Luci Shaw once said “A poem is a little lens through which we can examine at close range some of the details of the universe.” Poetry has grown to be timeless, and broad in style. It can be structured or free verse—and it can be about any topic you choose. Regardless of its ambiguity, majority of poems both old and contemporary, are about romance or love. I can’t complain because I’m a hopeless romantic and I completely eat these words up. People who are more cynical toward romance, more power to you, but I can settle down with some love poetry even on my worst day.
“If ever two were one, then surely we. / If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;” (lines 1-2 “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by: Anne Bradstreet”)
“I know exactly what I want to say, / Except we’re men. Except it’s poetry,” (lines 1-2 “For J.W.” by: Rafael Campo).
Though the first poem is written by a woman in 1678, and the second is written by a gay man in 1994, I feel like without having known those facts, I could find a connection between the first 2 lines of both of their poems. Anne is speaking to her husband, and Rafael is speaking to someone he expects to share his life with in the moment where they first met. However personal every romantic experience in poetry is, isn’t the romantic audience always the same person; your love? Whether Anne was writing to her husband or Rafael to another man, they could both theoretically be talking about the same scenario. The same amount of passion can go into either direction, whichever they follow.
To say each poem was different because one was written by a man and one by a woman (regardless of sexual preferences) is kind of unjust because in many cases if you read a poem without knowing the sex of the author, it takes some deduction. In the case of these two poems, it is spelled out in both, who they are speaking to, which can be seen in those same intro lines I spoke of earlier. Other than direct clues of audience, the speaker’s styles are different from each other. I can’t really say if that’s specifically gender oriented, or if it’s due to the 316 year difference in publication. Poetry is timeless but poetic style can perhaps show its age based on the richness of language. That is really displayed in comparing these two poems because Anne uses words such as “thee” “thy” “doth” and “ought”. Rafael’s poem is more contemporary and none of those words appear but we do see “potato chip” “paper plate” “porch” “fizzing”. That’s why I wouldn’t say their poems vary based on gender; the language really depends on the era.
Another thing I found interesting is the approach each poet took. Anne’s poem started off with a good, strong intro and let it build up to an ending that was meaningful and even more powerful than the intro. It went uphill. Rafael’s poem had a through line and basically stayed at the same level the entire time but in language it came full circle.
“The while we live, in love let’s so persevere, / That when we live no more, we may live ever.” (lines 11-12 Anne Bradstreet)
“And poetry is too precise. You know / That when we met on Robert’s porch, I knew.” (lines 3-4)
“I want to comfort you, and say it all. / Except my poetry is imprecise.” (lines 24-25 Rafael Campo)
Anne’s last line is saying that she wants her & her husband to love each other so much that they’re love will survive even after they both die. The concluding lines evolved immensely from professing her love of her husband in the introductory lines. As for Rafael, the key words that stood out to me were his use of “precise” in the first stanza and “imprecise” in the last stanza. It visually and mentally draws that circle of your journey from reading the whole thing through. To put it mildly, it almost comes across as playful and cute. Even though he wrote this beautiful poem, he acknowledges within the poem itself that its far from ornate and elaborate, its slightly above colloquial, but that’s what makes it charming—its “imprecise”.
Poetry has grown to be timeless, and broad in style. These days you can write like Anne “thee” “thy” “doth” or you can write like Rafael “potato chips” and “paper plates”. As long as you can convey your feelings in a way that will appeal to readers, then you’re a poet. Poetry is not about precision, it’s about being perfectly imperfect.