On poetry and the past: to write down the unexpressible

 

"The fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world in spite of History" — Derek Walcott

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These past weeks, I have been revisiting various sections of my life, some for the last time before kicking them into oblivion, others to collect the lessons and the love I want to carry forward. Today, I can say that my mind is well-anchored in the present, with the intention of living it to the fullest and making the most of what I have, while my heart is set on the future, dreaming and hoping. I've been able to look back to the person I was and find value in her thoughts, which are mine. Going through my old stuff, I found pieces of me I'd like to share with you, bit by bit, as a compendium of memoirs that speak of the woman I am. Perhaps this will inspire you to do the same.

As part of the professional training, the curricula of the Simón Bolívar University, where I studied, include a series of subjects called General Courses. The objective of these is to provide the future graduate with an integral and complementary vision, beyond his or her area of interest. These General Courses are of an elective nature and include a range of subjects such as literature, philosophy, politics, economics, biodiversity, biotechnology, among others.

Although I was studying biology, an almost purely scientific career, my humanistic streak was always present in my choices of elective courses. In them, I learned about art, about history, about others, and about myself, the most valuable knowledge that college left me with. Today I share with you one of my essay attempts, originally written by hand and in Spanish for a poetry class, from my limited knowledge and with more passion than a true vocation for it. For me, literature is more about everyday life and less about the 'study of the study' of literature, if that makes sense. I hope you enjoy it and find value in it.
 

 

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Poetry, according to Eagleton (2007), "is the language in which meaning or sense is the overall process of meaning itself." In other words, poetry is both its own language and purpose. On the other hand, Shelley (1986) defines it as "an expression of the imagination." Poetry can be as much as is imagined from it, for the writer and for the reader, in more or less equal parts. In this same line of thought, it can be observed that since its origins in the aoidos, poetry has represented a certain vision associated with a certain reality, both historical and fictional.

Throughout its existence, poetic language has been linked to the voice of humanity. Its purpose: to echo and reverberate through time, from the past and into the future. Indeed, all artistic expression has the potential to achieve this end, to a greater or lesser degree, but perhaps poetry is the most intimate of them all. Writing and reading poetry is as much an individual experience as it is a collective one. Words are exhaled from the soul, only to be inhaled by someone else.

Over the course of history, during the process of language experimentation prior to the avant-garde, two interesting poetic currents can be identified: Apollonian poetry, which focuses on reason, and Dionysian poetry, which comes from the impulses of the earth, passion, and intuition. Either way, poetic language allows a deeper approach to reality and to the intrinsic and mysterious truths of life. It is the poetic use of any word or set of words, that is laden with meaning, not just the expressions themselves. It is important to note that, without the externalized representation of the poetic voice or state, poetry as a genre would not exist as we know it.

The poem then becomes the materialization of the voices and poetic states of individuals and entire generations, and consists of several indispensable and concrete elements: structure, form, meaning, and rhythm. The metrical characteristics, the subject matter, the language used, and its cadence; a poem can be dissected and separated, but its true purpose is simply to be read, over and over again.

An impressionistic reading of a poem makes it possible to connect with the artistic expression expressed by the author. A second approach, that of critical reading, implies specifying the nature of the poem: what does it say? How does it say it? This, through the identification of the significant nuclei of the poem, and their relationship or contradiction. However, when analyzing a poem, over-interpretation must be avoided. The multiplicity of meaning is as rich and varied as human diversity, but it is always delimited by the individuality of the author.
 

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Works cited:

• Eagleton, T. (2007). Cómo leer un poema. Madrid: Akal, p. 31.
• Shelley, P.B. (1986). Defensa de la poesía. Barcelona: Ed. Península, p. 23.

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^{Sources of the images:
📷 by Iñaki del Olmo
📷 by Debby Hudson}

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^{I'd like to thank you for reading this. I hope my words resonated with you in some way. If they did, or even if they didn't, I'd like to further connect with you, so I invite you to drop a comment and I'll answer it as soon as I can.}