Poetic Existence: A Personal and Social Imperative

Introduction
The topic of this lecture strikes one as puzzling because it has an air of familiarity and yet it seems to startle one into trying to figure out what poetry is. Then one wonders what poetry has to do in the lives of individuals and society. It is quite easy to relate poetry to poems but what makes poems cardinal to existence seems unclear. Does it transform or enrich individuals and communities? How is this done?
As one ponders these questions, some commonly held ideas, derived from impressions of poetry the study of prescribed poems in schools begin to come to the fore. One recalls how “poems canonized by scholars” were thrust on students and how they were expected to respond enthusiastically to these classic in the poetic tradition of Literature. But alas, one could neither muster nor feign the required feeling of excitement; most of the poems seemed to parade verbal puzzles that proved quite formidable. How could such writings as obtrusively affronted one’s...