It's All About the Imagery

“All poetic language is the language of exploration. Since the beginning of bad writing, writers have used images as ornaments. The point of Imagisme is that it does not use images as ornaments. The image is itself the speech. The image is the word beyond formulated language.”

-Ezra Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska, 1916

When reading poetry, I have the tendency to look at a poem and immediately think, “What does this poem mean?” While this is a common reaction among most people, I have learned that trying to discover the meaning of a poem confines and forces the poem to have one particular meaning that maybe the author did not even intend. When I began to read Pound this week, I instantly had to put this thought out of my mind, because quite frankly the more I tried to find the “meaning” behind his poems, the more frustrated I became. Even though they are two different people with two particular writing styles, Pound reminded me a great deal of Gertrude Stein. When I read Gertrude Stein, I could not help to grow in frustration as I pried to discover the meaning of her poetry; I felt those same emotions as I read excerpts of Ezra Pound’s The Cantos. Pound writes with a great deal of historical references, and the more I read of The Cantos, the less I understood. In Pound’s bio excerpt in the Anthology of Modern American Poetry, it is said that only Pound is able to fully understand his own poetry. As a reader, I concur with this statement because Pound’s writing felt too heavy for me. As an amateur poetry reader, I did not feel scholarly enough to even touch one of Pound’s Cantos. I enjoyed that Pound writes with his own particular style, and that he wrote his Cantos in prose style.

Pound is known for uncovering the Imagist movement. It was almost as if through this movement, Pound was trying to say that sometimes one could not find the words to describe images seen, but must find some other way to express the image. Pound writes in his, Gaudier-Brzeska, 1916, “All poetic language is the language of exploration. Since the beginning of bad writing, writers have used images as ornaments. The point of Imagisme is that it does not use images as ornaments. The image is itself the speech. The word is beyond formulated language.” When I first read Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” I knew there was something unique and different about this poem compared to all of his other poetry. After I did more research on the poem, I realized that Pound was using the imagist element in his haiku. This poem was the most interesting poem to me, and I enjoyed how Pound describes an image he saw in the most clear and precise form. Pound writes:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

The background of the poem is that Pound was at a Metro Station in Paris, and he saw a sea of beautiful people, but no way to describe them. After reading three different interpretations of the poem, it seems to be the general consensus that the single word apparition is the primary hinge of the poem. Apparition means: anything that appears, especially something remarkable or startling. With the help of James F. Knapp, I was able to better understand Pound’s poem. Knapp suggests that Pound is using a metaphor for spring through his use of the word apparition. Knapp writes, “And because “apparition” means what it does, he is able to convey the feeling of surprised discovery which such a vision in such a place must evoke.” Out of the three interpretations and understandings of Pound’s poem, I agreed with Knapp the most. Even though all three discussed similar aspects of Pound’s poem, I felt Knapp’s understanding was the most helpful and concise interpretation. Pound’s descriptions (although very concise) in, “In a Station of the Metro,” is unique and I think Pound’s point about imagisme reigns true through this poem, that “the image is itself the speech.”

            After reading Pound’s poem, I went searching for a more contemporary poem with the same type of imagery Pound used, but instead of finding a poem similar to Pound’s, I came across visual poetry. I thought to myself, “does visual poetry still provide imagery without using descriptive language?” I know this is a far, far stretch from Pound’s “In a Station at the Metro,” but whenever I read that Pound struggled putting his thoughts and his sights into words and how he saw only colors before he re-wrote his poem, I felt like visual poetry portrayed that line of thought. Instead of using words to describe what they want to say, the visual poets just use images instead. Now, I think visual poetry can lack the luster of a written poem with words as the primary communicator, but I think it is true that visual poetry can provide imagery just like a written poem. There are lots of types of visual poetry, but the one that caught my eye was haiku #62 by Scott Helmes. Helmes’ poem looks something like this:

I am not quite sure what Helmes is trying to communicate through this poem, but if you go back to the hyperlink on Scott Helmes, you will see that Helmes created this poem in the form of a haiku, and to Helmes these colors and pieces communicate something, although I am not sure what that something is. If you look closely, you will notice that the top line has two pieces put together, the middle line three, and the bottom line three. There are different colors represented in Helmes’ poem and even different types of letters within the blocks of color. These are just simple observations one can make about Helmes’ poem, but overall, this type of visual poetry contains imagery, and can evoke emotions in the “reader” or visualizer. 

