You may or may not have noted that in one of my posts (the one with Rita Dove), I mentioned that reading a little about the author before diving into a poem is crucial. And let me stress that, it's crucial, so you can make it easier for yourself when reading a poem and starting to break it down to uncover its secrets. Every author is different, as all of us humans are different. We think and feel differently, we have different opinions, we have different experiences that have shaped us all differently into our own unique being.
It doesn't take many minutes to do a simple Google search and read the very essentials about the author. And with the very essentials, I'm talking about things such as a brief history of where the author grew up, what time the author lived and was an active writer, and personal life. The location of where the author spent his/her childhood might be an important key to the poems written by this author. Did the author grow up in an urban area in a poor family, or in the cozy suburbs outside of a large city, or perhaps in a large city? These factors matter, as humans are the most susceptible to impressions from the outside world when they are children and teenagers. Children are like sponges, they see and hear things which they absorb quickly, and they often mimic behaviours that adults have. Their brains are under developement, as is their self perception, moral thinking, abstract thinking and their understanding of consequences. We continue to develop these things even as adults, but children are escpecially malleable, their perception of reality isn't as cathegorized and carved in stone as it is for an adult. If a child has been neglected, it can act out, throw tantrums and project its anger onto others. Or perhaps it could go the other way. The child might close up and keep problems and struggles on the inside, and try to act as small as possible. Now, I don't have any research to back this statement up, but I strongly believe that the children who are sensitive and quiet make the best poets and authors, since they are amazing thinkers. Imagine the magic world inside their brains, filled with curiosity, fantasy and creativity, a world that they often keep within themselves, in a safe and protected casket. Quiet children are also the ones who pay extra attention to the world around them. Thus observing things and peculiarities that otherwise go easily unnoticed. This trait is also a part of the spine that is poetry, for the purpose of poetry is to express something small in a big and somewhat pompous way, a way that makes people stop and listen to what you have to say. Good poetry is supposed to make an impression on people and leave an imprint on them after the last word has been read.
Rita Dove is an example of a poet that mainly wrote about politics. Poetry for Rita was her kind of demonstration against segregation and unjustice, and her purpose was to shine a light on events that would otherwise be hidden and eventually forgotten. Rita grew up in the middle of the Civil Rights movement in America. Needless to say, this shaped her, and from the unjustice she experienced, powerful poems were forged. Her poems would be harder to grasp and understand if the reader didn't know what message she was trying to bring, based on her background.
Poets from the Renaissance, such as Shakespeare, had a different approach to poetry. Gone were the dark times of the Middle-ages, and culture, litterature and poetry blossomed, much thanks to the invention of printing. More people had access to books and scripts, and considering that there weren't any movies or videos or television in the 16th Century, people found entertainment in the exaggerated art of drama. You could say that poetry acted as a movie, in text.
Today, we have access to just about anything we please, at the comfort of our own home. Litterature and poetry doesn't play the same central role as it did before the inventions of the modern time. Though litterature such as fiction and fantasy are still widely popular, we have gotten used to having information handed to us as it is, without it requiring any further thought. Poetry works in a different way, it wants you to think, it wants you to feel, but it doesn't tell you what the right thoughts or feelings are, which makes poetry delicately personal, and this is why I love it.
To conclude, a little research about the author can go a long way, and make life easier for you when debunking a poem (which can be quite hard!). A backstory can be just the guiding light you need to clearly see though a poem, and not just read it. And when you do, I promise you, the feeling is overwhelming, like a puzzle that has been solved.
Keep reading!
Em
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