How Does Poetry Influences Modern Society?
Or more so, how does modern society influences modern poetry?
This ambivalence is the microcosm of contemporary literature amidst a digital revolution. Forget about poetry changing lives to a monumental extent, poems can change your mood, every day outlook, and split second perspective on a certain phenomena — that’s powerful. Poetry is not merely for heartbreaks, it has practical application in business and every day life activities. May it be thought-provoking or merely a simple reminder of life’s randomness and the fireside conversation merging within our neurons. It isn’t unusual for words to be life changers even when people demand for actions, we often forget that what precipitate acts are words in your heart and mind.
Poetry and prose has always been about evoking the emotionalism of the times it was being written — it’s a love letter and historical documentation of the current times, or simply the writer’s impromptu monologue rather than an extemporaneous narrative. It’s fair to say that poetry is the epicenter of literature as it pioneers emotionalism and its expression.
Humans are typically predisposed to nostalgia and poems are the perfect vehicle for it. The memory of a poem is ingrained in our hearts akin to pain engraved in our minds. Often poetic words are vivid as they may be vague. A poetry’s plot is the writer’s passion and life experiences. The renaissance period allowed artist to flourish with or without repercussions.
Modern society allows modern poetry to be the soundtrack of their every day lives, passages highlighted more than bible scriptures is a testament on how people gravitates toward life-changing collection of words — that’s not a slight to the bible but merely a reflection of contemporary reality. Well, in all honesty though, the bible would always be a #1 best seller if it’s marketed similar to poetry books. They’re both provocative and hopeful, castigating and hauntingly perpetual.
A riveting poem is a collection of words re-arranged to create an aroma of cadence that requires inter-generational craftsmanship. If all history books are foregone and all that is left are bundles of poetry books, humanity will be more enlightened. You’ll see and feel raw emotions from a man traversing day-to-day intricacies at a personal level that historian can’t quite capture.
A poem can cut wide open to illicit vulnerabilities that enable us to deeply connect with each other. “I’ve said it once before that poetry is a bridge. An immediate path to becoming better people and being the change in the world. Creating a world less about tearing each other down and apart, and more about coming together. Helping us to realize that we’re not as different as we think. And despite our differences, we are not alone in our grief, pain, joy or happiness.” — Alice Osborn.
Poets have always struggled with the cliched mischaracterization from films and popular culture that they are anti-social. Poetry is a healthy and creative outlet for raging emotions, it seeks to demystify the unknown inner dilemma like a dormant volcano residing within the pacific ring of fire. Poetry will help you face the music at some point.
Generations from now, it takes more than memes and tweets for them to remember who we are at this moment. Modern society can only be remembered by inked emotions and experiences. At some point, you have to let the words enchant so the actions can follow — only then, modern society can actually be memorialized.