When I was first introduced to poetry, or began reading it for that matter (mostly Shel Silverstein, for his ingenious child-friendly pieces), I was amazed by how easily someone could make words sound so beautiful. I, of course, never looked any more into it, since my still-developing brain was unaware of metaphors, similes and expressions that put so much meaning into poetry. However, now that I have seen my fair share of poetry and all its different styles, I’ve seen the beauty and importance of it. Therefore, I think that when looking at poetry, Phyllis Klein put it best when she said: "...poetry gives rhythm to silence, light to darkness. In poetry we find the magic of metaphor, compactness of expression, use of the five senses, and simplicity or complexity of meaning in a few lines.” Poetry is much more than just a short paragraph explaining feeling or emotion; it’s a language all on its own.
To any amateur reader, poetry can be difficult to grasp or understand, but just like a math problem, you can break it down to understand the bigger picture. Unlike math problems, however, poems can be interpreted in a multitude of ways depending on your view of them. There’s no one answer to a poem, but that is the real beauty of any poem. It can relate to almost any audience with its simple writing yet complex meaning.
Going back to reading Shel Silverstein’s work as child, although I didn’t know it then, I have now seen the importance of reading poetry even as a child. Rhythmically, it showed me how to fit words together and how to form them into a sentence that makes sense. Not only did it help phonetically, but it also helped my creativeness, as it should to other people who read poetry as adolescents. Creatively, poetry is essential in keeping a child thinking outside of the box rather than only what is directly given to them. In other words, in this new generation of technology taking over the attention of children, the creative benefits of poetry give them a different outlook on boredom and help them develop themselves through learning how to have fun on their own.
It is the language of poetry that enables us to analyze and get creative. Personally, I cannot write good poems. However, the poems I have read, whether old or contemporary, are like pieces of art to me. I find it absolutely fascinating that anyone could abridge their thoughts into a condensed format and yet still be able to pack in such a moving and powerful message. This mystery is one that keeps poetry the interesting and compelling artwork that it is. Furthermore, without the use of metaphors or the senses as Phyllis Klein mentions, poetry would not have the effect that it has on the audience it reaches out to. A poem's job is to engage a reader through any means. Therefore, whether it is through sight, sound, touch, taste or smell, it must put the reader in the same place that the writer is in. This magic then allows the reader to interpret the poem any which way they can, but of course with obvious evidence.
So although it may be difficult to understand at first, deciphering a poem is only half the battle. The rest is up to you to decide.
