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Idea of Poetry

For many years the question of what is poetry has been asked there is not a clear answer but there are many ideas.Through history there have been many poets and poems reflecting different ideas of different ages.Ideas on idea of poetry are reflected throught works of poetry .Poetry has roots in Ancient Greek.The very first ideas on idea of poetry and the rules of classic poetry are both comes from them.Within the time , effects of currents changed the idea of poetry.Classical era is under the effect of philosophy , presence and imitation holds an imporant place in poetry.Neo-Classic poets give importance to human and universality.Romaticism placed individual and nature in the centre of poetry.Modern poetry changed its setting into urban life and despair and hollowness of humanity.Thorought this time we will take a close look at the ide of what is the idea of poetry. Plato in his work Republic sees poetry as a traitor for his ideal Repuclic.According to him there is one reality , presence and the world we see is just a shadow of the real world.Chair is just an imitation of chair in his mind .Carpenters chair we see on this world is once remowed from the real chair and when a painter draw a chair so it is twice removed from reality.When this philosphy is thought in the contex of a poet we conclude that a poet is just writing a shadow of shadow.Imitation is negative since it is getting away from reality.The world he is interested in is the ideal world.The first chain of inspiration which begins from God is the essential truth , like prophets , poets are not telling their own ideas but reflecting or imitating the ideal world.When this magnet paralyze them they are no more themselves and you become mad like Homer.The Muse is very strong. He bans imitation because it is a bad example for children , children may imitate the bad actions they have read through poem .So , Plato gives importance to characters.According to Plato , plot can be episodic , plot does not

have to be interrelated. His view on poetry more or less begin to gain shape.God is in the world of ideas and God is great , shape of things can not change , the poet who adds his emotions to the poem changing reality and poets and poetry should be banned.Platos disgust for poetry simply does not steam from imitation but also he see it as a traitor for his Republic.From the point of Homers poetry he asserted that the poetry is dangerous for young generation of ideal Republic since it is immoral. He supported philosophy since it is not dealing with a copy of a copy but dealing with reason.Since Plato is an idealist he favors reason , and sees poets people as playing with emotion.His only advocate of a poetry is when a poet writes about moral issues which should be a model for young generation and all humanity. Aristotle in his work Poetics he favors poetry.He deals with the world we are living on rejecting the idea of Plato.He is the first people who seperated science in categories , so he has pretty much ideas to talk on poetry.He thinks there are rules in every discipline and if these rules are known well then we can understand every discipline better , his approach is systematic I can say.The tree discipline rules he talks about are specific rules ( every kind has its own specific rules), unique tools ( meter , rhtym ) and proper ends ( function and purpose).His idea is that since our childhood we have been learning by imitating and this imitating delights us.Poetry is more particular than other disciplines.He thinks poetry is an imitation of world , on any subject a poet can reflect the world in we live through poetry.Since it is imitation of events happening in world we can experience for example a war as we read a poem without being a soldier in the war.In this perspective we can assume that poetry is completing uncompleted life. His view on philosophy , Poetics is a reply to Republic , that it is not an imitation because philosphy reflects pure ideas and poetry is reflection of human emotion also since poet creates a work he adds his emotion in his work.Thus , he sees poetry not harmful but benefical.The last thing I would like to mention on his idea of poetry is

about plot.He gives great importance to unity of time , place and action. The language he prefers is the one which is different from normal , everyday speech which result in barbarism. Horace is a Neo-Classic ,wrote Ars Poetica .He is a bridge between ancient and modern literature.His ideal poetry is the one which is not sold for money. His interest in a literature is generally on moral aspects .He warns poets to refrain from flattery.Decorum is important in poetry and an ideal poetry is the which teaches and delights.His view is to maintain poetic tradation.In an ideal poetry poet should imitate nature since they are in harmony.In order to learn a poems value he foresees time. Horaces point of view on poetry is to be universal with his ordinary language.He wants a poet should choose right subject right style and right words. His metaphor for a poet is an artist is like a craft man who is using his genius to create a perfect work.To create a genius work a poet should choose a subject according to his power.Word choice should be proper in a poem , should be symmetric , I mean neither extra word nor less.Coherence and refined thoughts which are depicted through proper words should create an excitement and a noble product.To create such a work a poet needs artistic gift besides divine. Horace believes that in a poem there sould be unity and simplicity which refers to correctness and appropriateness.There should be a proper ending , middle and end.Form and content should be suitable.A cow in a house looks awkward so , subject and style of a poem should be matching.Character choice is important , they should be believable characters.All these rules Horace emphasized for a work is to produce a delightful work which should teach. Longinus in his work On the Sublime .He describes sublime as a kind of spritual rising , God given gift and pure genius inborn .He defines the nature of sublime learning of craft..This rise occurs through perfect use of language and comes from sublime minds.Sublimity is an elevated language , ancient contex either eloquence or epic

