Three Things You Need to Know to Improve Your Poetry
(Originally written for a younger audience)
Before we can improve on something, we have to understand its nature. No intelligent person would attempt to upgrade a computer without knowing what makes up a computer. In the same way, it's a good idea for poets to have some idea about the nature of poetry.
Defining poem can seem pedantic. People say it's so subjective that it can't be defined. Yet if we placed a poem among many other kinds of works of literature, people would be able to pick out the poem, regardless of whether it had line breaks or not. This is because people have an unconscious idea of what a poem is, and this is what I am trying to articulate. This is not to say that my definition is final. But there's something about the nature of poetry that draws us to it, and even if some of that power will always remain undefinable, it doesn't mean we can't make a general and imperfect definition.
My suggested definition of poetry is this:
Poetry is the presentation of the "non-obvious" of a transcendent them through esthetic language.
That might seem like a lot to absorb, but it can be broken down. Here are the sections of the definition in the order I will address them in this essay:
Transcendent theme
"Non-obvious"
Esthetic language
TRANSCENDENT THEME
I wanted to get to this idea first, because to me, it's the most important.
Definition of a theme:
A theme is universal idea or experience that a work of art deals with or discusses. It's really not as intimidating as it can sound. Here are some examples of themes:
The Wizard of Oz: the capacity to change and improve oneself is within oneself.
Avril Lavigne's Complicated: the necessity of being true to oneself.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son: God is always willing to forgive those who are repentant.
Very often the theme is the "message" that the work seeks to promote, but it doesn't have to be. There can be more than one theme to a work. For example, Gone with the Wind explores how an impossible love, such as the love of Scarlett O'Hara for Ashley Wilkes, ultimately leads to unhappiness and ruin; but it also contrasts the hubris of the Southerners, go-hung for battle, with the tragedies of war.
The word "Transcendent" refers to realities that are beyond our physical senses. They are realities discerned with "the eyes of the soul". They are ideas connected to our beliefs about the human condition (e.g. feelings), spirituality, society, and so on. The use of the word "transcendent" may be redundant, because themes tend to be about values. If the theme of your poem is grocery shopping, and only remains at the level of describing how to grocery shop, it's going to be a pretty boring poem, unless you introduce a notion of more permanent value.
This may all sound abstruse, but in reality, we pick up on themes without really being aware of it. When we listen to a song that decries society, that has a theme. When we connect to a song about a broken heart, that has a theme. Sometimes finding a theme is difficult because we have trouble connecting the dots about a work of literature. But that's how we're made to reflect on a philosophical level. If it were all told to us, we wouldn't necessarily believe it or understand it. We must experience it through literature.
THE NON-OBVIOUS
A poem can't just explore a transcendent theme; it has to explore what isn't obvious to the reader's mind. There are some ideas that are either so obvious or superficial, that they don't bear repeating because "everyone" knows it and don't require a lot of thought or reflection: God is good; hate is bad; be moral. These are cliché ideas that everyone has on their lips or everyone assumes without really speaking about them.
Poetry is about deepening our knowledge and understanding. Pontificating about what everyone knows may make us feel good, but it doesn't contribute to a reader's knowledge.
This is why poetry is about the "non-obvious".
I coined that word because there is more than way a good poem can be non-obvious. The first is that it underscores a theme that we've never thought of before, and that is completely original. We have to really think about it to see if we agree with it.
The second way in which it's non-obvious is not that it's unknown to people, but that it has to be reinforced. It's not uppermost in people's minds, or gets pushed out with other ideas or other worldly concerns.
A poem seeks to explore the "non-obvious" of a theme. Take for instance the theme: society is bad. That's an easy and simplistic statement to make. A person who read a poem that remained totally at that level would not benefit. Chances are he could feel that way himself. To deepen that thought, the poet must ask himself: why is society bad? Answer: Because humans are greedy. Why are humans greedy? Because they have a corrupt nature. And so on. And through this series of questionings, you can get deeper into the issue, and less obvious. I'm not suggesting that poets compose that way. I am merely underscoring how a "non-obvious" theme is more interesting, engaging and human, because it makes you THINK, which is one of the most human activities of all.
ESTHETIC LANGUAGE
I could write about the "non-obvious" of a transcendent theme without writing a poem. In fact, I am doing so right now by writing this essay. What distinguishes poetry from essay writing is that it uses esthetic and musical language.
Esthetics is the branch of knowledge that deals with how to make things beautiful or appealing to the mind. As I define it, esthetic language is language specifically chosen to appeal to a particular sense or emotion. The phrase "I love you" is not particularly esthetic. It's become so trite in our culture that it has no more power to evoke. " I swoon at the sight of you" is much more esthetic. The "swoon" evokes a feeling, and suggests love, rather than spelling it out. "Love" can mean anything. With the word "swoon" the reader can experience the depth of love.
Esthetic language, if it's used effectively, is not only about appealing to the senses or emotions for its own sake. It's about appealing to senses or emotions in order to evoke an idea or an association. This is what metaphors are used for. They are all types of metaphors. If I say that a girl is an angel, I might be referring to her beauty or her moral goodness. "Angel" is a metaphor for moral goodness.
Over the course of a poem, you can hook together a number of metaphors to suggest an idea and overall theme. Ostensibly, your poem can seem to be about something mundane-- anything as mundane as riding the bus. But esthetic language can make your poem really about something else altogether-- the "non-obvious" of a theme, because the appeal is not only to the literal words on the page but what they convey.
I posted a poem called "Midnight April" that was ostensibly about a flood. But a number of readers wondered if it was really about sex. Indeed, it was (and the theme is deeper than that, but I won't get into it) but I got the impression that some of the readers were unsure because they thought they were going to read a poem about nature. The metaphors and wording I used in the poem made the association with sex perceptible. They saw past the descriptions and read in between the lines. They picked up on the associations and drew a valid interpretation-- that the poem explored the theme of sex.
Esthetic language covers a whole gamut of techniques that I won't go into. It's not only metaphor. It's also
Rhythm.
Word choice: different words convey different emotions and associations. Using the phrase "lady of the evening" sounds more prudish than "whore".
Allusions: Borrowing words and phrases from known works of art or culture.
Word placement and spacing
The sounds of words: long "e" and "a" vowel sounds sound happier, short "o" and "u" sound less happy.
Line-length
When you have several esthetic techniques packed into the fewest number of words, it creates a deeper impact. Ten words with esthetic language can say a lot more than 100 words using everyday language. On top of that, the reader gets a more comprehensive experience. And when the reader experiences the poem, he's more inclined to consider what the poem is trying to say. It has an emotional impact, and when you experience something unusual, emotionally speaking, you're more likely to re-evaluate your beliefs.
CONCLUSION
This wasn't meant to be the final word about poetry. But I think that if you apply these ideas to any poem, you can make it a better one.
Ask yourself:
Does my poem have a theme, a "message" or thought I want to convey?
Is this message incredibly obvious and too trite? Is the message something people need to be reminded of?
Have I tried using language that appeals to the reader's senses and emotions? Or am I just putting forward a bunch of statements?
I think if you've grasped these three concepts, you can make great strides in improving your poetry.