11 Poetic Forms and Language
What does poetry do?
In the introductory module, it was suggested that all literature is basically metaphorical in nature. We also explored the important role that metaphors play in everyday life — in short, we use metaphors each day to make comparisons between the concrete world that we inhabit and the abstract world of ideas and human experience. In this module, we will explore the art of poetry and, once again, we will develop an understanding of how metaphors, in addition to other types of literary and figurative language, are used in poems to give shape and meaning to a wide range of human experiences.
In his book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry , Edward Hirsch suggests that “Poetry is made of metaphor. It is a collision, a collusion, a compression of two unlike things: A is B.” Therefore, reading poetry helps to broaden our understanding of power of language to provide more than just literal meaning — the sort of meaning that can be obtained from a dictionary. Instead, as Hirsch argues, “Poetry evokes a language that moves beyond the literal and, consequently, a mode of thinking that moves beyond the literal.” Because poets use language in unique and often challenging ways, reading poetry, like reading fiction, is an ideal way of developing complex reasoning and proficiency in active reading.
Poetry invites the reader to actively participate in the process of making meaning through language. The basic structure of metaphors consists of drawing comparisons between unlike things, and when we strive to understand, or infer, the connections that may exist between these unlike things, we begin to build our ability to think critically and creatively about language. From a literary standpoint, poetry is an essentially oral art form. It is meant to be read aloud. When we participate in constructing meaning by reading actively and making inferences, we participate in a kind of performance that is very similar to the dynamic between a singer and her audience. The poet will often even rely on the reader to fill-in the gaps or spaces in a poem with our own thoughts and emotions. The very best poetry is, therefore, deeply participatory.
Metaphors are essential to this participatory dynamic. Oftentimes, an entire poem can function as a kind of metaphor that attempts to make an abstract, or less clearly defined, concept more accessible for the reader. Poems do this by employing vivid imagery and similes (the comparison of two unlike things using like or as ). For example, in his poem “Dulce et Decorum est,” the British poet Wilfred Owen challenges a romantic understanding of the “glories” of war by offering the reader a vivid portrayal of the suffering that he witnessed on the battlefield during World War I. In this poem, Owen contradicts the ancient, patriotic motto, “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country,” by portraying war as a kind of twisted nightmare.
Read and listen to the poem, and pay partic