Thank you for the comment! I love learning about poetry in other languages, and I’ll have to see if I can find some Urdu poetry now. But that is an absolutely beautiful poem! I haven’t read it before.

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Being a non native English I have limited understanding of English poetry yet I enjoy and connect with classical English poetry more than the modern.

One of my favourite is Leisure by WH Davies:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

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Your thoughts are very interesting to read. I love the idea of taking the rules in poetry (and art and literature) and breaking or twisting them. Creating something new. However, I find deconstruction doesn’t even bother to study the classics before they create something new. Thus, you cannot break what you don’t understand. And some modern poets understand this. Even though, in this essay, I do talk about the worst of modern poetry and the best of traditional poetry, there are exceptions to both. There are so beautiful modern poems, which both break the rules and sound lovely. The same goes for every type of deconstructionism. I don’t like modern art, but some modern art is beautiful. I don’t like experimental literature, but some books written in this style are amazing. I suppose there are good and bad things to every cultural revolution.

But I love reading your thoughts on the matter, because you are right. Poetry (and writing in general) is so much more accessible to all people than it was even 50 years ago!

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I agree with you! Your post really makes me think. And I’d like to talk about something else.

Two characteristics about modern cuture, in my humble opinion, are about deconstruction and mass culture. And I think those two features have much to do with the changes in poetry.

First, Classical poetry, with a very long history, has fully developed, and poets who are seeking breakthrough would never make any headway but just repeat if they didn’t break the rules. Therefore, they get rid of rhythm, rhyme and whatnot that traditional poetry rely on, trying to use a free form to challenge the powerful traditional poetry.

Second, deconstruction is so popular in every fields of Literature and Art. Poetry is no exception. Many central elements which make up a poem have been questioned. And the definition of Poetry are discussed again. The meaning of the second poem, in my humble opinion, is to putting forward the questions what in the world poetry is and what poetry can be. To me, It is more like an experiment and exploration.

Mass culture and development of other forms of media nowadays might have much to do with the unpopularity of poetry.

In addition, I think mass culture prefer something more accessible. So poems are becoming more and more clear. Besides, thanks to the free form of modern poetry, a lot of different people could join in writing, thus in turn contributing to modern poetry. Diversity is one of the most remarkable features of modern poetry, I suppose.

The problem of modern poetry, however, is very obvious. Without rules that makes what traditional poetry is, what should we define the poetry nowaday? Do modern poems have remarkable characteristics? Are they just some sentences divided into different lines? What makes a poem poetic in modern poetry?…… So many problems to be discussed. In that case, It seems, in a sense, writing modern poems is more difficult and challenging because we don’t know what modern Poetry really is, and whether or not the words we write can be considered a poem……

I know little about poetry. Personally, I like those beautiful and accessible which make people relate to the words and think!

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Thank you so much!

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Frost is one of my favorite poets as well. And I agree with you that every poet should at least try modern poetry. I myself wrote some of it in college–hating it all the way, unfortunately. I think colleges should give study to both, and let kids decide. I checked out some of your poetry on your blog “Dark Side of the Moon.” It’s actually really good. I particularly liked “Sensing the Sea.” It really does hearken back to Frost’s style. Thanks for the comment!

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