Okay so obviously we have the internet and so we can just use a search engine to define poetry and what it means to describe something as “poetic”. When you do just that, the general definition of “poetic” given by most dictionaries is along the lines of “having or expressing the qualities of poetry”. Poetry is defined as “writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm”.
Unsatisfied with these definitions, I decided to look at how some famous or well-known poets describe poetry. Truthfully, the way many of the poets I researched defined or explained what poetry is up to one’s interpretation. Poetry typically is up to one’s interpretation and tends to be very abstract.
Robert Frost claims that poetry is “when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” while Emily Dickinson said “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.” Edgar Allan Poe is a bit more realistic when he declared that he “would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of beauty.”
Although I consider myself a poet, since I produce what I would call poems, I cannot honestly say I understand what Frost, Dickinson, and Poe meant by their definitions or explanations. To me, that is the beauty of poetry. The definition of poetry varies because what determines something as poetry varies. Sure, we can say being poetry is a piece of writing that is romantic, rhythmic, metaphorical, or whatever other adjectives you can think of. That being said, there is no clear, set, or obvious definition.
Poetry itself comes in many forms. There are short poems and long poems. There are happy poems and sad poems. There are complex poems and simple poems. I can read, write, or speak poetry. Regardless of a rhyme scheme, a use of punctuation, or any other elements that appear in some poems, poetry is whatever the poet chooses to mold words into.
We are all poets though, really. We are all capable of crafting letters into words, words into lines, lines into stanzas, and stanzas into poems. Maybe some forms of poetry written by certain poets relate in different ways to different emotions or themes, but anyone can do it. Frost, Dickinson, Poe, and any other poets or writers we are familiar with convey a sense of “poeticness” through their use of poetic devices like alliteration, figurative speech, or iambic pentameter.
Yes, there are different definitions, explanations, perceptions, and interpretations, but that is not only the beauty, but the importance of poetry. Poetry is more than the usage of aesthetic-filled forms of communication. Poetry is everything. Poetry is the way the sun illuminates the sky. Poetry is every step your sneakers take when they make contact with the pavement. Poetry is a language of its own, best expressed and understood by minds willing to listen to it, absorb it, and experience it.