It should be made clear, that I am by no means saying that this is how Ezra Pound would write poetry, or that this type of poetry resembles anything of Ezra Pound’s. In fact, it is quite different than any of Pound’s work, it I recognize that it is a stretch to compare this to Pound’s idea of the imagist movement. But when I looked for more information on visual poetry, I realized that this is just another way to communicate a certain image to people, by literally using images instead of words to write a poem. Most people would say that visual poetry is not “true” poetry, and who knows, Ezra Pound may very well say the same thing because he believes that “the image is itself the speech,” but it is true that imagery in poetry can be displayed in a number of different ways and even if visual poetry is “unreadable,” it is still considered poetry, and it also reveals imagery just like a written poem would.

The Freedom of Poetry

“There are poems by men and women, living and dead, familiar to millions and unknown to everybody. The only things that all the poems have in common is that they are all strange in some way, because all great literature is strange, they way all Good slides are slippery.”

Lemony Snicket

   While perusing the works of Eileen Myles (a contemporary poet), I found that her poem “Uppity” is published in Lemony Snicket’s All Slides Are Slippery. Snicket’s book is a compilation of various poems he found and enjoyed. Snicket writes, “Poetry is like a curvy slide in a playground—an odd object, available to the public—and, as I keep explaining to my local police force, everyone should be able to use it, not just those of a certain age.” After reading Snicket’s blurb about his book, I began to think of Gertrude Stein. Snicket says, “The only things that all the poems have in common is that they are all strange in some way, because all great literature is strange, the way all good slides are slippery.” Now, this may be a stretch to connect this quote with Gertrude Stein, but I think it is safe to say that Stein’s work entails all things strange, yet is a wonderful piece of literature. I like Snicket’s take on poetry, because he embodied my exact feelings when I read Gertrude Stein.

This is my first go around with Gertrude Stein. I want to pretend that I have all of these profound thoughts and conclusions about her poem “Patriarchal Poetry,” but if we are being honest, reading Gertrude Stein was just as much as a learning experience for me as it probably was for you. Stein made me feel confused, anxious, frustrated, dumbfounded, the list could go on and on. I had no idea what to think of her when I read the first page, but I grew to appreciate her writing when I reached the end of “Patriarchal Poetry.” It is obvious throughout Stein’s poem that she did not just slop words down on a page, but Stein had a purpose when writing “Patriarchal Poetry.” Yes, her writing is extremely obscure and unlike anything I have ever read before, but I feel like we get a small glance of Stein’s character when we read “Patriarchal Poetry.” What is unique about Stein is that she uses the simplest and most common words to write her poem, but the way she puts those words together have almost an overbearing, and drowning effect on the reader. Throughout the entire poem I felt like the words on the page were slipping through my fingers like sand. I could not grasp or formulate any ideas or concepts from her poem, all I could see were chaotic words on a page. The more I read Gertrude Stein and became more familiar with her style and the rhythm of her poem, the more I could appreciate what she was doing. I appreciate the fact that she took such a defiant stand with her poetry, and that she wrote in such a way nobody had ever done before in her time. One of the greatest and most frustrating elements of Stein’s poem was the repetition. For lines on end, Stein would repeat a jumble of words together that formed a formless “sentence,” yet this form of poetry is what makes Stein, Stein, and for me that is respectable.

“For before let it before to be before spell to be before to be before to have to be to be for before to be tell to be to having held to be to be for before to call to be for to be before to till until to be till before…”

Line after Line, Stein produces consistent repetition. However, Stein does not just use the same words over and over for 15 pages of her poem, she has different sections of her poem that repeat different sets of words. Also, after every section of repeated “stanzas” or sections, there is a statement about Patriarchal Poetry. Stein writes,

“Fairly letting it see that the change is as to be did Nelly and Lily love to be did Nelly and Lily went to see and to see which is if could it be that so little is known was known if so little was known shone stone come bestow bestown so little as was known could which that for them recognizably.

Wishing for Patriarchal Poetry.

Once threes letting two sees letting two three threes letting it be after these two these threes…”

Stein wants to emphasize this Patriarchal Poetry, and although I still do not have a firm grasp on what Patriarchal Poetry is, it is a major theme in Stein's writing. Stein writes her poetry defiantly, independently, and with her own style and character. She has produced a respectable piece of art, which is unlike any type of poetry written during her time.

