On Poetry: Concerning the Modern Era

If one looks around oneself in the world today, it is clear that humanity is undergoing a revolution in the way it writes. They are becoming more efficient, more concise. What once may have been expressed in an entire letter is now expressed in, perhaps, 140 characters including smiley faces or appropriate emoticons.

This revolution may be applauded, of course, for causing certain adaptations in man's writing: to write primarily on the focus of a paper and avoid irrelevant trivialities, to communicate quickly and efficiently, and to seek new ways of creative expression within unrelenting restrictions. Indeed the new age of writing has seen such triumphs as the rebirth of serialized stories and the Twitter poem. However, when one views this era of literature, they may find that it raises some concerns as well.

The modern era of literature, with its idolization of clarity in brevity, risks losing the beauty of the often poetic prose of past literary ages. To write in such a manner is a high art, and one that has its own intrinsic value. Though the written word of the modern age is of high value, it is for an entirely separate reason than the written word of the past. Today, in many cases, a word has value for the space it takes on the page. Every character is precious. The word of the past had value for its meaning, regardless of if it tended towards verbosity. Similar to the issue of value, in the modern age of literature, where many things require a mere scan to obtain their meaning, the attention span of one's audience can no longer be expected to last throughout a piece of significant length.

This applies to poetry specifically because, in the modern age, the loss of the ability to write in ways other than the stark brevity that is so praised may be devastating to the art. Such blatant and insensitive writing on subjects such as love or hate, war or death, and peace or religion may fundamentally destroy the power of the poem. It may disrupt the reader's emotional connection. Furthermore, a poem that is subjected to only a scan of the reader's eye might as well have never been written, for the reader will never appreciate all the intricacies of the work if the work has not held their attention. The modern age of literature, though it has much to offer, and much to be praised, must look to the past. Only by embracing the two times will the great writers of the future be forged.

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