Experience

by Megan Stoddard

Created on: July 30, 2010

A poem naturally springs from the poet’s experience. To write a poem based on experience is to write a true poem. Attempt to write a poem based on opinion, and it falls flat.

A good poet writes about what he or she knows, painting a picture of his or her own experience with words. It may be a sunrise or a starry night. It may be the feeling of falling in love or the feeling of loss. A poem may paint a picture of what it is like to be a tired commuter in a crowded, noisy subway station. It may describe a bowl of fruit, taking the colors, shapes, fragrance, and taste of the fruit to depths no one would typically see. The poet experiences this and describes it in poetry.

If you want to write based on your opinions, it is better to write in prose. A poem about who should be the next president, or which sports team is currently on a losing streak, or whether abortion is right or wrong, is bound to fall flat. That is not to say you couldn’t write a good poem based on your feelings about your favorite candidate or team losing or winning, or a good poem based on your feelings about abortion if you have personally been touched by it in some way.

The latter kinds of poems come from experience. They may also convey opinion, but the opinion is conveyed subtly. Readers may draw different conclusions from each other on reading the same poem. An opinion piece, in contrast, leaves no doubt as to what the writer’s opinion is and attempts to persuade the reader to hold the same opinion. But to make a convincing case for your opinion, you must spell it out in clear prose. Poetry does not suffice.

Not only is poetry not a good medium for expressing opinion, opinion is a terrible basis for a poem. When you sit down to write, chances are you are doing one of two things: thinking about abstract ideas and putting them down in a logical order, or experiencing feelings and putting them down on paper. Many individuals strongly prefer one way or the other. Some people have equal preference for both, depending on what the situation calls for.

If you write based on opinion, you are working from the logical side of your brain. Opinions, like poetry, may be based on experience, but unlike poetry, we think about them and express them logically. That kind of thinking naturally lends itself to logically organized writing - in other words, prose. Poetry is the antithesis to logic. While a good poem does express coherent thoughts, it comes from an instinctive, creative place, different from the logical side of the brain that opinions come from.

To attempt to write a poem based on opinion, coming from the logical side of the brain, leads to chaos. The poem falls flat, because the logical side of the brain is not good for the depth and imagery a good poem requires. The opinion is expressed in a stilted way, because poetry does not provide the logical structure a convincing statement of opinion requires. Neither the poem nor the opinion is done any justice.

It is far better to write a poem based on experience than based on opinion. Poetry naturally stems from experience. Opinions are best expressed in prose. Both kinds of writing are valuable, but it makes no sense to write a poem based on the part of the mind that does not naturally generate poetry.

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