tradation.When this powerful language takes you beyond sanity you will meet divine and immediate discovery.In this perspective language used in a poem becomes gorgeous besides it convinces the reader the message it carries and moves , rises the emotions.There is no time and space for sublimity , it trances from time to time , place to place.In his defination of ideal poetry he recommends poets to refrain from pathos or bombast , purple passage , and cliche words.In a poem he wants echo of great soul , passion and powerful emotions .A poet should use proper words , a poet have to be competent.An ideal poetry should be sound and senseto influence readers..The sublime souls contact with the faculty of of mind is resulted in a Sublime work.Longinus believes that a poets success can happen if he is genius inborn , divine and gifted.He has asserted five rules for a sublime work.First , strong emotions of a poet should be realized in his work , strong emotions should be conveyed. The due formation is the second rule which aims proper use of grammatical rules.Powerful thoughts is the third rule for a sublime work and the most important one.The other rule is noble diction.The arrangement of word and word choice to create a powerful poem is very important .The last rule is an elevated arrangement of words to give musical soul to the poem.Like Horace Longinus is not in the favor of a cow in a house and such absurdities. William Wordsworths Preface to the Lyrical Ballads reflects the qualities of Romantic era best.He defines poem as poets creative mind inside carrying the mission of moral aspects and reflection of nature.To him a poet is a man who has great knowledge of men so that he can speak of men and can attrack his reader.It is also related to sensibilty of a poet the more you know the more you become sensible.Besides , he should know a lot about nature , thinking that industrial age has deteroited people and the salvation and the real life is in nature. Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings and emotion recollected in tranquility are the essence of Wordsworths work.Feelings are randomly coming out and interaction with the imagination brings out the best Romantic poets.There is a superiority of emotion over

reason in Wordsworths idea of poetry.Using rural language is a getting closer action to the nature where he believes the source of poetry exists.According to this poet philosophy a person first experiences the outer world as the time pass emotions recollected comes out. Romantic poetry reflect the inner world of people rather than external world.Romantic poetry contents moral lessons as well since nature gives us morality. Child is a symbol to reflect the innocence and purification.To Wordsworth poetry is reflection of fact which gives pleasure to men with inspiration. Romantic idea of poet is poet is a bigger soul , poet is a comprehsible soul colouring general objects with imagination , poet has deep feelings and uses simple things.According to Coleridge ideal poetry is the one which brings happiness to people.As a Romantic John Stuart Mill thinks that ideal poetry moves us into a different world.It triggers certain emotions and also delights and entertains us and teaches us something about world and reality.Poetry is acting upon emotions but not matter of fact or a science.He thinks that poetry is represantation of feelings and not for rude minds.Poetry is not heard but overheard , leaving an effect in human soul. Matthew Arnold opinion on ideal poetry could be interpretted his views on creative and critical power.Matthew Arnold asserts that creative power is superior to critical power.Creative power , poets produce poetry he thinks and says the critics only talks or write about works produced.According to Arnold the best thing of a poet can do is to work with intellectuals and certain ideas of his time.The creativity , creative mind is the highest function of a man , that seperates human being from animals.The pleasure people get from creating something is more valuable for him than anything else a human can do.Under the light of these ideas of Arnold one can understand his giving importance to creative power rather than critical power.So , philosopher is the creator idea maker and poet is the one who uses this idea to create an ideal poetry.A critic and a poet completes each other.Arnold sets the rules of being a good poet , to create ideal poetry.He thinks that a poet have to know the world in all

aspects , it is an obligatory , not a preference.To create ideal poetry a poet should have critical power.A poet should refrain from politics , if he participates in politics , he may not produce what he wants.However , a poet should be aware of his times currents.Disinterestedness should be a quality of a poet to create ideal poetry.Besides , intelligent , knowledge and freash ideas helps a poet to create a good work.

T.S. Eliot in his work Tradation and the Individual Talent thinks that an ideal poetry can be produced if a poet uses the chain and of his time , roughly before the examination of his work in terms of poetry.His philosophy is tradation is not parroting , one cannot inherit it but can obtain by great labour.A poet has to know three things in order to create a canon .Sense of tradation , knowledge and historical sense.A poet have to create a combination of past and present , catalyst. Combination comes out when if a poet know the chain of magnet very well so that he can create a historical sense , to create canon or canons.The rules of being timeless is adding on the tradation in the hand.If a poet wants to take his place in this tradation chain he has to create a better work than others . As a result , present affects the past as past effects the present because present poet knows the tradition of past with hard labor. A good poet identifies his position in present with the comparison to past writers. Therefore, the combination of temporal and timeless is, as whole tradition. His poetic view is contradictory to Romantic poetry context.Past cannot be changed within the information in hand , with the feeling of belonging somewehere or to someone in the past as an ancestor T.S Eliot objects Romantic idea of poetry.T.S. Eliots defination of a poet is a poet should be free from personality and emotions.An ideal poetry should be objective and correlative , whenever it is read or heard it should give the same taste in any time. In order to create a good poem poet should give up , leave his personality and emotions. This leaving of personality open a poet

ways to the gate , success. A poet should have a neutral mind so that a poet can lose his individuality , personality. Individuality , emotions should be released from a poets body. On the other hand it should not be understood as a poet should not reflect his personal feelings in a poetry , however , personality and emotions should take their place in a poem . In this sense one can assume that rather than poet , poem is in the center , the importance and priority should be on poetry. The definition of poem , poet , poetry has been changing as the time goes on under the effects of changing and improving world.For many years people described their mind streams thorough poem either trivial or very crucial , however humanity will keep on their experimental poetry passage in the soothing time tunnel. Like a heap definitions and what poetry is questions and answers will go on rising non- stop.