The simplest definition is poetry is the practice of creating artworks using language. Painters use paint; musicians use sound; poets use language. Here are 5 things almost all (good) poetry has more of than other language (the non-poetic kind). The simplest definition is poetry is the practice of creating artworks using language. Painters use paint; musicians use sound; poets use language. Here are 5 things almost all (good) poetry has more of than other language (the non-poetic kind).

#1: A TTENTIVENESS Poets are extremely careful with the way they use language. They pay attention to: Spelling The way words sound What words mean (connotation) Punctuation Spaces between and around words Pretty much all elements of language

#2: C ONCENTRATION Poetry has more meaning, music, and emotions per word, per syllable, and per letter than other kinds of writing Poets use carefully selected combinations of words More meaning in fewer words

#3: E XPERIMENT Poets try to use language in new, surprising, and challenging ways. They use language in special ways to startle, awaken, or challenge you.

#4: O RIGINALITY Poetry says or does something new – makes something new happen in the reader’s mind It can be an original observation about life, or a new way of saying something many other people have already thought or said

#5: F ORM Most writing is done from one margin across the page to the next margin, and you indent for a new paragraph. But poetry is different. The very shape or structure a particular group of words make is one part of form Form also refers to the way a poem is written (its mode). In the form of a sonnet, a letter, a prayer, etc. All forms carry their own worlds of meaning, so poets think a lot about form.

F OR LOTS OF REASONS. S OME POSSIBLE PURPOSES ARE : Record history Tell the stories of their communities Make nice with the gods Commemorate a moment of personal history Take an achingly clear snapshot of experience Embody their feelings Create a state of feeling Explore language Record history Tell the stories of their communities Make nice with the gods Commemorate a moment of personal history Take an achingly clear snapshot of experience Embody their feelings Create a state of feeling Explore language So why do people write poetry?

But no formula can cover all the different motivations poets have. But most poets are trying to do one or both of the following: Create an intense emotional experience Draw attention to something that is true/ alert you to truth and beauty

Ben Jonson, a Renaissance poet who lived the same time as Shakespeare, writes a poem of farewell to his son, who has just died at 7 years old. Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.

The name Benjamin means “son of the right hand” in Hebrew, so this phrase means both “son of whom I’m especially proud” and is a pun on the name of both the father and the son. It is also a Biblical reference, as Jesus was seated at the right at of the Father. Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.

The day on which payment is due on a debt. The boy was “lent” to the speaker for seven years, and then “fate” (the lender) “exacted” (required) repayment on the due date. Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.

This passage could mean, “now I am no longer a father, or “After such pain, I never want to be a father again.” Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.

Here the poet is saying that even if his son escaped no other misery, at least he escaped getting old. Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.

Tone is tender sorrow, not angry. But notice that Jonson never refers directly to his own pain. Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.

Fancy way of saying Ben Jonson’s Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.

The son is the best “poem” (work of art) that Jonson ever created. Expresses the father’s fondness and devotion to his son. Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.

The speaker makes a vow at the end to love things in this world, but not to become attached to them. This suggests the suffering of the father at the death of his child without speaking any of those words directly. Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy: Seven years thou wert leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy, To have so soon ‘scaped world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and asked, say “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.” For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loved may never like too much.