Poetry?

I feel that Marianna Moore’s poem “Poetry” defines poetry the best out of the three. However, this judgement was not made because I believe that either of the two other poems do not define poetry very well in their own right (and they both do), it is because they focus more on showing/utilizing poetic devices rather than offering explanations and analysis like how Moore did.

The last portion of Moore’s poem is where it does the task of defining poetry the best. The most important part is when she states,” … imaginary gardens with real toads in them…” Which is something that poetry can be compared very closely to, even though at first glance they may seem like totally disconnected entities/ideas. Just like how people, whether it is with their own personal pet or for a large display (any animal display) will create a living space (or terrarium) for an intriguing specimen in order to preserve and share it, people create poems in order to capture very real emotions and experiences in something that is synthetic.

Even though the surrounding may be totally fabricated, it can still carry something totally genuine. Some are so well crafted that it can even fool your senses to the point to where you may even forget that it is not “real”.

– Andrew Hardy