Reasons to Love Poetry

By Stuti Jain, Trailblazer Blog Writer

Poetry is hard. Poetry is for geniuses. Poetry is melodramatic.

How many of these things do you think of when you think about poetry?

I used to think that way too. Decades of teaching William Shakespeare and page long analysis has come back to haunt us. (Not that there’s anything wrong with Shakespeare, but he’s definitely one of the more complicated writers of this millennium.)

But what if you put it like this: poetry is art. Think of a painting, or a song. They are actually incredibly similar to poems. They capture one feeling, one mood, one.. wisp. And they turn it into something meaningful for the rest of the world.

Like a painting, a poem can take one moment in time, and make you picture it. It can remind you of one, oddly specific memory. It can breathe new life into the world.

And like art, not every style is for everyone. Think of all the people groaning at modern art exhibits. Think of all the people that found still-lifes boring and inaccessible. 

There are different kinds of poetry, and I think if you work hard enough, you will be bound to find one that you like.

First, there’s contemporary poetry, like Nayirrah Waheed or Rupi Kaur. Their poems are lyrical and beautiful, and very easy to understand. They often touch on hope, love, and nature. Waheed also loves to talk about race and identity.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes by Waheed: “Even if you are a small forest surviving off of moon alone, your light is extraordinary.”

There are also confessional poets, often from the 20th century and in more complicated, lush wording. Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath are two of the biggest confessional poets. Sylvia especially has my heart with her rushing, rich bubbles of emotion, often fierce and angry and at other times dry and sarcastic. Yet her sarcasm often comes with knowledge, her anger of injustice dripping off of her and onto the pages. Indeed, her voice often seems larger than life. Ariel, especially, seems torn between life and death, between a split second explosion of light and seeing nothing at all, consumed by darkness.

Just be warned, with older poetry, it is often difficult to comprehend, not solely due to the writing style but also due to the different culture and media consumed at the time. I admit I’ve had to look up some of the stories and incidents she talks about, as they are no longer well known.

If you enjoy devotional, gracious poetry filled with joy and light, I recommend looking into Mary Oliver. Her hushed adoration of nature is so filled with love that even a firmly indoors-person, such as me, can see the beauty behind her words.

What about more angry works? Olivia Gatwood’s Life of the Party can better be categorized as a horror book than a poetry work, filled with violence and her rage against the pain she has been put through. Firmly feminist, and wholly enlightening, I guarantee that you will not come out of the book as the same person.

If you enjoy sorrowful, lyrical works, I would look into Ocean Vuong . Not necessarily sad, but more tragic and filled with generational guilt and rage, his work is a favorite of many who enjoy gorgeous imagery without having to stare for hours to figure out what a text means.

Then there are more classical, famous works, such as those of Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Robert Frost, or Anne Sexton. All of these are from different time periods, however are included on this list due to their major influence on the world of writing. Something to keep in mind while reading older works is that they are to be appreciated within the context of the time period. Sure, some of the ideas are pretty well known or cliche today, such as “be yourself,” or, “your choices define you.” However, at the time these ideas meant a lot to the readers. They were new, unique, and inventive. And understanding the WHY of many of these works are famous helps you appreciate them. What did they mean to people back then? What do they mean to you now?

There are TONS of poets in the world, and it would be nearly impossible to get to all of them on this list! But hopefully I helped you find works that mean a lot to you, or at least help you gain a new appreciation of the art of writing a poem. There’s a lot of thought, a lot of meaning, and a lot of love that goes into these few lines. And I hope the same goes for you while reading them!