Friday, August 16, 2019
Comparing the French Poets
Antony Bush said: to me poetry is an expression of self thought. It would seem then that poetry a personal journey that a poet shares with a willing audience. This journey through the poetââ¬â¢s ego or consciousness is what allows poetry to be dynamic, enigmatic, and provocative. Poetry then isnââ¬â¢t a way in which a poet can complain about a broken heart or a broken family but a way in which they can more vividly and truthfully express their surrounding circumstance and place metaphor in the place of cliche.For instance, instead of saying ââ¬Ëmy heart is brokenââ¬â¢ a poet can say ââ¬Ëmy heart splinters into a thousand galaxiesââ¬â¢ thereby relating their personal pain into a more worldly occurrence and thus making the poem accessible to their audience. The aim of poetry then is to make readers feel more human when they read lines like ââ¬Å"We flit each other, fluid affectionate, chaste, matured. You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with meâ⬠i n which Walt Whitman expresses to his reader how he knows them ââ¬â and in knowing them he transcends time, gender, and space thereby making the reader a little less lonely.That is the goal of poetry, to make people feel less lonely, to have them feel as if someone else has felt their love, joy, pain and grief and made it through these human emotions ââ¬â it gives the reader hope that they too will make it through life. In Baudelaireââ¬â¢s poem One Oââ¬â¢clock in the Morning he expresses enthusiasm for being alone. Except, in his third sentence he says ââ¬Ëoursââ¬â¢ meaning that he is not alone, his desire was to be alone with someone ââ¬â to be left by the world so that he can exist in a world of two. This is a common theme among poets.However, this ââ¬Ëoursââ¬â¢ is rather ambiguous and the reader is left with the impression that Baudelaire is indeed alone. He states, ââ¬Å"tyranny of the human faceâ⬠meaning he attributes almost everything wrong in the world to humanity and not to simply one person but all people. Is he then an exception? The poem does not say. The poem is however definitely pointing out how sick humanity is. The poet expresses rather masochistic tendencies in wanting to be alone (the turn of the key in the lock) and how he wants to be bathed in darkness.With such metaphors and imagery the poet succeeds in delivering his desire to be alone. In Rimbaudââ¬â¢s poem Barbarian the poet speaks of distant ââ¬â distant from humanity (again). This is shown with his allusions to humanity being a ââ¬Å"banner of bleeding meatâ⬠and how being far from such barbarism, one can be at peace again. He perhaps has had his vision of heroism denied or proven false as this banner (a banner which is carried in battle) is what drives the narrator quite mad with barbaric thoughts.Perhaps Rimbaud is talking about death. His reverie in stating ââ¬Å"Oh Worldâ⬠is a cry of a dying man, and the ââ¬Å"eyes floating â⬠confirms this argument. Rimbaudââ¬â¢s poem goes on to state something about the world and the treasures of that world that he will miss ââ¬â this statement is given in parenthesis, ââ¬Å"(Far from the old retreats and the old flames, that are known, that are felt)â⬠(Rimbaud line 11-12). He is making a comparison between life and this new place and how both perhaps have their positive and negatives.Rimbaud however leaves the reader in an ambiguous state as he does not seem to favor one state of being over the other (unlike Baudelaire) but merely makes exhalations about either place and his feeling toward both. In the end, perhaps it is not death he is explaining in his poem, but heartbreak ââ¬â a love over a woman. He states he that he sees the eyes and hair and the floating form before him ââ¬â so in the end, the poem is perhaps more about how being out of favor or out of someoneââ¬â¢s love affects him.
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