by Jeanne Dininni

Created on: January 09, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Poetry can be somewhat elusive, and therefore, difficult to define. Yet, throughout the centuries, mankind has unceasingly tried to capture its essence in words. Simonides defined poetry as "speaking painting," giving us a vivid image which effectively illustrates one important aspect of the art. Poe called it "the rhythmical creation of beauty," a very apt description of yet another of its facets. Painting it with a somewhat broader brush, Shelley referred to it as "the expression of the imagination"-and all poetry undoubtedly is that.

More recently, Judson Jerome has called poetry "order threatening to become chaos," which is perhaps an appropriate description of poetry in some of its more modern experimental and avant garde forms-or could simply be an expression of the potentially explosive energies inherent in each carefully controlled and measured line.

Wordsworth has said that "poetry is, like love, a passion," highlighting its emotional aspect, which is the golden cord that ties poetry of every type together. Perhaps he expressed it better still when he stated that "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings...(in) a man who (has) thought long and deeply..."

To be sure, Wordsworth's definition says nothing of poetic "form"-which can be as diverse, from one poem to another, as each poet's individual life experiences are and which, perhaps more so than any other element, makes a complete, one-size-fits-all definition of poetry impossible. Yet this is what makes poetry the rich reservoir of self-expression that it is.

As intriguing as all the above definitions may be, and as much as we may enjoy exploring the various aspects of the art by attempting to put them into words, we do so knowing that every definition we conceive must fall short in one way or another. But the good news is that we needn't be able to define poetry to recognize it-or to enjoy it! We simply sense it when we are in the presence of poetry-at least good poetry. We feel its power, or its sweetness, its simplicity or its grandeur. And it is an encounter that affects us in ways we'll never be able to fully describe-or understand.

In short, whether or not we can define poetry, describe or understand it, we go away knowing that we have come face to face with its genius, and instinct tells us that, as a result of that fortuitous meeting, we will never be quite the same again.

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