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Poems are great liberators; they free the hearts, minds, and souls of both reader and writer. Poetry also nourishes the heart and soul to thrive and flourish.
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
When Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote those famous lines of her poem, Sonnet 43, it sparked a following among love enthusiasts worldwide that persisted throughout this day and age. An epitome of what love poetry is all about; Sonnet 43 remains one of the most quoted poems in weddings and courtships that could quickly melt the hearts of both the old and the young.
Because that’s what poetry is all about.
Poetry is typically described as a literary work meant to express feelings and ideas in a distinctive style, feature, pattern, or rhythm. Poems are meant to arouse their audience’s feelings or emotions, making them relate to the poet with their own experience or raise an awareness intended to trigger a response from its readers or listeners.
Raymond Quattlebaum’s book The Color of Love exemplifies excellent poetry’s impact. This book of poetry touches on the real essence of love, a love that is so breathtaking as the moon and the stars above; it’s almost divine-like in its beauty. What magnifies the author’s thoughts in words is how love was beautifully captured in poetry – reminiscent of the great poets of the past.
Poetry in Overview
To appreciate poetry is to enjoy what life has to offer. When people think of this form of literature, they conjure up famous historical names such as William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, and Emily Dickinson. Poetry as a literary work and form of expression has been said to exist for thousands of years, and it’s almost hard to pinpoint the precise time or period when it started or even its earliest works.
Poetry started as epic poetry that details historical events such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, Iliad, and Odyssey. Then came the Elizabethan period, made famous the poetic form of sonnets, as significantly used by that period’s most famous writer, William Shakespeare.
The 20th-century modern era is not without its share of significant poets marking their names in history. There is the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney, and this day-and-age American civil rights activist and poet, Maya Angelou.
If there is one literature that can stand and adapt to the changing times, it’s poetry.
What does poetry do to you?
There are many reasons why people love to write, read, or listen to poetry. Through the consistent rhythmic pattern or otherwise contrasting unique use of words, this form of literature served every person differently according to how they perceived its benefits.
You don’t have to be the most excellent writer to start writing poems because anyone can jump on this famous form of expression bandwagon. That’s how versatile and flexible it is. Anyone can write poetry anywhere, at any time, and in any way or style, they wish. It is the benefits coming from writing poems that make a person persist throughout the writing process.
Here are some of those benefits.
Boosts Self-Awareness
One of the top benefits of poetry to both the poet and its audience is how poems can build up their self-awareness.
Poems are written as, first and foremost, a form of self-expression. People find that the rhyming and the specific way words are used best to express their ideas and emotions. Because of this core honesty stimulated by poetry, they can reach down and touch-based with their authentic selves, true feelings, and who and what they are. Writing poems is a constructive way for writers to key in and focus on their thoughts, actions, or emotions. And if people have developed this sense of self-awareness, they become better communicators, become better at decision-making, and gain more confidence and resiliency in facing life’s challenges.
Served as Therapeutic
Poetry is therapeutic for both the writer and the reader. Writing down words help writers dealing with depression or anxiety since it becomes an avenue for them to express themselves without any hindrances freely. For readers, poems offer a similar effect, but this time, closer to the feeling of empathy. Reading a poet’s works and feeling their emotions could shine on the readers’ hearts and minds that are hidden and suppressed. They could relate to the poet’s feelings and experiences and associate them with their own.
Improves Cognitive Function
Poems may seem like a smooth flow of words, but the writing process is pretty complex. It requires the writer’s brain to be stimulated to allow the creative juice to flow through. Writing poems hones a person’s brain to become sharper. The twist of words, the metaphor, simile, and all forms of the figure of speech help the writer (including the readers) become more focused and develop a good memory.
Soulfood, Heart’s Delight
Once you get the overall benefit from writing and reading poems, not only do you enrich your mind, but you also get to nourish your heart and soul. Poetry does that to everyone it reaches. It sees through a person’s heart and mind and opens doors to worlds of opportunities.
This literary work can lighten the darkness of hopelessness and spark hope and faith in all life’s beautiful possibilities. Poems can feed the heart, mind, and soul and breathe life with just a few simple lines. That’s the beauty and power of poetry.
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