Need we take an interest in the poetry of the past?
88.89%
16 votes
YES: It will inspire, educate and encourage us
11.11%
2 votes
NO: It is irrellevant and unhelpful to us today
Need we take an interest in the poetry of the past?
AdamW
Forum Posts: 7
Lost Thinker
1
Joined 24th Sep 2018 Forum Posts: 7
Need we take an interest in the poetry of the past?
Anonymous
I believe it was Churchill that once said “a country that forgets its past has no future”.
Same goes for poetry in my opinion.
Same goes for poetry in my opinion.
Umm
Forum Posts: 2373
Dangerous Mind
1
Joined 6th Dec 2015Forum Posts: 2373
I don't consider myself a writer or poet, but I truly love reading and I don't think anyone who has read T.S. Eliot's essays on poetry and criticism could ever believe that poetry of the past is irrelevant.
"We dwell with satisfaction upon the poet’s difference from his predecessors, especially his immediate predecessors; we endeavour to find something that can be isolated in order to be enjoyed. Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously.
.... the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order."
- T.S. Eliot
I hope this is relevant and I haven't missed the point of the thread
"We dwell with satisfaction upon the poet’s difference from his predecessors, especially his immediate predecessors; we endeavour to find something that can be isolated in order to be enjoyed. Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously.
.... the historical sense compels a man to write not merely with his own generation in his bones, but with a feeling that the whole of the literature of Europe from Homer and within it the whole of the literature of his own country has a simultaneous existence and composes a simultaneous order."
- T.S. Eliot
I hope this is relevant and I haven't missed the point of the thread
Gesare
Joined 27th Sep 2018
Forum Posts: 2
Strange Creature
Forum Posts: 2
Its rather simple...there is no past no now no gonna be...just the primordial celebration...great poets transcend these arbitrary whoopi cushion structures
Gesare
Joined 27th Sep 2018
Forum Posts: 2
Strange Creature
Forum Posts: 2
That is an utterly pointless question!!! There is no past no now no gonna be....great poets trancend all arbitrary structures!! They make very real accusations at the institutions that now have there hands in our very minds, they challenge the very aspects ofour institutions that prop up the endless sheep to slaughter paradigm...these are the ones often hardest to find, the greatest power is inactive
Xxxlix
Joined 28th Sep 2018
Forum Posts: 39
Twisted Dreamer
Forum Posts: 39
Modern usage which includes rapping is still steeped in old poetic traditions, mostly because it comes from oral recitation. The skalds and bards used rhythm even more than rhyme
Ahavati
Forum Posts: 14273
Tyrant of Words
116
Joined 11th Apr 2015Forum Posts: 14273
The poetic difference between those who profess to have written all their lives and those who actually do is how much ( or how little ) they've read or studied our literary predecessors.
When I ask someone on this board who their influences are ( because I see none ), 90% of the time they'll say only themselves or other site members.
I'm not judging, just sad they're missing an entire path paved by some of the most beautiful literary influences of our time. And for the most part, their work demonstrates a patterned quagmire void of breathtaking imagery, emotional depth, and a uniquely surprising expression to something that's been said a thousand times before.
Yet it's their life to be happy at will.
When I ask someone on this board who their influences are ( because I see none ), 90% of the time they'll say only themselves or other site members.
I'm not judging, just sad they're missing an entire path paved by some of the most beautiful literary influences of our time. And for the most part, their work demonstrates a patterned quagmire void of breathtaking imagery, emotional depth, and a uniquely surprising expression to something that's been said a thousand times before.
Yet it's their life to be happy at will.
Anonymous
Ahavati said:The poetic difference between those who profess to have written all their lives and those who actually do is how much ( or how little ) they've read or studied our literary predecessors.
When I ask someone on this board who their influences are ( because I see none ), 90% of the time they'll say only themselves or other site members.
I'm not judging, just sad they're missing an entire path paved by some of the most beautiful literary influences of our time. And for the most part, their work demonstrates a patterned quagmire void of breathtaking imagery, emotional depth, and a uniquely surprising expression to something that's been said a thousand times before.
Yet it's their life to be happy at will.
Unpeccable observation. I agree. "No one can make themselves. We all are born from someone".
When I ask someone on this board who their influences are ( because I see none ), 90% of the time they'll say only themselves or other site members.
I'm not judging, just sad they're missing an entire path paved by some of the most beautiful literary influences of our time. And for the most part, their work demonstrates a patterned quagmire void of breathtaking imagery, emotional depth, and a uniquely surprising expression to something that's been said a thousand times before.
Yet it's their life to be happy at will.
Unpeccable observation. I agree. "No one can make themselves. We all are born from someone".
Vandel_Viaclovsky
Van
Forum Posts: 126
Van
Thought Provoker
2
Joined 21st July 2013Forum Posts: 126
this is silly,
does an aspiring painter not study painting to some degree or another?
does an aspiring architect not study architecture?
does a doctor not study medicine that has been practiced already or do they just, like, ya know, wing it and hope for the best?
if one has no interest in studying poetry then one should not be in the poetry business, same as anything else really.
