A half century ago, American poetics redefined itself when it made some organic changes. Traditional verse, as its force-fed rhyme and meter schemes often restricts any accurate report, was subdued and chastised in favor of a more-realistic, a more human-excretory approach to writing verse. Both the Projectivist and the Beat poets, led by Charles Olson and Allen Ginsberg respectively, were instrumental leaders in this mapping of future poetics. They felt communication to be a fine-tuned relationship between the mind and its environment, and as such, a writing tool naturally and necessarily void of abstraction. In fact, they considered the fruits of their labors as real, and as definite, as the material which it emerged.
Let’s take a closer look at the organic form desired by the Projectivist poet as described by Charles Olson. Primarily, the poet must compose his poem by field. In other words, instead of trying to fit the near-best word into a pre-ordained line, stanza, or form, the Projectivist poet uses an inherently-less-restrictive, open, free-style verse which relies solely on the poet’s digestion of his environment, or field. Using such verse could only prove to enhance true communication. Essentially, there are two interrelated parts to Projectivist verse, the “what?“ and the “how?.”
The “what?” can be split three ways: kinetics, principle, and process. Kinetics refers to the energy transfer from the field through the poet’s mind to his pen. The path the energy takes from field to pen is fixed and thus, as mentioned above, void of abstraction. The second part, principle, is simply a corollary to kinetics. This part of the “what?” has been best described by Robert Creeley who wrote, “form is never more than an extension of content.” Finally, the process of composing by field can be easily defined with an understanding of the domino effect. We all know that tapping thus toppling the first of a group of dominos stacked in alignment with each other will swiftly lead to a further tapped thus toppled domino. The same idea can be understood with regards to Projectivist theory of verse; as told to Olson by Edward Dahlberg, “one perception must immediately and directly lead to a further perception.”
The second part of the theory of Projectivist verse, the “how,” is basically the life force the energy picks up as it travels through the poets body. Olson very eloquently referred to this union of field and life as “the dance of the intellect.
Michael Gray’s analysis of Dylan’s lyrics being a contrast between hackneyed expressions and “beautifully done” are exemplified in the song “Just Like a Woman.” Dylan’s lyrics “she aches just like a woman but she breaks just like a little girl” is given the harsh description of “maudlin platitude” and deemed to be a “non-statement.” If Dylan’s lyrics cannot uphold against meaningful music of the same category, how can they be expected to stand against literature written for a different field. John Lennon had his own critiques of Dylan’s works, calling out how the abstract nature of his lyrics, having loose definition, never achieved an actual point. Lennon’s definition of “poetry” referred to “stick[ing] a few images together” and “thread[ing] them” in order to create something meaningful. It once again boils down to the fact that Dylan’s music that was written and intended to be received as a live performance. The acknowledgement that “…you have to hear Dylan doing it” is a recognition of his composition’s failure to come across as a normal literary work. It’s all part of a “good game.” This in itself should disqualify Dylan as a possible candidate for the Nobel Prize.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
Allen Ginsberg confessed the intention to “defy the system of academic poetry, official reviews, New York publishing machinery, national sobriety and generally accepted standards to good taste” (qtd. in Tyler Hoffman 128). These were the poet’s answers to decay and disillusion. The technique used to deny the tradition was similar to the Dadaist approach by using spontaneity as a method of composition. Ginsberg, being part of the Beat movement, tried to establish a new tradition, and a new perspective regarding the world, all carefully wrapped in a less academic view. They had “A profound love of poetry, a belief in the vitality and integrity of
Ginsberg was a literary revolutionary as can be seen in his poetry. He pushed form and genre, theory and confrontation, confession and controversy right to the threshold and over the doorway of societal standards. In pushing and pushing, Ginsberg creates a new vocabulary for certain words by capitalizing them and giving them the significance of the ‘proper noun.’ By capitalizing the first letter of certain words, Ginsberg gives a solid identity to intangible things and redefines their role in a corrupted society that has destroyed the “best minds” of his generation.
The definition of poetry, instead of becoming more selective and exact, has become a much more broad and open minded classification of literature. From It's beginning's in romanticist Puritan literature, to its more modernistic function on present society, poetry has become a way to blend the psychological side of human intellect, with the emotional side of human intuition and curiosity. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were two early poets from the late 19th century. Unlike Walt, Emily liked to write at home, she was a more secluded author who enjoyed to look out the window for inspiration. Walt on the other hand loved to travel. He found inspiration through nature and the diversity of thriving cultures throughout the world. Although these writers found inspiration from two different methods, their poems have distinct similarities in theme, images, and main ideas.
Gitlin, Todd. “TheLiberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut.” The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, and Rhetoric. Ed. Shea, Renee H., Lawrence Scanlonn, and Robin Dissin Aufses. Boston: Bedford, 2008. 155-157. Print.
is a poem about the nature of creation, much as is his earlier poem from
Strand, Mark and Evan Boland. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New
“Poe’s Theory of Poetry.” The Big Read. Handout One. N.d.. 16. Web. 19 April 2014.
In each poem the author uses the literary devices of personification, description, and dialogue to develop their subject or theme. The imagist poems, although all very short and to the point, use a literary device to help the poem develop overall. Edgar Allen Poe uses the devices to show the slow progression of the speakers descent into madness and insanity.
He starts with the action word. Then, he chooses a subject. Finally, he describes something about the subject. Keeping this pattern relatively the same until the last stanza of the song, Dylan allows the listener to learn the pattern and then apply it to their own imagination as the song develops. He creates a structure for the mind to be creative and wander, and leaves it up to the listener to create whatever they may choose.
"Characteristics of Modern Poetry - Poetry - Questions & Answers." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. Web. 09 Jan. 2012. .
A second step in analyzing a poem is to identify the main idea or point of the poem. In “The Author to ...
In conclusion, I am a contextualist thinker/perceiver of the world. Poetry is of the most mysterious and wonderful pieces of literature, in my opinion, because it allows your mind to reach into the depth of your soul and express emotion and truth through passion.
...a sense trying to solve a problem which in this case is a poem. I agree with poststructuralist views because I think that you cannot successfully solve a piece by researching the time period, author background, and so forth. The authors leave it up to our interpretations because most authors understand the concept that interpretation is no longer in their control when they write a piece. Someone who believes they could actually solve a piece of poetry and be dead on is naive because that seems like a secret we have no way of figuring out.