Which Art Tickles Your Heart?

Recently, I have liked to deem myself an appreciator of poetry. It is fun to say, "Poetry is a man's mind on paper," and I do enjoy writing my own. Then again, maybe I am just a fool pretending to be an artist. Whatever. However, music has claimed an importance in my life that is unmatched by most anything. I find my musical experiences as almost religious.
Still, some poems really, really hit hard. I think the first one in "Sound and Sense" to knock me down was "Dulce et Decorum Est," about the man who died in the gas attack. It is one of the most beautifully powerful collection of words I have ever read. While certain songs reach this level of intensity, I do not think that the words have enough time or spotlight to create these images/ideas.
"the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lings, bitter as the cud." I still cannot get over that line.
I think poetry's main handicap is that people cannot get together and read the poem together. Listening to a song and singing along with your buddies/alone/the universe is a majestic experience. You can't really learn a poem and perform it in your own style like you can a song, and you can't really find poetry on CD that you want to listen to while going for a run. Unless we put all of our attention on a poem, we can't really appreciate it all, but we can listen to music while walking, working, driving, eating...pretty much anything that affords us our ears.

Then again, art is not a competition, so why can't we appreciate and enjoy all forms?

Comments

[Bridget S]

I agree. I think that music is a much better form of poety. Music is a form of peotry the reaches a mass audience. It is a part of our culter, more so than poetry. I think that it give people a way to relate to poetry that they would otherwise not read. Plus its much more interesting to listen to a song than read.

[Jennie L]

Although I am a huge fan of listening to music and am not as easily drawn to poety, I do believe that sometimes the meaning of songs can be overlooked. When I sit down to read a poem, probably due to my school experience with poetry, I automatically recognize and point out literary techniques and themes (if they seem to pop). On the contrary, when I hear a song, I often do not stop to consider the elements that compose that song. For many of the songs I listen to, there may be sections where lyrics I do not understand or have never bothered to listen to appear.

[Brett N]

I think that music is the complete best form of poetry. For songs, you can have very meaningful lyrics with boring music, and almost nobody will listen to the song. That makes it that much more difficut to make a song that is really great. In turn, many songs with bad music and great lyrics go unnoticed becuase the song is not catchy enough. Whether it is just rhyming or exploring a deeper philosophical meaning, songs can draw you in, just as a poem can but with the added element of sound. The addition of sound to poetry stimulates another of your senses, which increases your enjoyment that much more.

[Samantha Michaels]

A big part of why people prefer songs to poetry is, like you said, that sometimes it's easier to just listen and take in the music, as opposed to analyzing verse upon verse of written word. I think that the reason we can do this is because of the intense rhythm of music. People can focus on that aspect and find enjoyment by going along with the beats. It's important to remember, however, that rhythm is another very important aspect of poetry. Because of the beat, we are quick to distinguish our music from the poems we analyze in class, but maybe instead we should just see them as a more complex extension of them. Because even regular written poems can encompass aspects like rhythm, though it's not always as obvious.

[Theresa Y.]

I likewise think that poetry's main handicap is that people can't really get together and belt out the words, like they do with songs. I think poetry has this stigma attached to it that it has to be studied and analyzed and anxiously pored over before any meaning or enjoyment can be wrought from it. I think that this perception of poetry is wrong.

Poetry, if read with an open mind and attentively, can have just as profound affect, if not more so, than the spoken poetry found in songs. Song poetry and written poetry both have the potential to cause similar "majestic feelings."

[benjaminl]

You know what funny I was reading this I knew who wrote it without even looking at the name. Aaron you are a art appreciate my man. Song vs literature. Well first one does not have to read, that is a plus. Songs you get a sense of passion.