Why Poetry Sucks
Posted by
Kevin
Poetry sucks. Now, I am aware that that is not a universally held opinion, and further aware that not all poetry sucks completely. But I would submit to you that Sturgeon’s Law needs to be modified for poetry: 99% of poetry is crap. Out side of rare exceptions, I have found that prose is consistently better at expressing ideas and at generating genuine emotions. The emotions even good poetry conjure up tend to be shallow and one note in nature, more manipulation than honesty. The best of poetry cannot compare with the best of prose.
I think this comes from the fact that poetry is a largely unnatural means of expression. Human beings, at least modern, Western human beings, simply do not communicate in verse. The form places restrictions on the content - even free verse, to a certain extent - and those restrictions make the poetry something less than real human communication. Compare the dialog, characterizations, and flow of Paradise Lost and the Grapes of Wrath. I don’t think its an exaggeration to say that Paradise Lost is perhaps the finest piece of long poetry every written, and yet it simply is not in the same class as the finest prose works. A large part of that is due to the limitations of the poetic form: at no time can you ever forget you are reading a piece of poetry. By that I mean the cadence, the sentence and line structure, the choice of language, the sometimes forced-seeming word usage is a constant reminder that you are dealing with an artificial construct, not a natural means of communication. Some older literature has a minor version of this problem, but only a minor version. Novels do not have the limitation poetry does, and so are able to use normal methods of human communication to get their stories across. A good novel has none of the problems of cadence, structure or enforced word usage that plagues poetry. Poetry sucks because it feels wrong, and it feels wrong because it is not normal human communication - it is an artificial construct created for the sake of itself.
Some people may argue that songs are simply poetry put to music, and since songs are an effective means of communication, all poetry should be considered such. I don’t think so, because I think that people forget that the singer in a song is another instrument. We expect music to adhere to a particular set of conventions and forms, and when a person’s voice is used in service of those forms and conventions, it becomes just another instrument. In other words, song lyrics are not experienced as language, they are experienced as music.
That is the core of the problem. Poetry is not a natural use of the language, it is artificial, and in being artificial it is inferior as a means of communication.
My nit with you is that poetry isn’t really intended to be a “means of communication,” but rather as an artistic expression. But it almost always sucks at that, too.
And I disagree with you about song lyrics. They’re somewhere in the middle. It is indeed poetry put to music, but necessarily so — it wouldn’t fit the music without the contrivance. So it’s poetry for music’s sake, which makes sense to me. Poetry for poetry’s sake has always seemed somewhat silly.
Especially free verse. Hoo does that suck! God Damn Walt Whitman!
Comment 12/29/2003
If I could add one thing
it would be that instead of just poetry, I’d say that 99.99% of all art sucks….
Trackback 12/30/2003
Heh…just think about the success of Jewel’s CD sales vs. her poetry book sales. It only works when sung, hun.
Comment 12/30/2003
poetry sucks only if you are too ignorant to pay attention to your life–
Comment 1/10/2004
ROGER THAT
Comment 1/23/2004
hey. i agree with you kevin. my english teacher is such a dumb ass. he is making us write a 7 page paper on why we think poetry should or should not be taught in schools. i am writing AGAINST poetry because i HATE IT. the class i am in is AMERICAN LITERATURE….NOT POETRY. the grading period is almost over and i have learned absolutley NO american literature…just really shitty poetry and i am so over it. so in my paper i am quoting you as my critical source (one of them) thanks for your statements!
Comment 2/25/2004