Poetry and History

Poetry is an interpretation of history, regardless of whether it is a smaller, personal interpretation or a larger rendering of events. Poetry is essentially founded on the history of personal experience and emotion as well as circumstantial history. The first poem I read was June Jordan’s Love Song About Choosing Your Booze, and it struck me how prevalent the history of the Irish culture was in the poem.  The setting is immediately given with the introduction “on a rainy Ireland night,” leading into a personal depiction of an Irish bar. The Belfast poet at the bar sings “Amazing Grace,” a historically charged song, and the narrator reminisces of Mississippi and Brooklyn before being jolted back to her sense or Irish nationality. This setting is rich with past, evoking a sense of pride in the founding of a nation as well as reminiscence of America. This larger history is intertwined with the detailed, personal recount of the narrator as she develops her own experiences with these places and therefore their records. The experience of poetic narration is not possible without history from which to draw on.  

            Poetry depends on history, and similarly history is shaped by poetry and its influence. Adrienne Su’s Female Infanticide: A Guide For Mothers resonated in that it acts as commentary on China’s “one-child” policy and how it leads female Chinese babies to neglect or death, therefore bringing to light a profoundly difficult and dividing issue. Particularly in this age of mass media, the ability of spoken or written work as political influence is vital, and Su’s work is emotionally compelling in a way that political statements are often not. Poetry has the ability to shape history through its influence, just as both personal and celebrated history is the basis from which poetry is often shaped.  

--Casey Vittimberga