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Poetics

Tom Spencer

Point of View in Poetry

Like a quarter slug from a casino, I have returned. I am back at WVU, the poet’s touchstone, to ensure I am on the right course in my writing.

I have been limited in my writing for a goodly period of time for personal reasons. However; I have been reading extensively, visiting the old masters in prose and poetry. As I wandered through Plato’s Republic, in its presentation through Socrates’ dialogue, I wondered if his presentation could not have been presented better in poetic form.

I then reviewed the works of Shakespeare. They are written in what would be considered poetic prose. I believe they have lasted and impacted a greater audience because they created a much greater interest than Plato’s work. Both writers have a considerable understanding of humanity and its social foibles. Both writers have social statements to express.

What I see in the juxtaposition of Plato’s work to Shakespeare’s work is, as Robert Frost stated in Mending Walls, “good fences make good neighbors.” I believe what he is saying in this poem is ‘knowing both sides of a view is extremely important in life’ as it is in poetry.

I urge you, as a poet, to examine both sides of your theme in your work to insure you are not just pontificating as Plato did through his protagonist Socrates. Make your work express an opportunity for the reader of it to think and form his/her opinion. In this way you will make your work memorable.

Take a ride on a bus: listen to the passengers, observe the driver, observe the sounds around you, create a dialogue between the people you see and the environment they are in. Don’t write from your point of view. Become the driver and express his views on the passengers, the traffic, or the expected meal he will have when he returns home that evening. Step into the fear of the lady who is asking if she is on the right bus. Become the boy with the violin coming home from a lesson that has him perplexed. Poetry is about the world we live in. We need to write about that world to make our work last in the memories of our readers.

Write a poem in dialogue as an exercise. For example: Select a theme and present both sides of that theme in a poetic form.

The Wrong Step

Does this bus go as far as Lenox
        The engine roars its disapproval
No ma’am we only go to Congress
        The hiss of closing doors erupts
Let me know when we are near
        change is spinning in the box
that’s the end of the line lady
        A distant whistle, a call of “Taxi”
I must be on the wrong bus then
        a man in the front seat coughs
This is Congress Express ma’am
        The bus slows with a squeal of brakes
I wanted the Lexington Avenue
        There is a thump of opening doors
Catch the bus behind me lady
        The crowd is chattering loud
But I put my money in already
        A rustle then ripping of paper
Here’s a transfer ma’am
        Exhaust fumes permeate the air
Oh dear forgive me please