Art Comes Through Constraints
Introduction to Poetry, Part II
Free verse is considered by many young people to be the height of poetry, the true place of mastery for a poet. I consider it a trap for genius, where bright sparks linger to become mediocre — a failure to progress into discipline. The giants of poetry were not giants because they stuck to forms, but because they were good and used forms to make themselves squeeze value out of every single word and syllable.
Those who would throw off all obligation to form as though form is a chain are trying to live unmoored from reality and the world around them. Skillful free verse writers usually make their own form — which means they are not free verse writers, really. A poet committing to a form is like a groundskeeper committing to plant the type of tree he wants: He knows it will be in a form that fits his vision though he does not know the particulars of branches and trunk. This allows the poetry to be used as pieces of larger processes.
Art through adversity is not an original concept, but in the vacuum of your empty notebook sheet you will use constraints — your own or a friend’s or a set from antiquity. Selecting one theme or a title puts out some constraints. These limitations are where the art and beauty come from, our inability and lack of freedom in the face of the infinite world of possibilities oozing out as inspiration from within the walls of a form. Poetry is essentially an act of metaphor, speaking about metaphysical ideas through comparison and questions. Grand expression of ideas beyond the veil can only authentically come out from such veiled expressions. The form is choosing a DNA for your expression, so we can marvel at the tree, the frog, the blade of grass, instead of a twisting mishmash of all three.
That said free verse has many excellent uses, not the least of which is allowing for new, unique, original forms to take place. The ‘worst’ type of the highest category of art is still excellent to indulge in. It was the beginning of all poetry, mothering the sestinas and sonnets as they grew. At one point, those forms were just one man’s self-made form for his verses. While it misses the grand values of being memorable and slotting in to a wider pattern or usefulness, it makes up for all its failings with the great favor of unfettered exploration. I’ve called many poems good or bad, but never for their form. As an editor, I can often see where a good free verse poem might’ve been a great form poem though. More importantly, the freedom to set a specific goal and deliver on it is excellent and free verse is therefore a superb training ground to practice new techniques and deliver on specific visions — I often suggest my students write a free-verse version of their poem in addition to a form because it shakes out all the ideas they want to express. Forms can be stifling as well, and half-formed ideas are far worse than splotches of ink running wildly up the wall.
Poetry is a wide genre, but it began with free verse. Free verse poetry holds many wonderful categories with practical uses, though almost all of them personal: Elegies and Epitaphs, Ekphrastic poems, Epigrams…the list is long. Do some exploring at poetryfoundation.org and tomorrow we’ll talk about forms more practical to business and persuasive writing.
