By Fred Doc Nwaozor
On March 21, the world commemorated the 2017 World Poetry Day. A decision to proclaim March 21 as an annual World Poetry Day was adopted during the 30th session of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conference, held in Paris, France in 1999.
One of the main objectives of the Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expressions, and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their respective communities. In celebrating World Poetry Day, UNESCO recognizes the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.
Poetry – a genre of literature – which is a collection of series of poems, can be defined as a literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. It’s a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre, to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.
Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics. Ancient attempts to define poetry focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy.
Later attempts concentrated mainly on features not unlike repetition, verse form and rhyme, as well as emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms of writing.
From the middle of twentieth (20th) century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act that employs language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses.
In poetic presentation, devices including assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony or sarcasm, and other stylistic elements of poetic diction invariably leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, figures of speech to include metaphor, simile and metonym create a resonance between otherwise disparate images – a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived.
Some poetry types are not unconnected with particular cultures and genres, and respond to features of the language in which the poet writes. Most modern poetry reflect a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing among other things, the principle of euphony, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm.
Perhaps, in today’s increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.
Because of its nature of emphasizing linguistic form rather than using language purely for its content, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another. A possible example of this is the Hebrew Psalms, where the beauty is found more in the balance of ideas than in specific vocabulary. In most poetry, it is the connotations and the weight of words that are majorly important.
Such attribute can be difficult to interpret, thereby causing different readers to hear or understand a particular piece of poetry differently. While there are logical interpretations, the truth of the matter is that, there can never be a definitive or specific interpretation attached to a particular poem.
So far, by painstakingly considering the use of poetry in various artistic areas or fictional works such as folk tales, advertisement, music, short stories, children’s literature, drama or play, prose, and what have you, anyone can easily assert that its significance in both human and societal development cannot be overemphasized. Poetry has indeed created an enormous positive impact on literature, and has contributed immensely in the promotion of languages, cultures and education in general.
No doubt, poetry has succeeded in awakening man’s quest for learning or discovery as well as his interest to educate, entertain or inform his immediate society through the use of any language within his reach.
Apparently, the use of sarcasm or irony in poetic presentations is one of the yardsticks that signify how far poetry can go while conveying messages irrespective of its content.
Nigeria joined the global community in marking the World Poetry Day on Tuesday. I enjoin Nigerians to endeavour to promote the unique role of poetry in literature by understanding the fact that poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals – anywhere in the world – share the same questions and feelings.
Hence, we ought to comprehend that poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition; and over centuries, can communicate or convey the innermost values of diverse cultures. Above all, we should always note that poetry is the only genre of literature that saves time, space as well as energy. It can be written or expressed in any language as it pleases the writer.
On this background, every concerned stakeholder such as parents, guardians, counsellors, and teachers, among others, needs to vigorously contribute its quota towards ensuring that the unique art of poetry will no longer be considered as an outdated form of literature, but one which enables any society to regain and assert its real identity. Think about it!
Nwaozor writes from Owerri