Eileen Myles is an interesting character as well. She of course, is a contemporary writer, but I thought it would be interesting to compare/contrast her with Gertrude Stein. Unlike Stein’s “Patriarchal Poetry,” Myles’ poem “Uppity” is 5 lines long, there is no consistent repetition, or rhythm.

Roads around mountains

cause we can’t drive

through

That’s Poetry

to Me.


          But even though Myles poem is written simply in form, the simplicity of her poem does not take away from the greatness of her writing or make her poem any less significant because it is short. Just as Stein writes in a way that expresses her own style and character, I believe Myles is doing the very same. She writes a simple analogy about what poetry means to her, and I enjoyed Myles short, simple poem. There are vast differences between Myles' "Uppity" and Stein's "Patriarchal Poetry," yet both poems carry traces of the author through them and that is what makes them enjoyable. Stein's poem may be chaotic and confusing, but she wrote poetry the way she wanted to. Myles poem may be short and simple, but again, that is how she desired to write this poem. Both of these poets helped me to see that poetry can be whatever the author desires it to be, and that different types poetry are specific and personal to each person.

A Beginner I Am

            I used to hide from poetry. Poetry always seemed too complex and difficult to understand—I felt I could never find the “meanings” of poems, so I just left poetry to its confusing nature. But over the past few weeks, the more I read poetry, the more I grow to enjoy and find pleasure in it. My favorite aspect of poetry is when you read poems you feel things. Sometimes, certain poems bring out emotions you forgot you had felt before, or they help you to ascribe new meanings to the emotions that are most common to you. Poetry has many complexities about it besides the fact that it evokes emotion, but with my beginner’s eye, this is my favorite thing about poetry.

           

             “The Haunted Oak” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, is a beautifully written, yet tragic poem. When reading Dunbar’s “The Haunted Oak,” one may feel the same despair and pain felt by the tree that physically witnesses the hangings of African Americans on its very branches. The reader may also feel sorrow and sympathy for the people who are hanged, and anger towards the men who are responsible for the hanging. There is darkness and deep-seated sorrow felt and seen in this poem. Dunbar writes with the theme of slavery in “The Haunted Oak.” The title alone evokes an eerie, unsettled feeling for the reader, and as the poem progresses, the reader is saddened by the maliciousness and deceit of the white men in this poem. I am not quite certain if this poem could be classified as prose poetry, but Dunbar’s “The Haunted Oak, “ is story-like and is easy to follow like a story.

In Emily Pettit’s “After Calming Down You Have an Old Feeling,” there is no story to follow or rhyme scheme within the poem. This poem is free verse, and is not even broken up into stanzas like Dunbar’s. Pettit makes a firm declaration in the second line of her poem: “We are not calm.” (Here, I wonder… is she referring to the human race as a whole, a particular group of people, or does she mean everything in the entire universe is not calm??). There is a sense of restlessness in Pettit’s poem, and a push to take the time to slow down and recognize things. When we (I think she may mean the human race in general) are less distracted and pull out of our own individual worlds, we begin to notice the things around us. There is also a sense of discovery in Pettit’s poem that is very childlike in description, but is not unusual or abnormal for an adult. Honestly, even with my speculations about Pettit’s poem, it is still a mystery to me. I am not quite sure what to make of it, and even after reading the poem multiple times, I am still left with a feeling of confusion and uncertainty. Although I do not have a brilliant explanation for Pettit’s poem, I found her poem pleasurable and very nostalgic. Maybe it was her talk about an “old feeling,” or the title itself that produces a nostalgic feeling inside of me.

Between these two poems, we are able to get a clear picture of something old and something new. Dunbar’s poem, even within the bounds of the topic itself, holds elements of the past. And while Pettit’s poem does not explicitly revolve around a specific time period, it has been written in a different time frame. It is very interesting to see the different types of poetry written and how poetry has developed over time. Even though they are both categorized under the umbrella of poetry, they are vastly different, in style, theme, rhyme scheme, descriptive elements, language, time frame, etc. the list could go on and on, but both poems are works of created art that produce more inside of us than we may realize at first glance. Poems make us feel things, and those things cannot be ignored!!