What Is Poetry? (1962)

[Music] if we see an event like an auto wreck we often tell others about it there are many ways to tell others about an event but we explore and contrast two very different ways the way of a newspaper report and the way of a poem a newspaper report might be written like this Tom Bowman a 19 year old college student of 1821 Hayward Street was killed last night and James Bowman his three year old brother was critically injured in an auto accident the accident occurred at Euclid and Westwood boulevards Sutter report tells us what happened when it happened where it happened and who was involved it is completely factual objective the writer does not give his opinion of the accident nor does he tell us how the accident affected him he offers no comment on the meaning of this particular accident nor upon accidents in general but now let's see how the same event might be reported in a poem the poet carl shapiro tells us about an auto wreck [Music] it's quick soft silver Bell beating beating and down the dark one ruby flare pulsing out red light like an artery the ambulance at top speed floating down past beacons and illuminated clocks wings in a heavy curve dips down and breaks speed entering the crowd The Doors leap open emptying light stretchers are laid out the mangle lifted and stoled into the little hospital then the Bell breaking the hush Tolls once and the ambulance with it's terrible cargo rocking slightly rocking moves away as the doors an afterthought are closed [Music] we are deranged walking among the cops who sweep less and are large and composed one still making notes under the light one with a bucket douches puns of blood into the street in gutter one hangs lanterns on the wrecks that cling empty husks of locusts to iron poles our throats were tight as tourniquets our feet were bound with Sprint's but now like convalescence intimate and gauche we speak through sickly smiles and worn with a stubborn so of common sense the grim joke and the banal resolution the traffic moves around with care but we remain touching a wound that opens to our richest horror already hold the question who shall die becomes unspoken who is innocent for death in war is done by hands suicide has calls and stillbirth logic but this invites the occult mind cancels our physics with a snare and spatters all we knew of day no more across the expedient and wicked stalls [Music] one event two ways of reporting it the news reporters objective impersonal unemotional the poem subjective personal highly emotional but what does the poet do to make it that way first he selects an incident or an event isolating pramukh those elements that impress him personally he concentrates our attention on those elements the doors emptying light the mangled lifted and stowed wrecks empty husks of locusts he heightens the effect of the elements through image of oking words and phrases the cops who sweep glass one Ruby Fleur pulsing out red light like an artery throat's tight as tourniquets but we remain touching a womb that opens to our richest horror so by the selection of specific elements and through the use of highly descriptive words the poet makes us see as he so feel as he filled his poem becomes an emotional experience in which we participate finally the poet may attempt to make an event meaningful he tries to extract from it some hard core of thought some universal human truth for significance so an accident by itself senseless and without logic is made to carry implications about the pattern of each man's existence about each man's place in the world and even about the meaning of life itself the question who shall die becomes unspoken who is innocent through poetry our lives can take on added dimension through poetry we have an opportunity to share in some measure the lives of all men you [Music]