by A. S. Maulucci

Created on: March 31, 2009

What is Poetry?

What do we mean when we call a piece of writing a poem? We know that it looks different. It has lines that are usually shorter than prose, and often these lines are grouped together into stanzas (after the Italian word for room). And if we read it aloud, we know that it sounds different - it has a definite rhythm and it may have internal or end-rhymes. In fact, we can feel its pulse in our own nerves. A poem, then, can be defined as intensive written work that produces a physical as well as an emotional or mental response in the reader.

Poetry is a highly emotive, supercharged means of communication. To achieve this, poetry doesn't have to rhyme and it doesn't need a formal structure. But it must make use of elements such as metaphors, imagery, rhythm, and symbolism. This column will explore all of these ingredients in the weeks ahead.

As a poet who began writing in high school, I am concerned about the state of poetry in this country. And as a semi-retired English teacher who's been introducing college students to the joys of reading and writing poetry for twenty years, I hope to be able to explain why good poetry works as well as it does. I plan to use mostly one poem, T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" to illustrate my ideas. Perhaps you will find my observations both interesting and enlightening.

We are living in a time of a poetry explosion. Seems like everyone's writing poems. Never before have there been so many contests and so many outlets for publication or performance. I believe this is due to the magnitude of the changes presently taking place in our world. In spite of the tremendous enthusiasm, however, much of the poetry being written today is awkward and inane. Folks mean well, but incompetent writers produce weak poems because they simply haven't taken the time and made the effort to learn what a poem is and how it works. This column will show you how and why a poem works well.

Poetry may be as natural as singing but what makes it different from a song? The lyrics of just about every song by Bob Dylan or the Beatles can be considered as poems, but the words of most songs could not stand alone. "You are so beautiful to me . . ." (As sung by Rod Stewart) is lovely, but the words by themselves are so trite as to be ridiculous if recited as a poem.

Song lyrics have the advantage of music, and a good vocalist could make a grocery list sound attractive. However, the lines of a poem must be strong or beautiful enough to stand by themselves. They must appeal to our senses and sensibilities. They must carry some emotional weight. And they must reach into our hearts and souls by some mysterious process we call "connecting on a gut level."

By a similar process that is equally mysterious, the poet must reach into his/her heart and soul to come up with the raw material of a poem. Then he must know how to make it into true piece of writing worthy to be called poetry.

Learn more about this author, A. S. Maulucci.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.