WHAT IS POETRY?

USES OF LANGUAGE Practical Argumentative Literary

PRACTICAL USE EXAMPLES: We say it is nine o’clock, that we liked a certain movie, that George Washington was the first president of the United States, that bromine and iodine are members of the halogen group of chemical elements Commonest use of language Communicates information Helps us with the ordinary business of living

ARGUMENTATIVE USE EXAMPLES: advertisements, sermons, political speeches, and even some poems Instrument of persuasion

LITERARY USE EXAMPLES: novels, short stories, plays, poems Exists to communicate significant experience in a concentrated, organized way. Broadens our experience - making us familiar with a experiences with which we might have no contact otherwise Deepens our experience - making us feel more poignantly and more understandingly the everyday experiences all of us have

OVERLAP BETWEEN THE THREE USES Some written language simultaneously performs two or even all three functions. EXAMPLE: An excellent poem considered “literary” may convey information, and may also try to persuade us to share a particular point of view.

IMPORTANCE OF ALL THREE USES If we are interested in eagles, where do we go to acquire information? Encyclopedia or a book of natural history There are about 55 species; most have hooked bills, curved claws, broad wings, and powerfully developed breast muscles; they vary in length from about 16inches to as long as 40inches; most hunt while flying, though some await their prey on a high perch; they nest in tall trees or on inaccessible cliffs; they lay only one or two eggs Eagles “symbolize power, courage, freedom, and immortality and have long been used as national, military, and heraldic emblems and as symbols in religion” (Encyclopedia Americana).

IMPORTANCE OF ALL THREE USES TRUE, we learned many facts BUT, we have missed somehow its lonely majesty, its power, and the wild grandeur of its surroundings that would make the eagle a living creature rather than a mere museum specimen.

THE EAGLE He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

IMPORTANCE OF ALL THREE USES The two approaches to experience - the scientific (practical) and the literary - complement each other The understanding we get from the second is at least as valuable as the kind we get from the first

MISCONCEPTIONS There is always a lesson or moral in poetry Poetry is always beautiful

WINTER When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And Tom bears logs into the hall, And milk comes from frozen home in pail, When blood is nipped and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring owl, “Tu-whit, tu-who!” A merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot When all aloud the wind doth blow, And coughing drowns the parson’s saw, And birds sit brooding in the snow, And Marian’s nose looks red and raw, When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

MORAL? Poetry is concerned with experience and philosophical truth is an aspect of experience, THEREFORE... Some poetry is inspirational and offers some noble truth about life (argumentative + literary)... BUT not all poetry! EXAMPLE: Winter contains no moral

BEAUTIFUL? Poetry is concerned with experience and beauty is an aspect of experience, THEREFORE... Some poetry deals with beauty - with sunsets, flowers, butterflies, love... BUT not all poetry! EXAMPLE: In Winter, though it is appealing in its way and contains elements of beauty, there is little that is really beautiful in red, raw noses, coughing in chapel, nipped blood, foul roads, and greasy cooks.

WRAP UP Poetry is concerned with all kinds of EXPERIENCE - beautiful or ugly, strange or common, noble or ignoble, actual or imaginary, etc. THEREFORE, poetry is life!