by James Jester

Created on: May 19, 2009   Last Updated: July 14, 2009

There is nothing more inspiring than the written emoions of a writer. Many times, I have found myself contemplating on the emotional effect written poetry has had on me, and I have realized that, through poetry, any emotion can be personified. A lot of the time people will find themselves transcending into the lives of the writers. We try to imagine what was going through their minds at the moment the poem was conceived; we relate the poem to our own lives and it can seem to fit all of our hardships, success, emotional states-of-mind, physical state, etc. and can be virtually therapeutic to our overall well-being. So, the question to whether or not poetry matters in the 21st century should be obvious to most. The only difference now, is that we may not read a lot of the famous poets from the past and, in fact, have started a trend of our own. This trend is song writing; no, not classical compositions or operas, although those can evoke emotions as well, but other genres like country, pop, jazz, R&B, blues, indie, techno, etcetera. All of these musical forms require the creative writing of poetry, and can actually become more of a technical process. These types of poems have other aspects of art incorporated into them like: music, rhyme, tempo, and lyrical arrangement. The song has to first, fit the genre, tell a detailed story, evoke an intended emotion, advertise an opinion, and sometimes even provide valuable information or contain a hidden meaning; just like the more common form of poetry. Then, the artist has to arrange the song to fit the standard of song writing; like creating verses, choruses, and a bridge. Sometimes, teams are organized to help with this process that can take a while to complete. In the end, you have a song that will hopefully be inspiring to its listeners. Who out there has not heard a song where the poetry of its words made you laugh, cry, maybe laugh AND cry, bring upon a feeling of nostalgia, or maybe even change your opinion on a certain idea or philosophy? The answer is, NO ONE; all of us haveve been affected by musical poetry. It is something that will, simply, never die. Therefore, even if we follow a trend to ignore the great poets of the past, which we won't, poetry will always be important to the 21st century, and to any century to come.

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