ShmoopTube

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What is Poetry? a la Shmoop. Easy question, right?

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Poetry is an ancient, antiquated form of art, like pottery-making or cave painting, that [caveman in caves, cooking over fire]

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holds no place in our modern world, unless it comes to us in the form of a radio jingle.

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You wish. Like it or not, poetry is here to stay.

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While there may not be too many millionaire poets living on your block…[picture of Poe Residence]

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…the art of poetry is just as important today as ever, and it can help us reflect

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and learn more about ourselves and our place in the universe. [caveman on a shrinking globe]

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… slightly more valuable than a freshly baked clay pot.

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So why is there such a stigma attached to poetry?

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Why do we picture stuffy old folks in leather armchairs, puffing away on their pipes and

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speaking in a faux British accent? [old englishman in chair]

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Honestly… because it can sometimes be difficult to understand. We just assume it’s for the

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cultural elite. So not true. Yeah, interpreting poetry can be tough. But [caveman with a rubix cube]

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for those who put in the work to decipher a poem’s hidden meanings, the rewards can

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be great.

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Not like… winning the lottery great. But still… it can lead to some important self-discovery.

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But why do poems have to read like they’ve been written in some sort of secret code? [caveman sherlock Holmes]

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Do we need a decoder ring to crack these things?

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Is the CIA hard at work attempting to get to the bottom of Pablo Neruda’s poems? [CIA reading poem book]

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This “secret code” is what makes poetry… poetry.

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Straightforward speech… that’s for novels and short stories.

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Poetry experiments, not only with ideas relating to the human experience, but with language

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itself. [poem experimenting in lab]

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Because it is free from many of the usual restrictions of style and grammar…

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…it can sometimes allow us to stumble on certain ways of thinking we might otherwise [caveman strips over poem]

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never have considered. You’ll notice that many poems are jam-packed

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with figurative language, which can be used to convey meaning. [caveman in jam-jar]

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For example, you’re thinking right now about how much jam can be packed into a jar. Yeah.

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Poetry is just like that. Again, the frequent use of metaphor and simile

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help the reader draw unfamiliar connections…[caveman on bed]

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…that will occasionally inspire little “eureka” moments.

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But it’s not just the content that sets poetry apart.

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There are stylistic elements, such as repetition… repetition… repetition…[broken record]

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…rhyme, and meter…

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…that make a poem feel different than prose.

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And it makes no bones about being its own animal.

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“Iamb what I am.” When poetry got its start, it was nothing [caveman playing dinosaur bones]

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more than part of the oral tradition…

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…words and phrases in metered form that were passed from one person to another via

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memorization. [cavemen around fire]

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Those rhythms and meters helped folks remember the words…

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…and by the time poems were written down, the art form had just kind of adopted these

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techniques.

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Which explains why poems often seem sing-songy.

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Don’t hesitate to bust out a little Walt Whitman at your next karaoke party. [caveman singing karaoke]

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Because poetry is so much about inventiveness, it can sometimes be tough to pin down just

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what a poem is. [thumb tack put into poem]

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Notes on the fridge, grocery lists, pop music…

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All are arguably forms of poetry. Although some are clearly more artful than others.

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Even if your mom can put together quite a catchy shopping list. [girl making shopping list into poetry]

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But while poetry is a bit all over the map…

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…there are certain types that pop up often enough that we had to devise a name for them.

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Sonnets are romantic poems with a ton of meaning and not too many lines…

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Villanelles are nineteen line poems with a rigid rhyming scheme…

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Limericks are light verses that often feature a comical twist at the end.

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“There once was a man from Madrid, Who sautéed his oldest boy, Sid

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He threw in some spice And claimed it was nice [spice sprinkles over boy playing with car]

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To be putting in thyme with his kid.” And then there’s plain old free verse…

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…no rules or restrictions, just words on a page, in whatever order and length that

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the poet feels is necessary.

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In that case, it’s all about letting the subject matter be your guide.

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So while you may feel that poetry isn’t your cup of tea…

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…we urge you to give it a chance.

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It’s not all flowery language and structured verses…

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…although even some of that flowery language might open your eyes a little wider and teach

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you something new about the world…

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…or… flowers.

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