I really liked the definitions of poetry by Shelley, they really identified what poetry was. Being a history major, most of my reading consists of facts dates and written accounts of past events. Life contained in a history book is very different from life in a book of poetry. One contains facts, and dates, the other contains feelings and emotions, one helps you see what life was like, the other helps you feel what life is like. I never understood the purpose of poetry, but now I have a better understanding, it is not a factual account of something, rather it is “The very image of life expressed in its eternal truth.”
For example, Shelley is not teaching about the existence of Ozymandias, but of the existence and consequences of pride, he is not even telling the story of a fallen kingdom, but the insignificance of human power in relation to nature. The same can be said of We Are Seven, it is a picture of the innocence and purity of children, the pure understanding of unadulterated minds. The story in itself is not of any significance, the presence of death at that time was not uncommon, but the expression of innocence and purity is an amazing insight on the nature of man.
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I loved the idea of a connection between poetry and history. I love history as well (it's my minor) and I often wonder what the people really thought about it as it was happening. History textbooks can only tell you so much, you know? That is why I love poetry. We can learn so much about day to day life in the 19th century by reading from these fantastic poets. Along with being excellent on a poetic standpoint, they are historically rich. I love learning from them.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly why I have a hard time with new criticism/death of the author kind of stuff. Doesn't the culture in which a work was produced have an incredible impact on the function of a work? This may be an incredibly basic oversimplification, but an example: if there was no struggle for Irish independence, we would've never had some of Yeats' best (in my eyes) works. Another more reltaed example is that, without the overwhelming presence of Christianity, we wouldn't have had "The Lamb" or a lot of the material in "Songs of Innocence."
ReplyDeleteI think that Shelley's definitions of poetry, however, have more to do with art as a whole than with poetry, per se; of course, that's his (generally) preferred form, so I can see why he woul dhold to that. Even so, I think it's even more all-encompassing than he says.