Sir Philip Sidney, 16th century poet, courtier and soldier who was one of the most prominent figures of England's Elizabethan age, said that of all people, the poet was king--because "He cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion...and with a tale which holdeth children from play and old men from the chimney corner."
As a children's author, I love that quote. Writing picture books is similar in many ways to writing poetry, and I aspire in my own written work to Sidney's standard. I strive to arrange my words in a way that delights. My goal, like the poet's, is to write something so compelling it will entice children from their play and adults from their leisure.
For this first Friday of National Poetry Month 2014, I've gathered a number of quotes from a variety of poets about what poetry is and what it does. See if any of them resonate with you. How would you define "poetry"?
"Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits."
--Carl Sandburg
"Poetry is that fine particle within us that expands, rarefies, refines, raises our whole being."
--William Hazlitt
"A poem is the very image of life expressed in its eternal truth."
--Percy Bysshe Shelley
"Poetry is not the assertion that something is true, but the making of that truth more fully real to us."
--T.S. Eliot
"Poetry is the music of the soul: and, above all, of great and feeling souls."
--Voltaire
"The essence of poetry is invention, such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights."
--Samuel Johnson
I particularly love Emily Dickinson's definition--or perhaps "description" is a better word--of poetry:
"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?"
Have you ever read a book--or a page, or a line--that made you feel the way that Dickinson said poetry made her feel? Something that gave you such a jolt of recognition or insight or emotion that it affected you physically?
For me, three books immediately come to mind: the King James Version of the Biblical Psalms, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. I find it curious and wonderful that these three works all come from the "Fertile Crescent," the land in and around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, a region often called the "cradle of civilization." What could be more civilizing than the poetry of fertile minds?
Barbara Jean Hicks is a regular guest contributor to Tales From the Rushmore Kid. She is a credentialed teacher in K-12 English/Language Arts and the award-winning author of seven picture books for children, including her most recent, AN AMAZING SNOWMAN, which along with A SISTER MORE LIKE ME is based on characters from the 2013 Oscar-winning animated feature film from Disney, FROZEN.
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