Ars Poetica

Analysis Essay

Poetry is a beautiful testament to the permanence of human experience, the ideas

immortalized by men and women that brim with meticulous language and impassioned

purpose. Poetry, beyond the mechanical conventions, is an art form. Archibald MacLeish′s

appropriately titled work

Ars Poetica

, the `Art of Poetry′ is a treatise on the standards of

poetic art, one which focuses not on its technicalities, but on its soul.

Ars Poetica

is divided

into sections: one each for sensory comparison, lunar simile, and metaphysical truth. These

include the many discrete yet profound images that acquaint us with what he believes a poem

should be.

The sections are structured around the Imagist tenet of direct presentation, with four

short two-line ideas per `stanza′. Each of these couplets, while not of universal length or

rhyme scheme, nevertheless succeeds in illustrating different facets of a poem′s soul. The first

and fourth in each stanza all start with "A poem should...". These words reveal upcoming

definitions as opinion, not reality.

Sensory comparison dominates the opening stanza. The very fourth word in the entire

poem, "palpable", is especially chosen to evoke a memory of sensory awareness. `Palpable′ is

a feeling to be touched, tasted, explored; this image is continued with reference to "a globed

fruit". Not only is poetic art to be touched and explored, it is worthy of a symbol such as fruit

- the sweet embodiment of indulgence and sensuality. An old medallion and a "sleeve-worn

stone" ledge reinforce the concept of touch, along with familiarity, memory, and endurance.

The medallion is shown as a well-loved family heirloom, one with well-thumbed texture and

a story. The ledge is a similarly humble object, worn through use and mossy from age,

frequently overlooked. As part of a building it could potentially outlast everything from its

occupants to its political country of origin, just as a poem outlasts its author and literary age.

The feeling of speechless awe that commonly accompanies the sight of birds soaring through

the sky is also applied to poetry, the verses that soar above common literature. Sometimes,

when a poem takes `flight′, it lingers, leaves the reader emotionally moved and its message or

idea makes greater impact.

Conversely, the first stanza insists that a poem should be "mute as...fruit", "dumb

as...medallions", "silent as...stone", and "wordless as the flight of birds". It is impossible to

write a piece that overcomes this paradox of `wordless poem′; it would have to be static,

created as art-for-art′s sake and devoid of any meaning or message. Meaning in poetry is by

nature highly volatile - understanding depends on the interpreter.

However, since images such as old medallions or moss on stone frequently evoke

emotional

and

intellectual response, it is plausible for a poem to be simply `felt′. This more

simple, `wordless′ interpretation of poetry yields viable, albeit less explicit, results.

Words, especially poetry, should be like the moon: "haunting...(with) all the

dispassionateness of a disembodied soul." This quote from novelist Joseph Conrad captures

the feelings of many who write about the moon. With its intricate layers of meaning, human

perception of the moon provides the perfect subject for poetic simile. In this poem, the fifth

and eighth couplets "A poem should be motionless in time / As the moon climbs" are

identical, and the repetition serves to emphasize the juxtaposition of `motionless′ and `climb′.

The moon′s advance across the night sky is almost imperceptible, yet visibly grows to die

every month. The idea is that a poem should be as timeless, yet flexible enough to resonate

with almost anyone. In addition, the romantic, mysterious light seen from the moon is mere

reflected sunlight, just as poetry reflects reality instead of generating reality of its own.

Moonlight captivates. The next case of beautiful imagery presents the "night-

entangled trees", a dark setting which is slowly illuminated with the rising moon. This

personification of the moon as a liberator insinuates the gradual understanding and

appreciation gained by reading a poem. Gradual but enduring progression is a recurring theme

of

Ars Poetica

, one elegantly reasserted in the seventh couplet: "Leaving, as the moon behind

the winter leaves, / Memory by memory the mind." Here the author utilizes other well-known

literary motifs; the seasons, winter in particular, traditionally symbolize concepts such as

death, transition, and remembrance. The moon is less likely to be visible behind layers of

winter cloud, but an observer can still recall what it looks like. Multiple images or

interpretations of the same object (i.e. the moon, a poem) collected over time should

compound themselves into a `master memory′, a single remembrance that, while understood

as the sum of its parts, does not dwell on the parts themselves. This ensures that a poem is

remembered as an end, a finished creation, with no meaning beyond what the author has