Why does poetry communicate so clearly?

[sandandfoam]

I find poetry touches me at an almost instinctual level. Whatever I am poetry is of the same stuff. Across time and place it connects like no other medium. It can change my mood and it can take me to a different plane.
Why?

 

[monta]

I find poetry touches me at an almost instinctual level. Whatever I am poetry is of the same stuff. Across time and place it connects like no other medium. It can change my mood and it can take me to a different plane.
Why?

I get a bit of stick for this but I try not to delve to deeply into poetry or music, I don't want to deconstruct it as I have in the past come to be indifferent to poetry or music by having it taken apart and put together, after that all I can see is the joins, so to speak. ( The more I learn about Yeats for example the less I like his poems )

So not going to deeply into it,I think many of us have our defenses up most of the time, whe here and repeat certain phrases to the point where they are meaningless, for example 'How are you' and 'I'm fine' , or even 'My Condolences on your loss'

A poet or writer can have the ability to take a common place word or phrase or usual cadaence and skewer it so it gets past these defenses and hits a nerve. certain phrases will just stop me still, such as the opening line of Patrick Kavanagh's 'The Great Hunger'

'Clay is the word and Clay is the flesh'

There are other elements as well, people respond strongly to rythym and many poems have a pulse like quality to them, and as I said I am probably missing something out, because I like to enjoy poetry on an amateur level.

 

[Valjean]

It's "interpreted" more by the right brain than the left?

I wonder about the thread title, though. I never thought of poetry as communicating clearly. Essays communicate clearly. Poetry is more subjective and emotive, not objective and explanitory.

 

[monta]

It's "interpreted" more by the right brain than the left?

I wonder about the thread title, though. I never thought of poetry as communicating clearly. Essays communicate clearly. Poetry is more subjective and emotive, not objective and explanitory.

Maybe it is an Irish thing but while I would use clearly in the same way you do, I think, in this context it is meant as distinctly.

 

[Heneni]

I find poetry touches me at an almost instinctual level. Whatever I am poetry is of the same stuff. Across time and place it connects like no other medium. It can change my mood and it can take me to a different plane.
Why?

I think its because poetry puts into words what your heart wants to say.

 

[Valjean]

I'm a bit of a blockhead, (too left brained) I'm afraid. Usually poetry needs to be put to music to really get to me.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Poetry has never really communicated much to me either - especially in comparison to music. I can read any number of great poems, and be able to appreciate the various grammatical structures, imagery, interesting turns of phrase, etc., but not actually feel any emotion in response.

However, when it comes to music, every aspect of every element in a piece can trigger numerous levels of complex emotions that result in intense feelings I wouldn't attempt to describe with words.

I do enjoy reading, and I read a lot, and it can trigger strong emotions, but that generally has more to do with the content of the writing, than the words themselves.

 

[sandandfoam]

The more I learn about Yeats for example the less I like his poems

I think Yeats was probably a pain in the behind alright . But my goodness his poetry. I love it. Nothing else is in the same league as far as I'm concerned. I like Kavanagh too. But he depresses me. Yeats comes with me everywhere whereas I dip in and out of Kavanagh. But you're right he touches a nerve - I find the Great Hunger, and his writing generally terribly bleak. Raglan Road is my personal favourite. Maybe the bleakness is why I only dip in and out.

 

[OmarKhayyam]

I don't know that "distinct" is even correct. Can you say Mariann Moore or Emily Dickinson is "distinct?"

Consider "I heard a fly buzz when I died;"

Does that seen distinct? Or rather does it not raise more questions that it answers? Are you not left more confused about the "meaning" of death? And was that not the point?

 

[sandandfoam]

It's "interpreted" more by the right brain than the left?

I wonder about the thread title, though. I never thought of poetry as communicating clearly. Essays communicate clearly. Poetry is more subjective and emotive, not objective and explanitory.

I agree poetry is subjective and emotive. I feel myself to be subjective and emotive. Perhaps that is why it communicates so well with me?

A Cradle Song
[SIZE=+2]T[/SIZE]HE angels are stooping
Above your bed;
They weary of trooping
With the whimpering dead.


God's laughing in Heaven
To see you so good;
The Sailing Seven
Are gay with his mood.

I sigh that kiss you,
For I must own
That I shall miss you
When you have grown.

• William Butler Yeats

Take that poem.
It's beautiful. With crystal clarity it communicates a feeling to me. A complex multi-dimensional feeling. Love and impending loss, joy and dread - I have difficulty putting words to the feeling Yeats communicated to me wrapped up in that poem. That is the beauty and wonder of poetry to me. No other medium can wrap so much into such a neat package. Like Monta said it hits a nerve. Why? I like Monta's suggestion

A poet or writer can have the ability to take a common place word or phrase or usual cadaence and skewer it so it gets past these defenses and hits a nerve

But I feel there's more to it than that. I just don't know what it is.

 

[McBell]

I find poetry touches me at an almost instinctual level. Whatever I am poetry is of the same stuff. Across time and place it connects like no other medium. It can change my mood and it can take me to a different plane.
Why?

Forer Effect?

 

[monta]

Forer Effect?

I don't get it, how is this relevant ?

 

[McBell]

I don't get it, how is this relevant ?

It is why peotry is so understood by so many people.

Problem is that each person tends to get a different understanding from it.

Thus the Forer Effect might actually be an explanation for the differences in understanding.

 

[sandandfoam]

I like it.

 

[monta]

It is why peotry is so understood by so many people.

Problem is that each person tends to get a different understanding from it.

Thus the Forer Effect might actually be an explanation for the differences in understanding.

Wouldn't this only apply to a work whose meaning is so vague it leaves itself open to interpratation.

I have heard this claim before with regards to art specifically van goghs 'Sunflowers' I am trying to keep an open mind on it.

 

[McBell]

Wouldn't this only apply to a work whose meaning is so vague it leaves itself open to interpratation.

No.
It applies to anything and everything.
Show me one piece of anything written, in whole or in part, that does not have different meanings to different people.

I have heard this claim before with regards to art specifically van goghs 'Sunflowers' I am trying to keep an open mind on it.

What claim is that, exactly?

 

[monta]

No.
It applies to anything and everything.
Show me one piece of anything written, in whole or in part, that does not have different meanings to different people.

As I said I am trying to keep an open mind, but I can only know my own reaction

What claim is that, exactly?

That the meaning of Art isn't put there by the artist but by the audience, I think it is a two way street myself, like a conversation.

 

[McBell]

What claim is that, exactly?

That the meaning of Art isn't put there by the artist but by the audience, I think it is a two way street myself, like a conversation.

Yes the artist puts a meaning into their work.
However, that does not mean that the meaning the artist is wanting said art to have is the same meaning that people will get out of it.

Take the Bible for example.

 

[monta]

Her grandchildren always admire her,
Even when they are grown-
They always feel proud and happy
To claim Grandmother as their own!
- By Mary Dawson Hughes

I am going to stick with poetry, in keeping with the op, I think this is a fairly straightforward verse from a poem, perhaps it has a different resonance to someone who grandmother is dead, or someone who didn't know their grandmother, but I think it is quite straight forward.

I have to say that outside of poetry I do think there are writers whose works are not open to loose interpratation.

 

[McBell]

I have to say that outside of poetry I do think there are writers whose works are not open to loose interpratation.

Then I have to say that you underestimate the power of the ratifier.