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Monday, November 8, 2010

I have concluded

that poetry is for those who have fallen in love and in deep, dark despair.

Those who have not experienced either or who have experienced one without the other can enjoy lots of things in this world,
but poetry cannot possibly be one of them.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting concept...
    Perhaps it depends on the poetry you are reading?

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  2. That's a pretty correct concept.
    But then there's poetry that isn't about love out there as well.

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  3. In many ways, I agree with this statement. Poetry, for me anyway, is filled with sensuality. Even when we describe concepts unrelated to loving, being in love or expressing love, we tend to wrap our metaphors in sensuality. Even the way we describe an orange can be erotic, really, even a tiny taste of love, or a brush of something like it, can free us to a world of possibilities.

    In that respect, the deep, dark despair, acts as the shackle that binds us, and our ability to pen that experience is what frees us. It's our freedom. And I believe the love acts as our metaphor, it allows us to personify and beautify something in a deeply sensual way, that perhaps isn't traditionally viewed in that manner.

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  4. Philosophia: That was put perfectly and is exactly the point I was getting at. It hardly matters what the poetry is about — but without the perspectives of love and despair, there is a spectrum of interpretation that the reader will miss entirely. Because whether the poem seems to be about love/despair or not, there are nuances of love or despair present in every great work of poetry, and it takes one who is acquainted with love/despair to pick up on it.

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Write me a song.