Smart Art: Poetry

Introduction to Poetry

The common understanding of poetry is that it's a composition consisting of pairs of lines that end with words that rhyme. This is, however, typically a hallmark of bad poetry. And it may not be poetry at all. It is actually rhyming verse, and not all rhyming verse is poetry.

The word "poetry" has been misused so much that it has now become nearly meaningless in the popular vernacular and, sadly, even in academic and literary circles.

Taking a somewhat purist viewpoint, a poem is a literary work in metric form. That is, it has meter or rhythm. While this can be accomplished by rhyming, it can also be accomplished in any of several other ways. Rhyming is generally considered the simplest way, and thus the most pedestrian. Allegedly "snooty" artists go for the more sophisticated methods, such as:

• Alliteration. Repeating a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases.
• Assonance. Repeating vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences (listen to Martin Luther King's "I had a dream" speech).
• Onomatopoeia. Using a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes.

The most cerebral of poets use these poetic techniques not with sounds, but with meanings or images. This makes their poetry translatable to almost any language without loss of the poet's intent. While that language transcendence is the aim of some poets, for others the aim is to engage the reader or listener at a deeper level of consciousness.

Regarding what is a poem and what is not, Louis Armstrong might say you know it when you see it and if I have to explain it you'll never understand. Actually, we can get a good overview of poetry by examining the lyrics of songs. Not all musicians are poets, and not all poets are musicians. But today, the common person rarely attends poetic recitals and often listens to music. And music tends to be written in poetic form.

Consider one song that nearly always tops the list of any "Greatest of all time" countdown: