Re: [acornlive] purpose of poetry

Conor Ryan (acornlive@dublinwriters.org)
Sun, 11 Jul 1999 13:46:45 +0100 

an attempt to answer/reply to many things at once:

to katie's point that people raise barriers to communication, through fear
or other wise - it's a valid point, but it is also possible to say that the
effect of these barriers are limited because human interaction is driven by
human wants and needs and because they are so strong they inevitably shine
through. for example a mundane conversation about the weather could have a
illion subtle nuances, but two angry people debating heatedly over a
complicated issue is simple to understand - and thence divine the positions
and opinions of both parties. i would also agree that humour has an
important role in poetry.

to chuck: i don't think it is really possible to hit two separate emotions
simultaneously, but having them come close together can only cloud each
other. the transfer of human emotion is a shift through greys from black to
white, not a sudden change. that, i suppose, is why the simple poetry you
mentioned is so strong, it has a strong direction - despite mundanity not
arousing great emotions in us.

Anthea said that there is more to poetry than just bare emotion. i agree,
why else would we enjoy political satires or comedies or poems with a moral
or practical message, and the doubtless wonder of a truely great
manipulator of language. to add to this idea i have to say that many of the
latter kind of poems are good, but the really great ones are those that
achieve those goals and evoke powerful emotions.

and finally, finally, elisa said that bashing a reader with depression
until they become tired or immune is bad. although this goes a bit against
what i said in reply to anthea, i'm not so sure that making a reader immune
is bad. can't numbing the reader introduce a certain amount of reality to
the poetry - take the war poetryof sasoon or others like him. in a way
numbness has its own emotional content, and aside from that it can be used
as a tool for commentary.

now that my fingers are sore i'll stop and wait for some other ideas.

conor.

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