Essay On Importance Of Modern Poetry

The Importance of Change
(An analysis of modern poetry and the importance of it to today) Poetry is one of the things that has stayed constant in literature throughout the ages. There’s always been an up taking of new poetry and poets who have written pieces of what we now call history. Some of the earliest begin with the writers of the book of Psalms in the bible and the Epic poets such as Homer and the Odyssey. From there, poetry blossomed into the works of Shakespeare. Along with those poets came new styles and works of writing. Like Emerson said a scholar needed to do, every generation had their scholar and their poets who contributed to the now modern and almost poet less society. In today’s era, there are not many new poets or famous …show more content…
When using the term non-representational poetry, it should be understood that it means the poem does not have a specific symbolic meaning; rather, it presents its ideas and allows the reader to take from it what they will. Most modern poetry applies that method; however, these two poems are more about how to write modern poetry and what it is rather than a modern poem about some object, experience, or feeling. Starting with Ars Poetica, the very last stanza clearly outlines the main concept of modern poetry of a whole. MacLeish uses non-representational concepts when he suggests, “Poetry should not mean but be” (page 790). Clearly, he uses a very direct approach but he also makes a broad contrast when he says that it should not mean but be. MacLeish put himself in a much criticized place with that statement because people did not know how to receive modern poetry; they felt that it was not even real poetry. The concept of not meaning but being is an exact reference or relation to non-representational poetry. On the other hand, Poetry by Marianne Moore also uses a non-representational concept particularly in lines four through eight. Unlike Ars Poetica, Moore examples the non-representational format by explaining with bold and specific words as her literary devices the things that are useful to a poem. What is interesting is that she says they are not valuable to the interpretation but rather the value of the poem One major difference between Moore and MacLeish were their common thoughts on poetry shown through the poems. MacLeish really exemplified the fact that a poem just needed to be and not mean whereas Moore