What is Poetry? 10 observations about the art - (Dana Gioia) 

"It makes individuals understand common things and it uses pleasure to instruct." sent shivers down my spine. So good.

The way you're teaching is making poetry make a lot of sense to me

This video explains what poetry is and reveals to me why using poetry daily in my classroom has resulted in higher reading scores.

I love poetry but seldom read new poetry because great poetry is so rare.

Among the many fine points you elucidate, I must heartedly agree that the musicality of the language itself, carried into the music of an artful reading, is central to accessing the 'magic', or 'mild hypnosis' as you put it. With some experience introducing poetry to people in the air force (predominantly technically trained and who on average tend more towards thinking poetry is fairy dust for softheads or nonsense for nobody), I am amazed at how often they can be completely stunned by a reading of a poem they were just balking on the page.

The best video about poetry I have watched so far. And thanks for your slow pronunciation. Me, as a non native english speaker, could understand every word you said! Thaks a lot!

WHY IS THIS SO UNDERRATED

Wow.. this has been one of the most fascinating and inspiring videos I have watched. I feel as though a whole new dimension has opened. Thank you

Thank you, Dana. Your content is fascinating. I could listen to your voice all day - it makes your videos so relaxing to listen to and that helps make them even more interesting and memorable.

The movie “The Outsiders” was my first introduction to this poem as a child. It resonated so strongly with me based on the character in the movie that embraced it….I was a child and now at 45…it is the ONLY poem I have every memorized. I never memorized my own work… At 45…this work…puts into words my entire life story….it follows my life story….that we are innocent but for a moment…that we pure and then we are heartbroken grievers of puirity….

Thank you very much for this channel and this video, specifically. I am from México. I am learning so much from you. Muchas gracias

I feel like the top of my head has been lifted off. Many, many thanks

Having "taught" American Poetry to Japanese university students, my biggest problem has been conveying the concept of "meter"--starting with iambs and trochees--as Japanese is a relatively monotone language and its traditional poetry depends not on emphasized syllables, but on a syllable-count per line, such as 5-7-5 in Haiku or 5-7-5-7-7 in Tanka. In fact, it's hard to get across the concept of a "syllable" to them, since (with one exception) every letter of hiragana and katakana is a syllable. (I hope this makes sense!)

Thank you Dana. Could you please make a video on your thoughts about the Postmodernists? I'd like to know your take on their repudiation of lyricism and their desire to remove the "I" from poems. I've been writing for many years and only recently discovered them. They've thrown me for a loop, into a sort of crisis. Please!

Insightfull beyond poetry. Thank you

Influence of poetry to the modern world !

Thanks for sharing this lecture. It is so interesting that you used the Chinese imperial examination as the background. Poetry was an integral part of politics of imperial China. Although poetry was not able to reduce the brutality of politics at the court, it did added considerable aesthetic significance to the brutal politics just like the Shakespearean dramas. I made a few videos about poems composed by a king from the 10th century China. Poetry is absolutely essential for human being!!

Great video and very helpful. thank you❤

Mr Gioia: until yesterday I had never heard of you but I was listening to Morten Lauridsen's setting of your poem Prayer and was immediately deeply moved, having lost a child myself. Thank you. Thank you. It brought me much comfort.

This is truly a fantastic video!

Just discovered you in watching your session on Wallace Stevens. You remind me of the best university lecturer I had - not flashy, just carefully reasoned and organized information delivered in such a way I can understand. No fireworks, no jokes, just information well ordered.

That was really insightful, thank you. Not sure about poetry being the first art form given the advent of paintings (cave art) 10s of thousands of years before.

Incredible start of the series. Thank you very much!

Wow. Thank you.

Should poetry exist? If so, whose? What role does the reader play in qualifying the work(s)? What about canon? The gatekeepers? What will AI do to poetry and poetics? If poetry is called poetry, is it poetry for others? Isn't poetry just a product of poetics? Does a static poetics, and thus a static poetry, exist? Whose art? Whose interpretation? Whose world? What function does the context play in the reception of language, the qualification of 'art'? Does art exist? Should it? Why and why not? Is art inevitable? Is miscommunication, exclusion, needed for one thing to be not the other thing? If art is inherently exclusive, what should we exclude? People? Or conventions? Or contexts outside of the now? Please answer these questions...we are trying to find the answer...

