2008 Woodie Awards
Experience the power of poetic verse
Sat Paul Goyal
Issue date: 4/23/07 Section: Voices
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April is the National Poetry Month, when libraries, literary organizations, publishers, and especially poets, celebrate poetry. Poetry offers fresh perspectives on life and society. Using images, metaphors, and rhythm, it brings the power of hope and wonder of words. The complexity and pace of change in our time is without precedent. Advancement in science and technology and lust for dominance has made wars inevitable and terrible. Literature, especially poetry, provides some mooring and enduring values in the flux of life and chaotic situations.
Words have amazing power. They express ideas that shape our inner and outer world. Poetry expresses our feelings and deeper emotions. It, often times, expresses even the inexpressible. A finite image may touch the divine and the infinite. Rumi, Dante, and Milton are such poets of the sublime. Walt Whitman celebrates himself through his Leaves of Grass. Poetry is fresh like a dawn, cool like moonlight, and warm like a quilt. It is a renewal of syntax and juxtaposition of thought and feeling.
On January 26, 1961, Robert Frost recited his poem, "The Gift Outright," at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. This was the first time in the history of our country that a poet was so honored at a presidential inauguration. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is another world-famous poem by Frost. Frost is a poet of ideas, but he uses the simple language of conversation. Wit is a powerful element of his poetry. His lyrics are known for their intense imagery and harmony of thought and feeling. He engages the eye, the ear, the mind, and the heart simultaneously.
He reflects on life, blends human failures and triumphs, searches for hope even in the face of tragedy, and treats simple objects with delicate majesty. For him "a complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words." Frost's poetry illumines our lives, brings joy of communion when we are in the grip of fear and intimidation, and embraces all humanity. He has ingeniously inscribed his own epitaph: "He had a lover's quarrel with the world."
Words have amazing power. They express ideas that shape our inner and outer world. Poetry expresses our feelings and deeper emotions. It, often times, expresses even the inexpressible. A finite image may touch the divine and the infinite. Rumi, Dante, and Milton are such poets of the sublime. Walt Whitman celebrates himself through his Leaves of Grass. Poetry is fresh like a dawn, cool like moonlight, and warm like a quilt. It is a renewal of syntax and juxtaposition of thought and feeling.
On January 26, 1961, Robert Frost recited his poem, "The Gift Outright," at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy. This was the first time in the history of our country that a poet was so honored at a presidential inauguration. "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is another world-famous poem by Frost. Frost is a poet of ideas, but he uses the simple language of conversation. Wit is a powerful element of his poetry. His lyrics are known for their intense imagery and harmony of thought and feeling. He engages the eye, the ear, the mind, and the heart simultaneously.
He reflects on life, blends human failures and triumphs, searches for hope even in the face of tragedy, and treats simple objects with delicate majesty. For him "a complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words." Frost's poetry illumines our lives, brings joy of communion when we are in the grip of fear and intimidation, and embraces all humanity. He has ingeniously inscribed his own epitaph: "He had a lover's quarrel with the world."
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