Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Poetry - Essay ExampleHe has to risk that the audience may not catch what he intends. Ferlinghetti compares a poem to a superficial charleychaplin man, who may or may not catch, meaning that a poem has to risk losing its audience, risk falling into the empty existence of air in nightspot to achieve any kind of greatness, for if the poem risks nix it also achieves nothing, no beauty, and no artistry. Ferlinghetti makes this point a bit ironically, as it is intended to be a bit of a jab at the Beat poets, poets who, to Ferlinghettis mind, risk nothing in their poetry, instead choosing to hide behind a mask of postmodern cynicism and dispair. The Beat poets, in Ferlinghettis opinion, do not walk the rope at all, but instead play their gullible audience, capitalizing on an immature trueness to anarchy and a disillusionment with a government that would draft Americans and send them to a war that they did not believe in. In Constantly risking absurdity, we see Ferlinghetti using not only theme and imagery to unite the subjects of poetry and high wire acts, but also the form. The words and lines look as if they are always shifting, just like a tight-rope walker must constantly change his pacing in order to keep his balance, or just as the poet must do to perceive / taut truth. The poet has to risk leaps in form as well as leaps in theme and subject to create a produce of art. There is no other way.