past usages of words, their latent properties, their aspirations, deceits and corruptions, and it is therefore poetry that records the greater truth.

Or can do. We call serious the poetry that causes us to see ourselves and the world in greater depth and clarity. Its truth, its moral dimensions and its wider social significance are things that seize us immediately. The blood is chilled, and we see for the first time what should have been obvious. Life and poetry occupy very different spheres, but with poetry we travel with our eyes open through a world that is cruel, uplifting and beautiful. We understand our place in the larger scheme of things, which was possibly our birthright before science and the minutia of everyday life locked us out.


Some Points to Bear in Mind

Remember that:

1. Dedication to poetry is a vow of poverty. Scant reward comes in money or reputation. As in other arts, a more decent living is to be found on the periphery — in teaching, commentating on and/or performing poetry.

2. Poetry is a calling, not a career, and only adolescents strut around as "wannabe" poets.

3. Despite exhortation, hype and extensive funding, poetry is no longer the queen of the arts. It has minority status — worthy, but not courted by publishers or the media.

4. The rewards of poetry are those of a skilled craftsman in a difficult medium, one that gives great opportunities, and enormous pleasure when the work succeeds.

5. Poetry is still the workshop of language, and things can be explored in poetry that escape prose. Indeed, for all the current difficulties, poetry has the most innovative, exciting and significant of today's writing. To contribute here is to join a select community, and to enter into a kinship with the serious writers of the past.
"To be a poet is a condition, not a profession." - Robert Frost
 

canadarocks

Electoral Member
Dec 26, 2006
233
6
18

C. G. Vaillancourt

Poetry as an art form is possibly the most demanding, requiring sustained effort, a varied apprenticeship and unusual gifts. Rewards are pleasure the work affords to a wide readership, a deeper understanding of literature generally, and a kinship with past writers.


Now, an interesting part I missed for some reason the first time I read your post. Why do you think most dpeople do NOT read poetry Sanctus?
 

tamarin

House Member
Jun 12, 2006
3,197
22
38
Oshawa ON
I love poetry but I'm very demanding. The reason poetry has fallen in popularity today has less to do with the competition for the reader and more to do with quality. It's very difficult to find a poet practising and publishing today that is widely recognized and read. Most of the work we see is forgettable. Boring, mechanical or trite. A good poem is meant to be shared. It's meant to be read aloud. And a good poem connects with the reader in the same way a good film does. You want to experience it again.
 

canadarocks

Electoral Member
Dec 26, 2006
233
6
18
I love poetry but I'm very demanding. The reason poetry has fallen in popularity today has less to do with the competition for the reader and more to do with quality. It's very difficult to find a poet practising and publishing today that is widely recognized and read. Most of the work we see is forgettable. Boring, mechanical or trite. A good poem is meant to be shared. It's meant to be read aloud. And a good poem connects with the reader in the same way a good film does. You want to experience it again.


FYI, I discovered something just a few minutes ago through searching google on the name of I assume sanctus(c.g.vaillancourt.. our very own sanctus is a widely published poet! Who woulda thunk! Books, articles, etc.etc.
 

marygaspe

Electoral Member
Jan 19, 2007
670
11
18
76
I love poetry but I'm very demanding. The reason poetry has fallen in popularity today has less to do with the competition for the reader and more to do with quality. It's very difficult to find a poet practising and publishing today that is widely recognized and read. Most of the work we see is forgettable. Boring, mechanical or trite. A good poem is meant to be shared. It's meant to be read aloud. And a good poem connects with the reader in the same way a good film does. You want to experience it again.


I agree. I also think though that the culture we live in today is not geared to intellectual pursuits. The genral population tends to prefer that fake wrestling to art.
 

tamarin

House Member
Jun 12, 2006
3,197
22
38
Oshawa ON
Mary, you're right. The noggin has fallen into disrepute. There was a time when poetry was given the regard it's due and in those days much followed criticism kept the medium vibrant. I read some scathing reviews of modern poetry anthologies around Christmas. I had to concur. In the last decade we've lost Al Purdy and Irving Layton in Canada, both accomplished poets and worth reading. But most of the recently published work I thumb through at the library is awful. But who's to really know? Readership has disappeared.
 

tamarin

House Member
Jun 12, 2006
3,197
22
38
Oshawa ON
Herman, if you want power in poetry- and that's what I like - a sense of power and verbal mastery, the ability to put experience, that resonates, into words that defies imitation, you can't beat Shakespeare in his better sonnets, Keats in his odes and Dylan Thomas in masterpieces like Fern Hill.
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
7,267
118
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Newfoundland!
shakespear is a mixed fellow to me. a lot of his work appears like drab, mindless crap which goes on for ever, but sometimes something shines through. I love "a midsummer night's dream", but cannot STAND henry V
 

sanctus

The Padre
Oct 27, 2006
4,558
48
48
Ontario
www.poetrypoem.com
Mary, you're right. The noggin has fallen into disrepute. There was a time when poetry was given the regard it's due and in those days much followed criticism kept the medium vibrant. I read some scathing reviews of modern poetry anthologies around Christmas. I had to concur. In the last decade we've lost Al Purdy and Irving Layton in Canada, both accomplished poets and worth reading. But most of the recently published work I thumb through at the library is awful. But who's to really know? Readership has disappeared.


Readership is pretty much geared to University campuses these days. Certainly poetry as an artform is not studied in any great detail in the grade or secondary schools as it was when I went.
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
7,267
118
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45
Newfoundland!
as with posts, theses, scientific journals and letters I prefer short to long. I believe strongly in the efficiency of language. Why use hundreds of words when twenty beautifully chosen ones will do?

My thesis was 110 pages double spaced and i got a lot of criticism for it, from people who hadnt read it.
 

sanctus

The Padre
Oct 27, 2006
4,558
48
48
Ontario
www.poetrypoem.com
as with posts, theses, scientific journals and letters I prefer short to long. I believe strongly in the efficiency of language. Why use hundreds of words when twenty beautifully chosen ones will do?

My thesis was 110 pages double spaced and i got a lot of criticism for it, from people who hadnt read it.


It is true that some take a mile to walk to a five foot point! Sometimes though, some things need a bit more detail.