A Poem is a Story

 

For as long as I can remember, I have always thought that poems were simply tiny packages containing the direct thoughts of the poet. After spending some time analyzing poetry in English class this past week, I have realized that this is not true. Although poems are much shorter than traditional novels and even most short stories, they contain versions of the plot and characterization that these longer works have, even if they are created in different ways. 

As an example I will use Sir Phillip Sidney’s “Thou Blind Man’s Mark” , which is a poem that we analyzed in class. The poem begins with the speaker addressing desire and criticizing it’s terrible qualities, by saying, for example, “Thou web of will, whose end is never wrought”. By the end of the poem, the speaker feels he has achieved some kind of intellectual triumph over desire and victoriously proclaims, “In vain thou kindlest all thy smoky fire” in order to belittle it. Although there are not scenes of action like would be expected in a novel, there is a clear change of emotion that is similar to the kinds of emotional changes that occur as a result of the action in longer stories. In a poem, the action oftentimes takes place in the mind and feelings of the speaker instead of through activity, and this is what makes up the plot.

Poems also contain characterization. In “Thou Blind Man’s Mark”, the personification of desire allows it to be portrayed as a monstrous and destructive being. The line, “For virtue hath this better lesson taught” characterizes the speaker as someone who values breaking away from group habits if this is the morally correct thing to do. By using poetry’s characteristic metaphors and carefully chosen diction, the poem is able to assign attributes to characters that move the plot along and create meaning, as they would in a novel. 

Although poems are small, they contain the same literary might as lengthier works.