Poetry, The Song of the Soul

There are many forms of poetry, but today we’re going to talk about my favorite form, and also a dying art, rhyming poetry.

Some poems tell a story and some poems evoke a feeling. Consider the following poem by Robert Herrick, Upon Julia’s Clothes:

               Whenas in silks my Julia goes

               Then, me thinks, how sweetly flowes

               That liquefaction of her clothes.

               Next, when I cast mine eyes and see

               That brave vibration each way free,

               O how that glittering taketh me!

In just six lines Robert Herrick paints such a vivid picture one can almost hear the rustling and see the billowing of Julia's silk gowns. 

Here's a four-line poem, by Edwin Markham, titled Outwitted:

            He drew a circle that shut me out-

            Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

            But love and I had the wit to win:

            We drew a circle and took him in!

This poem has a story, contrast, conflict, and resolution, all in thirty-one words and you can almost skip to its beat.

Feel the rhythm, too, when you read these excerpt lines from What the Choir Sang About the New Bonnet by M. T. Morrison.   

            A foolish little maiden bought a foolish little bonnet

            With a ribbon and a feather and a bit of lace upon it.  

A structured poem rolls right off one's tongue.  The following beautiful poem, Jenny Kissed Me, by Leigh Hunt describes one poignant moment in time:

Jenny kissed me when we met,

Jumping from the chair she sat in.

Time, you thief! Who love to get

Sweets into your list, put that in.

Say I'm weary, say I'm sad;

Say that health and wealth have missed me;

Say I'm growing old, but add-

Jenny kissed me!

Read these lines from Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and feel the rhythm:           

            Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five,

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

Another benefit to rhyming poetry is the mnemonic value of making things easy to remember.  How many of us would know how many days there were in July if it weren’t for “Thirty days hath September….?”    

The following excerpt from a poem entitled Memory by Abraham Lincoln shows how words can evoke strong feelings.

My childhood's home I see again,

            And sadden with the view,

            And still, as memory crowds my brain,

            There's pleasure in it, too.

            I range the fields with pensive tread,

            And pace the hollow rooms,

            And feel (companion of the dead)

            I'm living in the tombs.

For a change of pace, using only four lines, John C. Bossidy aptly illustrates the snobbishness of Boston's upper crust in A Boston Toast:

            And this is good old Boston,

            The home of the bean and the cod,

            Where the Lowells talk to the Cabots,

            And the Cabots talk only to God.

 Such poetry, whether humorous or serious, literally sings to the reader and touches one’s soul.  What more can a person ask of a poem?

Quote of the Day: A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. Robert Frost