[acornlive] Re: The Purpose of Poetry

Kimberly Kanigel (acornlive@dublinwriters.org)
Mon, 12 Apr 1999 15:05:23 PDT 

Hello, All:

I think that the purpose of poetry is to concretize the essence of a 
singular entity.  This entity can be anything: a banana, a smile, the 
emotion of dread.  

Good poetry, on the other hand, is another thing altogether, and 
further, one's tastes in good poetry.  Good poetry is that which is 
effective in the manner that poetry should be, i.e. it is clear and 
evocative.  As was said before (and I apologize for not quoting you 
both, as I erased the posts), this is best done with well-integrated 
descriptions of concretes (since a poem is not a dictionary entry); 
also, one poem cannot be used to convey two emotions at the same time, 
and if one tries to do so, one ends up with a bad poem.  As a result, 
plots do not make for very good poetry, generally, unless they are 
fairly concentrated (short) and are intended to deliver a limited 
effect.  

Poetry is highly effective for immersing the reader in a moment of 
emotion, and is often used to this end.  In terms of taste: one might 
write a poem conveying an emotion of depression quite well.  I would 
say that such a poem was good, and I would admire the author's writing 
ability, but I certainly would not think of it as something I enjoyed 
or liked.  My tastes do not run to the oppressive; my dislike of the 
poem, however, would not affect my assessment of its technical 
quality.

Whew!  Any comments?

--Kimberly


         Kimberly Kanigel ------> kanigel@idealstudios.com 
 
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