Poetry If spoken or writ to charm, entice, console, Does poetry not coerce, or subtly control? And this control, in what does it consist? Some poems appear to ramble, simply list. Yet “Here” we are; out “There,” the Universe; So shaped are we, so constricted, isn’t our curse That, at best, poems help discipline our souls In face of comic upset, untoward disasters? The Cosmos is boss, not we the starry masters; For civility to cohere, deep song outrolls…

Oh dear. Now I'm just going to have to find something else clever to say about poetry. Very nicely done.

Poetry: is life. Never heard a man talk so much about poetry: anyhow, nice detailed video, thanks.

I was nocked down when I was a boy of 14, broke both arms one elbow one Wrist & my right tibia & fibia so I didn't return to school, I had severe PTSD & while in hospital in traction I received Morphine for obvious extreme pain but once I was getting weaned off the morphine I became very angry & aggressive & agitated having severe nightmares constantly so very frustrated unable to turn or move & cried myself to sleep many many times so my aunt bought me & personal cassette player with a door's tape so I was listening to this to escape from my own mind that was a prison of horrible thoughts & pain so unbeknownst to me at the time these songs hard wired my Brain different to a regular 14 year old child, it took 8 months in cast for my elbow and over a year to have my cast Took below my knee so I couldn't do anything but sit & watch everyone do everything I couldn't so was always frustrated & unable to sleep as I was full of energy & desire to engage & be part of the fun with everyone but obviously couldn't so I developed a split personality a dark angry aggressive sleep & fun deprived child so being so frustrated constantly totally & entirely consumed completely & no one could understand so I started to write & watch BBC open University at night & just wrote my thoughts & feelings no previous knowledge of poetry other than nursery rhymes & songs so it's been 27 years since my accident & didn't even notice at the time but after years of going back to the writings when struggling or depressed PTSD I noticed they actually heal & help me to understand myself better so I now notice that I have a special flows with words by combining past experiences in things I wrote with present experiences I have become a poet I would like to offer one or many as proof that my young mind escaped & was bursting with Raw Emotions not coordinated or constructed as poems until years later I found out who the door's are & that the singer was a poet so I unwittingly picked up on this as that was my only escape from my prison mind of frustration & pain begging for more pain relief but they obviously had to wean me off my young mind didn't understand I saw all other patients get their pain relief but the were terminal or in palliative care obviously I didn't understand this then either but I honest thought because I'm younger I was being punished for lashing out verbal abuse because they took away my pain relief only now using my own words from all those year of writing do I understand the bigger picture & that my young mind was blind to see but written words find a flow if you just write no matter what about just do it please as these words written become like a built in memory bank that never stops evolving I subscribe to powerful quotes & possotive affirmations & now understand that by doing this I have my own style of poetry & memory I basically know all my stuff by heart so it has shape my life for the better in every way now I'm a word play addicted I love it so anyone thinking this man's video explanation isn't true or a bit far fetched then your wrong words have unique power & naturally want to flow better together so now words flow from me through me & because I read & write constantly I've become a poet I'm my own right without trying or premeditatly knowing this would be the what happened & my memory is like no one else I know I can read a book upside down & backwards like in a mirror image & how can that be possible it's because of the way words can offer a personalised perspective & perception to & for someone who couldn't possibly understand at the time word play now is a major influence & best teacher I've ever known so write no matter how small or trivial just write & unlock your potential to allow you to understand yourself & the world better so that you can cancel see the that the Glass half full & Glass half empty & if you believe you can or believe you can't both statements are the truth & poetry reveals all truth uniquely even from the perspective & personal perception of its creator The pen is mightier than the Sword & the Truth will set you free if you read or write it you will believe it I promise! "it's one love to the world from Bonnie Scotland"🙏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🍀👌

Awesome discussion! Greetings from the Philippines!

Poetry is you you you you Yes yes you teaching poetry From the core of my soul thank you Your words paint the world with beauty

i just love ya man!

Poetry is basically wasabi, then. Or is it that wasabi is a form of natural poetry? Either way, this channel is transforming my ability to understand poetry. I had heretofore found it to be a muddled and annoying transgression against prose. But I am starting to lowkey understand it. Will continue to cultivate this.

I just read your article about the importance and purpose of poetry in Christianity and I gotta say: Holy mole, can you write! I’ve been reading the Bible and struggling with the poetic language but now I see it differently. ❤

Very well said. Thank you! To change our lives for the better.

This is fantastic ... Thanks for the upload!

Thank you so much Dana.

Excellent. An excellent introduction.

I found this lecture approach to the magic pedantic and depressing. Bring us into the poem by your being swept up by it and it's sweeping us up with that comment alone which furthers our captivation!

Great work.

