the study of poetry | K Morris

An interesting piece on Medium entitled What is the Purpose of Poetry? https://medium.com/the-howling-owl/what-is-the-purpose-of-poetry-147ba89ef9b0.

For me, poetry is valuable in and of itself. As with love and friendship it matters because it matters. If you where to pin me down and insist that I provide a fuller explanation, then I would say that poetry matters because it stirs the emotions. It speaks to who we are/explores what it is to be human.

As an aside, I am often puzzled by those who derive great pleasure from pop music (which almost invariably rhymes), yet dislike poetry, much of which rhymes! Perhaps the dislike by some of poetry stems from them having it drummed into them at a tender age rather than having discovered it for themselves.

My love of poetry was sparked by a school teacher, Mr Delacruz who recorded several cassettes for me, including a number of poems. In addition, I spent many hours in the school library discovering poetry for myself via anthologies such as Palgrave’s Golden Treasury and the Oxford Book of English Verse.

As always, I would be interested to hear your views regarding the purpose of poetry/what poetry means to you.

In response to a comment by me on her post entitled “The infinity of Destinies”, Veronica comments as follows:

“If I told you my own vision, the mystery would be gone, don’t you agree?”. (see https://thewavesofpoetry.com/2020/07/12/the-infinity-of-destinies-dedicated-to-e/).

As a poet, I do indeed agree with Veronica. Every reader puts his or her own interpretation upon a poem or any other piece of writing. What the creator of art intended is, frequently not what the reader, the viewer of the painting Etc, interprets. And herein resides the joy and beauty of artistic creation.

In my poem “Raining”, I describe awaking to the sound of “rain drumming on my window pane”. On reading “Raining”, a friend’s teenage son commented that he thought the rain was “crying”. This is not something which I (the poet) had ever considered when penning the poem. I can, however understand why my friend’s son interprets “Raining” as he does, and I certainly do not dismiss his interpretation of the poem.

The truth of the matter is this. Once a poem, short story, novel or any other artistic creation is made available to the public, those exposed to it will, inevitably put their own interpretation upon that creation. And they have every right to do so. This is part of the joy of creativity – that it provokes differing interpretations.

As always, I would be interested in the views of my readers.

Kevin