Poetry has been around since 2,000 BCE (Super Prof South Africa). Poetry is still around, but isn’t as appreciated. We all know Shakespeare, and frankly, it’s really hard to understand. So, to start, what is poetry today?
Modern poetry nowadays is usually about people’s experiences and feelings. Using words that rhyme and using complexities of life as a guide to what they write about. It is a form of art that isn’t always straightforward about its theme.
This poem by William Blake isn’t easy to decipher, but it is open to interpretation, and that is the beautiful part of poems. It can relate to anything you want. I interpret this poem as the rose being me, and the worm being someone who hurt me. The worm came to feast on the rose when it needed food. The rose was helpless and let the worm hurt it. It is a very short poem that can be turned into even a love story if you are creative enough.
Poetry came from historians who tell stories through this type of literature. History is all around us, and in ancient Greece, a common way to share it was through poetry. Poetry emphasizes emotions and actions. It can also be shown to tell a lesson or convey beliefs. Poetry brings communities together and shares heritage. These poems would be shared like songs, using rhymes and repetition to help people learn quickly. These were eventually written down to be passed down to the next generations to come.
In the 15th century, they made writing work available to many. This made the biggest impact on poetry. Now, not only could they reach different audiences, but they could also up their poem game to write clear and precise poems.
The well-known Shakespeare used this poetry technique called the sonnet. It is very strict and hard to learn. It focuses on rhyme and meter, but also tells a story.
5 centuries later, we finally made it to modern poetry. We completely stopped the traditional types of poetry. Now it is about self-expression and personal emotions. It opens up poetry to its full potential. It is not strict, it is open and freeing.
Why does poetry even matter? Barley anyone uses poetry nowadays? Everyone has been hurt by words, but they’ve also been moved and motivated by them. Poetry is about expressing feelings and comparing them to nature or anything you choose.
You don’t even have to come up with the words. Grab any old book you don’t care about and rip a page. Get a sharpie and choose words, scribble everything, but those words out, and boom, you just made a poem. Every word on every page of a book means something. (TSPR Barb Harroun)
