Ars Poetica

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 “nightentangled 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