Ask Dr. Mayhew


Dr. Mayhew,

I am a student at Concordia University in Nebraska, and over the summer, I have had
the opportunity to begin writing my own poetry in Spanish and read the poetry of
others.  As I read more poetry, I found myself wondering, "What is poetry?"  I know how
Sidney and other poets defined it in the past, but the poetry that is written today is
different from that of the past.  Can we distinguish poetry from prose or prose from
poetry?  Should we draw a definitive line between the two?  One of my English
professors at Concordia repeatedly told my Psychological and Sociological Analysis of
Modern Literature class (a verbose title for a class that studied novels written during
the Modern era) that the best pieces of prose are held together by poetic devices.  I
agree with his statement for the most part, but some writers seem to blur the lines
between the two.  Should we look at literature in its entirety?

I am not expecting a response to all of my questions because it would be lengthy. 
Since you are a professor of Modern Spanish poetry, I thought that you would be able
to give me some insight or at least suggest some authors who would enable me to
formulate my own thoughts on the topic.

Thank you,

Mark Bajus

***

Dear Mark:

The concept of "literature" is a relatively recent one, dating more or less to the 18th century. What Ancient Writers like Aristotle called "poetry" included many genres: tragedy, comedy, epic, panegyric, satire, etc... We cannot accurately call poetry itself a "genre" of literature, then. The verse/prose distinction, unfortunately for those who desire a simple explanation, does not line up with the poetry/literature distinction, since prose can use any poetic device--short of meter and lineation--and modern poets often write in prose or free verse. I feel we are now approaching, again, the Aristotelian definition of poetry: a kind of writing that can be found in any form or genre. The French poet Mallarmé affirmed that prose has rhythm as well: hence the distinction he drew was between legitimately poetic writing (whether in verse or prose) and "the newspaper." However, the newspaper could also be poetic, if it employed techniques of montage or collage in "poetic" fashion. The Spanish poet Antonio Gamoneda defines the genres of "literature" as "poesía, diversamente preparada." Another way of approaching the problem is to see what ideological purpose is served by defining poetry as separate from prose. Does this lower our expectation of what prose can do? Does it preserve poetry as a separate realm in which nothing of importance happens? What is the significance of the fact that most narrative and theater in the past 200 years is written in prose rather than verse? Why is poetry now identified with "the lyric"?

Yours,

Jonathan Mayhew