Greatly presented 🎉

Very good.insightful

Would this explain or could it be applied to why we remember lyrics of pop songs? My son knows the words to all of his favorite songs. I can’t think of a Beatles song for which I don’t know the words.

Very informative video 📝📑📑

I have rewatched your videos a few times now. They are wonderful! I am at a crossroads in my own creative writing. I find myself drawn to narrative it at the same time to pithy, impactful verse. Has the novel truly replaced the narrative poetry of centuries ago?

We need a lecture of this same beauty and resonance that highlights ancient African languages, which are "The Godfathers" of all languages: oral, written, or otherwise, in the world. Perhaps, absent the late oil paintings, and special commentary, you have done that. Thanks, Dana!

I'm scared of poetry, its breath of sound. With its meanings hidden, it lets me down.

Wow! What a great video. Thanks. 👍 I've always wanted to create poetry. Unfortunately I've always been a bit intimidated by the idea. In my heart though I may be a poet.

Language in performance is poetry when the audience accepts it as poetry

Thank you for this, professor. What would you say to Eliot's distinction, in his Introduction to a collection of Kipling, that not all "verse" is "poetry"? Apologies if you covered this and I missed it.

great video, but to be fair, i believe music is just as ancient of an art form as poetry. no one is to say which is more ancient than the other

Me cambio todo....

I recommend everyone to listen to Mahmoud Darwish-Tribute to Edward Said. It’s on RU-vid. It’s beautiful

The poem' ~ an unworked puzzle. Found' in the lost parallels, of void' and mind. Pieces laid down, in snug' fit. To complete an off-slight thought, edge to' end. Be altering' of-it, for life's reason. Or Where-by' acknowledged briefly, short levity. As such' produces, accompaning' grin. Wandering aimless' by vacant rooms. What-so are imagined, being left to time' and pen. After mastery' of such resident's. Hastens' to decide, upon it's boundary. And final arrival is cordially' noted. When show' of prepared' stage, shall be. And thus' the play begins, - in Rhyme' - mystery' to be puzzled. Finding lost' in corridors, of the picturesque' mind. A concept' placed in flow, joining' simular bit. Completing an' off-slight musing, from end' to end. Be' of-it' molded, for life's season. Or just' to play Levity's humor. With brevity, and an' occasional' spin. Wandering aimless' by vacant rooms. Where pondered' images are left written. With time's falling sand, and blotting' of pen. Acheiving such mastery' in literary residency. When soon' it must be decided, upon quote's boundary. To find arrival cordially' noted, in diligent' offering. Revealing' with artistic license, what each' implement of line, begins.

iM watching this for an assignment

I read it somewhere.Is the purpose of rhythm in poetry is to make it singable? Conclusion A poem must be singable or hummable even if it is free verse. In order to be singable,a poem must have rhythm, even if not rhyme.Free-verse gives you some liberty from the constraints of a rigid structure of poetry but it still must have an inherent rhythm. It is not simply that you write prose and break the lines at arbitrary points.

mr goioa

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hey kids who wanted extra credit

Asking what is poetry is like asking what is language...poetry is the birthplace of the modern human being..before alphabets, before literacy, before and cohesive complex language at all there was poetry...chant's and sounds words and not yet words ..rhythms rfelecting themseleves and finding new one with cermony and ritual predating the thought and knowledge creating it in incantation....poetry is at the center not only of what it is to be human but how humanity exists.

Poetftry are WORDS the DRAW ATTENTION TO THEMSELVES

I think you missed great poetry with long history is Tamil

With great respect but…! … No, the oldest art as explained by Edward Gordon Craig was most probably “mime”…. Hunting stories or accounts of war - even comedy - clowning - as told by fire-lit dumb show long before proper verbal language was sophisticated enough to carry the same physical immediacy and intensity… I believe many theatrical scholars have considered this to be probably the first art form… Peace!

“Poetry reminds us that the physical shape of a word is always part of its meaning.” Example please. The poet here never gives any examples so his sweeping declarations have little persuasive value. Something like this could be done of course. Emerson, I believe, argued that the word “breath”has its origin in the sound of breathing.

Why would you delete my comment?

He speaks much about poetry without even mentioning Sanskrit in which language poetry was first written

i enjoy reading my goioa but his speech pattern is annoying. im not 5

The stupidity of people is infinite… it’s never ending; the endless questions about nothing, the quest for nothing… we insult one and others intelligence daily with nonsense and nonsensicale questions.. please stop!

A reminder the God loves you and Jesus died for your sins💓 💓( not tryna force)