08-25-2016, 06:00 AM
Great discussion.
Going back to the OP's point, I believe simplicity or complexity in poetry are themselves means to the end of creating a lasting impression on the reader's mind.
Nobody understands a poem like 'I see the boys of summer', but the language is hypnotic, I don't know if you'd call East Coker complex or not, but it took me several readings to understand the literal meaning of the poem. Hopkins is convoluted but wonderful. Browning is convoluted and unreadable. I know Leanne likes Browning though. This is for her.
Compared to his 'To Autumn'; Keats's 'Ode to Psyche' has a more complicated structure and a more roundabout way of getting to the point. But of his odes, it's the one I most remember ('where branched thoughts new grown with pleasant pain/ instead of pines shall murmur in the wind' etc).
What about simple poems? Are there any great, simple poems?
In English literature, probably some of Shelley's and Tennyson's lyrics. But over time I've been dulled to the charms of a 'Break, break, break' - it made a great impression on me when I was 10; now it's like elevator music - whereas 'the agony of flame that cannot singe a sieve' haunts me still. Complex poems are a treat for the mind, and like bitter chocolate or stinky cheese, the taste for them grows with time and age.
Milo summed it up in the third or fourth post, but there's no reason to let a perfect conclusion get in the way of a good discussion!
Going back to the OP's point, I believe simplicity or complexity in poetry are themselves means to the end of creating a lasting impression on the reader's mind.
Nobody understands a poem like 'I see the boys of summer', but the language is hypnotic, I don't know if you'd call East Coker complex or not, but it took me several readings to understand the literal meaning of the poem. Hopkins is convoluted but wonderful. Browning is convoluted and unreadable. I know Leanne likes Browning though. This is for her.
Compared to his 'To Autumn'; Keats's 'Ode to Psyche' has a more complicated structure and a more roundabout way of getting to the point. But of his odes, it's the one I most remember ('where branched thoughts new grown with pleasant pain/ instead of pines shall murmur in the wind' etc).
What about simple poems? Are there any great, simple poems?
In English literature, probably some of Shelley's and Tennyson's lyrics. But over time I've been dulled to the charms of a 'Break, break, break' - it made a great impression on me when I was 10; now it's like elevator music - whereas 'the agony of flame that cannot singe a sieve' haunts me still. Complex poems are a treat for the mind, and like bitter chocolate or stinky cheese, the taste for them grows with time and age.
Milo summed it up in the third or fourth post, but there's no reason to let a perfect conclusion get in the way of a good discussion!
~ I think I just quoted myself - Achebe