Do you think the best poetry is born of pain?

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   nArchuletaposted 11 years ago

   Do you think the best poetry is born of pain?

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   dghbrhposted 11 years ago

   I do not think so. I believe best poetry born from heart. Main factor is to touch the heart of the reader and to do so it is necessary to write the feelings from heart. Thank you, interesting question.

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      nArchuletaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, poetry must come from the heart. Yes, it's a question I've pondered for a long time.

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   jlparkposted 11 years ago

   Hmmm...perhaps not the "best in the world" poetry.  But some of my best poems were born out of angst and pain!.
   
   Poetry and it's "worth" is really a personal opinion, so....I don't know if you will manage to get a definative answer here!

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      nArchuletaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I thought about the word "best" when I wrote the question.

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   cloudy_coolposted 11 years ago

   Poetry is very subjective to the poet's feelings...how it is expressed and how it is finally presented is another thing...
   Not everybody will like the same sort of poetry...what message does a pain inspired poetry convey may not appeal to someone who is at the happiest peak of their lives...that sort of reader would want to swim in 'lovely' and 'uplifting' poetry...
   
   Having said that...to some extent, it is possible that when a person is feeling low, the 'pain' inspired poetry seems to be very magically free flowing (and hardly needs editing)...so yes, maybe the best poetry 'could' be born from pain as we see examples from the past great poets like the works of Milton etc.
   
   I guess, a pain derived poem is simply more appealing as it sticks to the psyche more than the random happy poem would.

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      nArchuletaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I agree with you about reader preference. I definitely agree, too, that when I'm hurting is the only time I feel like writing poetry.

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   Cardisaposted 11 years ago

   The best poetry is borne of experience whether it be pain or pleasure. Poetry is an expression of the poet whether it be a one liner or a book full of words. Pain, pleasure, happiness, sadness, nature, people, love, hate; it doesn't matter the subject so long as the reader can relate.

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      nArchuletaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Definitely true. I always tell my students that they listen to poetry everyday -- songs. They can definitely relate to their favorite songs.

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   LastRoseofSummer2posted 11 years ago

   To a certain extent, Yes I think so. Let's take a quick look at just a handful of famous poets:
   
   Emily Dickinson - Extreme loneliness and possible mental illness
   Sylvia Plath - Severe depression resulting in suicide
   Edgar Allan Poe - Depression, drug addiction, and an obsession with death caused by the women he loved constantly dying.
   Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Most of her works were written while she was an invalid in her father's dysfunctional household.
   John Keats - Died at 25 of tuberculosis after watching his brother die of the same disease.   
   
   Now, I don't think that poetry being born of pain is a universal rule or the unavoidable fate of anyone who wants to write. There are plenty of other great poets (Longfellow, Wordsworth, what little we know about Shakespeare) who seemed to have pretty good lives. But poetry, like pain and sorrow, reaches very deeply into the soul. And perhaps this is why so many poets who have suffered are now famous.
   
   When Arthur Rimbaud was asked to define who and what the poet is, he said: "All forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he exhausts within himself all poisons, and preserves their quintessences. Unspeakable torment, where he will need the greatest faith, a superhuman strength, where he becomes all men: the great invalid, the great criminal, the great accursed, and the Supreme Scientist! For he attains the unknown."

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      cloudy_coolposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Wow!
      Couldn't have better answered this myself...
      Well said!

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      LastRoseofSummer2posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you!

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      nArchuletaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Wow, I was actually thinking from a personal level, but, yes, many famous poets seemed to live their lives in pain. Very astute observations.

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   Captial Bposted 10 years ago

   The best poetry is born from the connections people make from it. It is when day-to-day speech becomes obsolete and the creative interpretations can be understood, or misunderstood, through works  that create or provoke feelings and thoughts in a way only that writing was able to depict.

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      nArchuletaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I absolutely agree.

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