(by the way, those of you who make no effort to study your craft, hate to tell you this, but its really terribly obvious)
does an aspiring painter not study painting to some degree or another?
does an aspiring architect not study architecture?
does a doctor not study medicine that has been practiced already or do they just, like, ya know, wing it and hope for the best?
if one has no interest in studying poetry then one should not be in the poetry business, same as anything else really.
(by the way, those of you who make no effort to study your craft, hate to tell you this, but its really terribly obvious)
Astyanax
Ceejay
Forum Posts: 748
Ceejay
Fire of Insight
9
Joined 23rd Feb 2010Forum Posts: 748
Couldn't agree more, Vandel, particularly with your final observation.
Anonymous
Vandel_Viaclovsky said:this is silly,
does an aspiring painter not study painting to some degree or another?
does an aspiring architect not study architecture?
does a doctor not study medicine that has been practiced already or do they just, like, ya know, wing it and hope for the best?
if one has no interest in studying poetry then one should not be in the poetry business, same as anything else really.
(by the way, those of you who make no effort to study your craft, hate to tell you this, but its really terribly obvious)
Only by knowing, understanding and appreciating the great poets of the past, can we make art. In ancient times there were masters and disciples. The students lived with their teachers and assimilated their style, thoughts and ways of living and creating. Sadly, these schools have ended with modern day schools. Sad days when pupils are made to go forward even if they don't know or understand what they study. All according to the unfair principle that it is demeaning to leave people back. Bullocks! It's dangerous to promote people for the sake of it. What ever happened to challenge and merit?!
does an aspiring painter not study painting to some degree or another?
does an aspiring architect not study architecture?
does a doctor not study medicine that has been practiced already or do they just, like, ya know, wing it and hope for the best?
if one has no interest in studying poetry then one should not be in the poetry business, same as anything else really.
(by the way, those of you who make no effort to study your craft, hate to tell you this, but its really terribly obvious)
Only by knowing, understanding and appreciating the great poets of the past, can we make art. In ancient times there were masters and disciples. The students lived with their teachers and assimilated their style, thoughts and ways of living and creating. Sadly, these schools have ended with modern day schools. Sad days when pupils are made to go forward even if they don't know or understand what they study. All according to the unfair principle that it is demeaning to leave people back. Bullocks! It's dangerous to promote people for the sake of it. What ever happened to challenge and merit?!
AnonymousBystander
Forum Posts: 226
Fire of Insight
3
Joined 28th Sep 2018 Forum Posts: 226
How else would you be able to make it new?
SatInUGal
Kumar
Forum Posts: 903
Kumar
Dangerous Mind
24
Joined 31st Dec 2015Forum Posts: 903
To Ahavati's post, all I would add is that the grand majority of poets I've read bore me to no end, so I don't end up reading as much old poetry as I might otherwise. DUP has a decent representation of the kind of poetry I like, which is fascinating. I love it here.
So, for me, I'm really glad for the classic poets and not-so-classic earlier poets that I've read and enjoyed, and my boat these days is mostly being floated by the contemporary poets I read here and other places.
I also think it's quite possible to simultaneously discover forms of poetry that are similar without reading the other stuff. When I read Rupi Kaur's stuff, I was like, "She stole my old style." Nah, I just happened to write (mostly in the past) a style that was in common with today's instagram poets.
So, for me, I'm really glad for the classic poets and not-so-classic earlier poets that I've read and enjoyed, and my boat these days is mostly being floated by the contemporary poets I read here and other places.
I also think it's quite possible to simultaneously discover forms of poetry that are similar without reading the other stuff. When I read Rupi Kaur's stuff, I was like, "She stole my old style." Nah, I just happened to write (mostly in the past) a style that was in common with today's instagram poets.
Magdalena
Spartalena
Forum Posts: 2993
Spartalena
Tyrant of Words
62
Joined 21st Apr 2012Forum Posts: 2993
The word "need" grates with me, because it removes choice. Who did the first ever Poet/Writer/Painter etc learn from? Someone had to start from nothing sometime long ago. They had to create from their own ideas, mind, thoughts, feelings.
I know very little about famous poets, because I have never been interested enough in them.
I've only taken to reading quotes from Anais Nin the past year or two. I had zero interest in poetry before I started writing it at the age of 18 to purge all of the misery and grief I was dealing with.
I have not studied poetry, but since I started writing (before the internet existed) I have been part of it. I have however, always been appreciative of great lyrics and music, from a young age.
Maybe I am a reincarnation of a dead poet and that is why writing is in my bones.
My choice, my preference.
It doesn't make those who choose not to inadequate.
I know very little about famous poets, because I have never been interested enough in them.
I've only taken to reading quotes from Anais Nin the past year or two. I had zero interest in poetry before I started writing it at the age of 18 to purge all of the misery and grief I was dealing with.
I have not studied poetry, but since I started writing (before the internet existed) I have been part of it. I have however, always been appreciative of great lyrics and music, from a young age.
Maybe I am a reincarnation of a dead poet and that is why writing is in my bones.
My choice, my preference.
It doesn't make those who choose not to inadequate.