Jun 15, 2009

Things I don't understand: Poetry

O yonge fresshe folkes, he or she,
In which that love up groweth with your age,
Repeyreth hoom from worldly vanitee,
And of your herte up-casteth the visage
To thilke god that after his image
Yow made, and thinketh al nis but a fayre
This world, that passeth sone as floures fayre.

And loveth him, the which that right for love
Upon a cros, our soules for to beye,
First starf, and roos, and sit in hevene a-bove;
For he nil falsen no wight, dar I seye,
That wol his herte al hoolly on him leye.
And sin he best to love is, and most meke,
What nedeth feyned loves for to seke?

The Love Unfeigned
Geoffrey Chaucer

You know how people often say they could fill a book with the things they don't know? Well, I'm going to try and do exactly just that. Start blogging about things that I don't understand.

To start things off, I've selected poetry. I know cool people like it. Jewel likes it. Billy Corgan writes them. They're supposed to be deep, and beautiful.

To me, they are mostly gibberish. Why is poetry popular? What differentiates good poetry from bad poetry? How do you make money as a poet? What is a poets creative process like? Is a creative process even productive for poems?

All questions I frankly could care less about, but would probably listen to answers to if the person telling me was hot.

2 comments:

Dust said...

You quoted Chaucer... of course it's gibberish, that shit is so old, he virtually invented the written word.

Anyway, good poetry is stuff you like, and bad poetry is stuff you don't like. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to force their opinion down your throat.

You want money-making poetry? Song lyrics.

-d

Cammie said...

i think its like a lot of modern art. my appreciation of it consists of either "that's cool" (=good) or "what the heck is that" (=bad) haha. occasionally it will be "what the heck is that, oh that's cool" which i don't quite know how to interpret.