Building On Impulse: The Birth of a Poem

I thought it would be worth describing here how I believe poetry is created. Writing itself is an entirely unique craft that cannot be taught by any didactic measures, instead it relies on self-motivation and the desire to express one's own imagination.


As something of an amateur poet, I have devised my own method in which I pen my works (this includes my attempts at prose-fiction). I will describe it here in some detail, though it should not be taken as anything but advisory.


Considering the notion that 'poetry should express emotion but the poet should not feel it', I think it is important that a poem does indeed invoke emotions in the reader but that they are the reader's own emotions not simply an empathetic replication of the poet's. By attaching no sentimental values to their work, a poet avoids cringe-worthy outbursts and melodramatic ramblings, that in all honesty appear adolescent in tone.


The essence of poetry is cerebral, not emotional. A poem stems from single or multiple impulses which meld into thoughts and are translated into words. Emotions, namely self-pity and passion to name but a few, blur the true intention of the poet and their work becomes mired in conflicting emotive/figurative images that ultimately create tedious confusion.


What is needed in the crafting of poetry, in my opinion, is careful construction of thought that arises spontaneously and is nurtured into a poetic form by the discerning eye of the poet.
I will mention the Modernism movement here as I feel that its tendency to be willfully obscure encapsulates the point I am making. James Joyce's Modernist epic, Ulysses, is a prime example of translated thoughts untainted by form or convention and the result is a richly psychological odyssey that is both captivating and baffling. Great poetry requires subtlety, that is certain, so rather than ostentatious odes to wallowing in Goethe-esque sorrow or attempting to mimic the rhapsodic Romantic voice, a poet is better off delving into their own mind and fashioning their own interpretation of art, without fear of pretension. Style is simply the placement of chosen words on a page, it is the reasoning behind style that is the true poetry.


The progression of culture in this present age has led to a generation of trend-chasers, but the poet must be stoic in their own innovations and continually seek to build something out of the fragments of this broken society.

Nautical Poems: The Wreck of the Hesperus by Longfellow vs. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge

So, upon my reading of the Wordsworth/Coleridge collaboration Lyrical Ballads, I felt that I should review what is arguably one of Coleridge best poems; The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Anyone studying GCSE, A-level or degree level English will inevitably stumble across this lengthy narrative poem, and it has been prolifically referenced in culture. A brief synopsis of the poem is that 'the ancient mariner' is recounting his tale to 'a wedding guest', the tale is essentially a voyage the mariner took on his ship wherein the crew became lost but a lone albatross served to guide them to their destination, the mariner gets annoyed by the presence of the bird and shoots it with an arrow. The crew is left lost in the middle of the ocean and the famous lines:

Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink/ 

Water, water everywhere ne a drop to drink 

The poem is characteristic of the despair present in Coleridge's poetry yet there is also a supernatural element that adds a certain charm that is not always present in his fellow poet Wordsworth, whose odes to nature reflected in tranquility lack the action  and intrigue of The Ancient Mariner.

I chose to include here, as a point of comparison, The Wreck of the Hesperus by the American poet, Henry Longfellow. This is also a narrative poem and has an almost identical theme of a captain ignoring advice and thus facing dire consequences. In the poem, the captain of the Hesperus is warned by a crew member to avoid a dangerous current, but the captain is too proud to heed the advice as his daughter is on board. As the ship enters the stormy area the captain ties his daughter to the mast so that she is safe, when the storm settles the ship has been destroyed and all that remains is the captain's daughter left tied to the mast in the'frozen gloom'. Both these poems are about the consequences of ignoring help, both the Ancient Mariner and the captain of the Hesperus were overcome by hubris and agitation which led to their Hamartian fates.

Unlike some other poets of their age (Wordsworth and Whitman, to name but a few), Coleridge and Longfellow write in a very readable style and this is perhaps the reasoning behind their gratuitous use in schools. They are enjoyable tales that are relevant to the present day and their cultural significance makes them necessary reading for any budding poet.

Inferno by Dante Alighieri and A Scattering by Christopher Reid

Hello, here are the first two reviews of poetry I have read, enjoy.

Inferno- Book I of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

As my first review for this blog, I felt it is fitting to start from one of the biggest influences of the poetry world, Dante Alighieri. His magnum opus, The Divine Comedy has become a formulaic structure for a myriad supernatural adventure tales. I have chosen to review only the first book of the trilogy, Inferno, which charters the narrator, Dante’s journey through the seven circles of Hell after becoming lost in the forest. He is accompanied by a guide, the ancient poet Virgil. The following books, Purgatorio and Paradiso chronicle the ascent through purgatory and finally, heaven.

Inferno is structured into thirty-four cantos and each three-line stanza is composed in a uniquely rich prosaic/poetic language. Dante is seen as a pioneer of his native Italian language and upon reading the English translation here, I found that there is a charming storyteller-like feel to each canto. Though Dante is often seen as the Italian equivalent to Chaucer, there is arguably something more thrilling and engaging in the supernatural horror and beauty of The Divine Comedy than the rustic and bawdy lyric of The Canterbury Tales.

Dante questions the divine justice meted out to pious followers of Christianity. The suffering of the sinners in Hell is told in graphic detail, akin to the infernal images described in the Holy Bible. Though the modern reader may see this as only poetic fancy and hyperbole, it should be noted that the work was composed during the Dark Ages in which religion was held not as belief but universal fact.

