Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish

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Recommended: Relevance of shakespeare

“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” Spoken like the artistic genius he was, Shakespeare provides an excellent example of how the world used to speak. Another example, which shall be noted as the inspiration of this paper, would be Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish. In this poem, he explains how he thinks a poem should be: “A poem should not mean But be.” This last line from the poem basically says that a poem should be more important than words on a page. It should be a physical being instead of something out of the dictionary. It is also an example of how the world used to speak, how the world should still speak. In this paper, I intend to explain how the world has truly forgotten what poetry and literature really is.
A few decades ago, not everyone was taught how to read or write. However, those who were able to, read items by Shakespeare and such. When Shakespeare was writing his plays, he practically created words as he wrote. When people of today try to create new words, they come up with “beautimuss” or “prettiful.” These are not words; these are “words” that people think sound cool and believe will grant them some form of acknowledgment. This is not true. However, words that Shakespeare came up with, such as “congreeing”, are in fact real. The word “congreeing” means to agree with oneself. This is a perfectly defined word and has more logic than that of “prettiful.”
Mark Yakich’s article on theatlantic.com, What is a Poem?, makes a respectable point when talking about what a poem is. He gives examples of what he thought they were when he was younger, and how hard it was to understand what any of them meant. He states: “It’s inaccessible in its fragmented syntax and grammar, or obscure in its allusions. Neverthele...

... middle of paper ...

...ead poetry, but most importantly, learn what is good in the world of literature.

Works Cited

Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken” N.d. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173536. Web. 21 April 2014.
Mosle, Sara. “What Should Children Read?” November 22, 2012. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/what-should-children- read/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0. Web. 21 April 2014.
Pokock, Kevin. “10 Reasons People Hate Poetry”. March 25, 2013. http://www.poejazzi.com/10-reasons-people-hate-poetry/. Web. 21 April 2014.
Shakespeare, William. "William Shakespeare." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2014.
21 April 2014. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamsha100137.html. Web. 21
April 2014.
Yakich, Mark. “What is a Poem?”. November 25, 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/what-is-a- poem/281835/. Web. 21 April 2014.

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