a reply I made in poetryslamming

[novapsyche]

Poetry is a strange art that uses the line, one of the most important elements of a poem that, unfortunately, isn't often considered in its own right. I don't want to get into all of the technical theory of the line, but I do want to constrast it with a sentence, which is the normal syntactical unit in language.

Because sentences employ punctuation, they also bring into the poem the syntax of the sentence (which is why lines like "I saw you in the hall/you saw through me/past me" don't work; there is no sense of regular syntax). Syntax helps the person reading or hearing your work anticipate what is to come--it's due to the simple structure of language.

The line does not have to use any punctuation. It's dependent on what's in the line, what the poet wants to emphasize, how the line breaks are used. In this sense, the line and the sentence produce (or can produce) tension as they pull against each other.

The bird flew into the sky. Its young would have fallen.

The bird flew into the sky.
Its young would have fallen.

The bird flew
into the sky. Its young
would have fallen.

The line breaks indicate where voice stress should fall. Because of this, the sentences above, while using the same content, can be said in different ways. Intonation, very apparent in spoken language, isn't present in a written piece, so the line break takes up some of that work.

Without punctuation, line breaks become less useful and more amorphous. The piece as a whole can seem unanchored. The reader wants to be directed toward something; this can't happen if there is little or no structure. I'm not talking about form, like rhyme and metre; I'm talking about language itself.

A poem should read less like one's thought process and more like one's speech. Speech is generally more refined than thought.

Comments

[lordofgaysantas.livejournal.com]

So poetry should be more refined than thought, but less refined than the written word? Since literature is supposed to be 50 or so years behind/more refined than the actual speech of the people of the age. Frightening to think of what our literature will be like in 2054.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying that poetry shouldn't be deliberately constructed--it is written word as art. What I'm saying is that it should read like speech as opposed to thought. Thought is fragmented and often unexamined. The Beats advocated "first thought, best thought," but even Ginsberg admitted to editing.

Art that requires much effort yet seems/sounds effortless--that's sublime.