Why Is Poetry Important? Part Three

What It's like to Be Human

I wanted to say that poetry needs to be understood in order to have any sort of function in the modern world, but along the way I found that I'm not in complete agreement over this point. Instead, poetry needs to touch emotions of its readers.My main point with this is that I've found literature where I have no clue what is being said (James Joyce comes to mind for some peculiar reason), but it still strikes me as absolutely brilliant. I don't need to understand every single line or even half of the words that are used to recognise a good story or a brilliant usage of sound (The Waste Land comes to mind here). I might not even agree that it's any good when looking at the theme or tropes used, but the sound alone can strike me as particularly beautiful. I vividly remember a night at the university where there was a symposium on Arabic and Persian poetry and not understanding a single word of the poems, but I was completely enthralled by the sound of them. I was mostly trying to beg a free sandwich off of the guy outside the room, but it actually turned out that I stayed for the poor guy's reading from some of the works they where discussing. So to sum things up, I am in love with poetry and how it affects me.

My love for poetry is not the only thing that I think is important though. I may like the notion of poetic beauty and the aspiration to create something to marvel at, but the point of poetry should also be to engage the reader's mind and provoke thoughts. The central element of this style of poetry is to engage me and make me wonder about my present condition. I could possibly become someone else (If I hadn't been so damn lazy), but do I aspire to be anything other than a good person in my own eyes?
I'd say no and hopefully I'll continue thinking this sort of thing, but I also need to develop as a person in order to retain my sanity. This is where provoking known symbols becomes important and why the poetic voice is usually perverting, subverting or rebelling against the "known". I've mentioned Joyce and Eliot and how on earth these people made it through with their stuff is quite remarkable. It sure took some battles with authorities to get their works published and it's incredible that they are not viewed with horror today.

By addressing our emotions and engaging our sensibilities, poetry retains its relevance and as a consequence, poetry needs to be constantly reinvented to engage the reader, but it's constantly balancing between respecting or breaking away from tradition.