"Getting" Poetry

[Anonymous No.18176872]

Despite being immersed in it all my life, I don't seem to be able to "get" poetry.
I read a lot of it, I've memorised huge chunks of it, and done a lot of analysis/meta-reading, but none of it "clicks" in my head in the way that, say, my favourite visual artworks do.

I can appreciate the "musicality of the phrase" as Nicolas Gomez put it, and understand the sheer effort it takes to craft good poetry (I've published some myself) but that's really it. I'm basically LARPing as a poetry enthusiast.

Is there something wrong with me?

[Anonymous No.18176892]

Hate poetry personally and don't feel it's somehow a weakness in my personality.

[Anonymous No.18176953]

you should probably do things you enjoy

[Anonymous No.18176990]

>>18176953
This. If you don't like the sound of language then no one is forcing you to. Just like not everyone likes music

[Anonymous No.18177358]

>>18176953
Yeah this. You seem well adjusted and well read, and you even seem as bewildered as we are as to why you have spent so much energy on poetry.
Though, to be fair, I vastly prefer writing my own terrible poetry than reading the greatest poetry, so I can sympathize in a strange way. But I wouldn't go so far as to say reading poetry doesn't "click" with me.

[Anonymous No.18177373]

>>18176872
poetry is written for poets (people who think a certain way). nothing wrong with you, just the opposite probably.

[Anonymous No.18177429]

>>18176872
As someone who feels a visceral reaction when reading poetry (at least some of it), I wish you could feel the same, but given your situation I'm not sure it's possible. To a poetry-illiterate anon I would have said "read and study poetry" but you have already done that. So perhaps poetry is just not for you.

I'll stick with a wider version of my initial reflex though: perhaps read a different kind of poetry than what you're used to? You can try poetry in others languages, in different genres (there's lyric poetry, erotic poetry, epic poetry, pastoral poetry, satire, argumentative poetry, and more), from different authors or eras. Basically find what is the center of gravity of the poetry you've read so far and search for poetry that lie very far from that center. You might discover something you like.

If it still doesn't work then...you can always stick with visual arts.

[Anonymous No.18177496]

>>18176872
I'm in agreement with most of the other anons, not much point reading poetry if it doesn't strike you. Curious though, how do you feel about prose? I kinda like poems, but I've never been emotionally destroyed by poems the way I am by prose fiction.

[Anonymous No.18177937]

>>18176872
Just like music attempts to escape noise, painting to escape 'paint,' so poetry is the fine art that attempts to escape language. Like all fine arts it's forever more or less- but mostly less- successful. Whereas prose appeals to common human experience (whether novel or essay) to make its points, poetry attempts to use language in an uncommon way to attempt to get at (often common) feelings or experiences in a more precise manner than common language use warrants. Much of the best or 'most literary' prose is in fact poetic, or waxes poetic (and wanes) at intervals. For instance, when Melville writes 'it is not shown on any map, true places never are' he becomes poetic- one tends to understand what it is he means but reducing it to some brief interpretation would be difficult; in fact would probably require a small essay to get at its many ramifications, all of which are just within the context of its use. This is not an easy question to field in a few stray sentences but all I have right now.

[Anonymous No.18178126]

>>18176872
Check out Lord Byron's Darkness and Swinburne's Ode to a Revolution. These elicite powerfully fundamental reactions imo

[Anonymous No.18179477]

Bump

[Anonymous No.18179490]

>>18176872
>doesn't get poetry
>publishes poems
Note a case uncommon, I'm afrad.

[Anonymous No.18179504]

>>18176953
you should probably dilate

[Anonymous No.18179844]

>>18179490
Correct, sadly.

[Anonymous No.18179863]

>>18176872
I can only understand a few authors. Most poetry I think just looks like shit.
I approach it like the visual arts, I know there are celebrated works that I just think look like cat vomit, and I just ignore it.

[Anonymous No.18181421]

>>18179490
Kek

[Anonymous No.18181474]

>>18176872
Personally I like poetry the way a mathematician loves a good equation (I don't like mathematics, I don't know if mathematicians loves certain equations kek) anyways, coming back to the point, I like to see how much "quality" can you put in a single verse/poem, how many good qualities in terms of metre can you attach to your work. Aside from that, poetry doesn't hit me like prose emotionally.

[Anonymous No.18181658]

Imagine reading on that chair naked, facing the water, and pissing without getting, or looking, up.

[Anonymous No.18181715]

>>18176872
How do Venetians not get their books wet, brehs? Seems like a bad place to keep your collection. Damp

[Anonymous No.18181786]

>>18177358
>I vastly prefer writing my own terrible poetry than reading the greatest poetry
I vastly prefer READING terrible poetry
Pls post some
I've just read the poetry of Chris Chan and it was great

[Anonymous No.18181792]

>>18176872
Prosefag filtered again.

[Anonymous No.18181833]

>>18176872
seems like a lot of people on here primarily read romantic and modernist english poetry. Not to discredit those types of poetry, but, as someone who deeply enjoys poetry, i found that i had to find the stuff that matched my sensibility, which is naturally attached to my time and cultural context. of course, the work of someone like whitman or rilke speaks so closely to me, but the stuff that made poetry click for me was more contemporary. there's a lot of bullshit to sift through, but there are actually plenty of good contemporary poets.

[Anonymous No.18181883]

>>18177429
Could you mention some poems you had a visceral reaction to please?