Poetry Reviews and Recommendations

Article: Poetry as a reflection of Society

Often, I find myself considering and musing upon poetry in general: the importance of it, its role in society  and its history and development. This is a common theme that you are likely find in all of my writings in this book, not only because it is a fascinating theme to discuss, debate and argue but also it is extremely helpful in informing a critics judgment when reviewing work (thus aiding this book's main purpose). Something I have found many people forget is that poetry is a gateway to the past, present and future, from the depths of a carefully constructed stanza we can learn a great deal.

Over the past week or so critiquing the work of aspiring poets, I have been provoked into considering the great level of diversity to be found in modern work. For instance only today I was reviewing a young poets work, who will remain nameless, and I was astounded by the quality of it in terms of depth of meaning and societal importance in spite of the many expletives, colloquialisms, clippings, abbreviations and lack of 'traditional' poetic structure. The pieces in question exhibited such great depth of feeling, such raw emotion and honesty that I found the work deeply moving and thought provoking. What this later made me think was: what is poetry if it does not tell us about the society of the time or the emotions of the writer as a consequence of that society? The poetry I had read was an open book to the emotional rollercoaster of 21st century adolescence showing key areas of how language has changes. Compare this to the work of Wordsworth, Tennyson or Shakespeare even and the obvious differences prove to be fascinating and tell us so much about sociologically.

Whilst I applaud the poet I read and the thousands of other like him for their modern, informal mode of emotional expressionism, where does this leave those of us who write in a more traditional style? I myself, write in a way that is what many might term 'traditional',  I prefer the regular rhymer scheme and metre over all else. However, what differs my work to something written in the mid 20th century and before. The correct of grammar and the conformance to writing conventions tell us little about the society of today, it makes works anonymous in terms of the time it was written! Does this make such works worthless? No!

I have the conclusion that whatever your style of writing, whether 'traditional' or more unorthodox and 21st century, collectively our writing put together forms the best picture of the society we live in: a society of diversity and equality. No matter who you are or what your qualifications, social standing etc. you are free to write and publish your work - this certainly would not have been the case over a century ago! The melting pot of styles, personalities and emotions that are expresses through poetry in its various forms serve to represent us as a diverse and culturally rich society. For this reason I say to those reading this article: whatever your preferred style or theme do not hesitate to publish your work, we are all different in poetry as in life so in sharing a poem or two you directly contribute to the bigger picture of our diverse poetical society here on Wattpad as well as to the enjoyment of others when we get the privilege of reading your work! Happy reading and writing, long may it continue!!