So it is here in the Inferno, that Dante tells of the horrific fate of the Christian sinner. However, there is no element of didacticism or any attempt to proselytise the reader into living a virtuous life, moreover, this epic poem has a fable-like feel in which actions are met with consequences. The poetic value of Dante’s work cannot be overstated, images and devices featured in the Divine Comedy are prevalent not just in poetry but culture as a whole.

‘The river of blood’ from Canto XII and ‘the dolorous forest’ in Canto XIV are seen as products of ‘the vengeance of God’. Dante expands his narrative to describe the torment and pain of the condemned, Dante as the narrator of the Inferno is powerless to save any of the afflicted sinners he comes across, this issue of narrative passivity and intervention is perhaps one of the greatest devices of intrigue used within modern literature. Think back to any contemporary first person novel you may have read, and it is likely that the narrator has only a passive voyeur role in the story and serves merely as reportage, yet are still vital to the plot. Here in Inferno, Dante and Virgil conduct themselves through the circles of Hell and what they see serves as basis of the poem.

The cultural significance of this poem is vast, our perceptions of Hell if we choose to believe it, are almost stemmed from The Divine Comedy. Cliché images of fire and brimstone and demons are the result of Dante’s unceasing influence on literature. You should read this wonderful epic poem not for literary merit but out of your own curiosity to journey down through the circles of hell and to witness the superbly written vision of Hell. Thought the archaic language may appear to some as tedious and superfluous, the vivid imagery of infernal torment will certainly draw in any reader with a craving for supernatural horror. Dante’s fluid, masterful style makes Inferno a smooth journey through the afterlife, though after reading it there is always the desire ‘to rebehold the stars’ and begin the whole journey again.


A Scattering by Christopher Reid

A Scattering is a collection of poems by the prolific contemporary poet Christopher Reid. The poems are written in memoriam to his late wife Lucinda. The whole collection is twinged with a poignant sadness and gallows humour that is both bittersweet and somewhat disturbing. It is a brilliantly composed book which was rightly received the Costa Book Award 2009.

The first series of poems, titled, The Flowers of Crete is a witty and vivid account of Reid’s holiday with his wife. Reid focuses on the human reactions to life’s mundane situations and how these relate to deeper emotions, in other words a typical figurative approach, but there is a sincerity here in Reid’s voice that could only be manifested by someone who has witnessed the sorrow of bereavement. The opening verses describe ‘big sting-toting insects’ contrasted by ‘a blue-green glaze on the bay’. It seems whenever Reid looks to closely at the world he must look away and resort to grand poetic imagery. However, Reid achieves this with a degree of subtlety, attention is shifted from ‘ glib analogies’ and ‘makeshift rhymes’ which Reid calls ‘the crimes of your husband the poet’ and instead reveals a bare-faced despair described as ‘ a dry sort of pleasure’.

The next series in A Scattering is titled simply, The Unfinished, and as the name suggests, there are included eleven fragmented poems that in their brevity reveal a despair that is deeply moving and far from sentimentality. Reid describes in painful detail the dying stages of his terminally ill wife in hospital, beginning from the ‘sparse breaths’ to the ‘ultimate calm’. Reid reveals his close relationship with Lucinda, informing us of their mannerisms as well as describing the deteriorating health of his wife. ‘Those last few days of drug drowse and coma comfort’ are written with such frankness at times that the poems appear a perverse mockery as Reid describes ‘her bald head like a baby’ but once again this is grief-stricken sarcasm. These poems are Reid’s attempt to downplay the tragic requiems penned by melancholic writers and instead he creates a disturbingly intimate sadness that is arguably far more effective.

A Widower’s Dozen is the third series of A Scattering, and the poems included are Reid’s reaction to his wife’s untimely death. As with the previous series, Unfinished, these poems are similarly brief but striking nonetheless. The first poem, Conundrum is Reid’s admission of feeling like ‘my own ghost’ as he is haunted by the late Lucinda. A Scattering, the title of the second poem is a witty tale of elephants scattering the bones of their deceased, Reid announces he will ‘place my own sad thoughts in new, hopeful arrangements’. This hint of optimism is integral to this collection, Reid is in a state of despair but is looking for a way back to the happiness he once knew. A Scattering is a collection of the poet’s attempts at finding happiness after sorrow. The final series, titled Lucinda’s Way is again a fragmented narrative, though focussed on memory and the influence of time. Reid recalls his years of marriage, but now writes ‘in the cumbersome retrospective mood’. The past has become a burden, but must be remembered out of respect; Reid is left with nothing but to lament his sorrows and then move on or else remain ‘jealous of the years when I didn’t know you’.

A Scattering is a highly emotive read, but is also witty and humorous in a morbid way. Read these poems not as epitaphs but as casual anecdotes told by the bereaved who cannot let go of their memories.

Welcome to My Blog

Hello, I'm Robert, an amateur poet and writer (as of yet unpublished, but the ambition is there). I created this blog to serve as a source of review and insight into the literary world, in particular, classical and contemporary poetry. I am deeply interested in works of the past and how they influence present and future writers, I also love reading, so this blog is a fitting device for my opinionated output. However, I do not wish to merely give my opinion on a book, but to give a generalized analysis that will hopefully lead others to read the book for themselves and thus inspire them. It may appear wholly didactic of me to assert the values and benefits of reading here, but I believe in this modern age of frivolity and gimmick we need a return to substantial literature that provides not just information or a cheap thrill but wisdom and the inspiration to create our own work.
 I will avoid being overly sentimental and state that poetry is for all, it is the very translation of thought, something intimate and unique, I hope that by offering my reviews of poets I admire will inspire others to write their own works.
My first review is yet to be confirmed but will be coming shortly

-Robert