The question Why poetry? isnt asking what makes poetry unique among art forms; poetry may indeed share its origins with other forms of privileged utterance. A somewhat more interesting question would be: What is the nature of experience, and especially the experience of using language, that calls poetic utterance into existence? What is there about experience thats unutterable? You cant generalize very usefully about poetry; you cant reduce its nature down to a kernel that underlies all its various incarnations. I guess my internal conversation suggests that if you cant successfully answer the question of Why poetry?, cant reduce it in the way I think you cant, then maybe thats the strongest evidence that poetrys doing its job; its creating an essential need and then satisfying it.
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About Richard Ford
Richard Ford was American author. Richard Ford is an American novelist and short story author and writer of a series of novels featuring the character Frank Bascombe. Read more on Wikipedia →
Themes
- Poetry — The art of language, rhythm, and emotional expression