¶ … Poetry in an Prosaic World:
Marianne Moore and Rafael Camp's Metapoetic Texts on the Form
Both the first lines of "Poetry" by Marianne Moore and the title of the poem "The Next Poem Could Be Your Last" by Rafael Campo startle the reader from a moment of literary complacency into a new point-of-view about the language. "I too dislike it," says Moore, regarding the subject of poetry. How could a poet dislike her media, the reader is suddenly provoked to ask? The words jolt the reader from the page and force a pause.
This sense of pausing in between thoughts is reinforced by the rendering of the poem itself, on the printed page spread out before the reader. Even the sight of the poem, therefore, causes a complementary questioning of Moore's assertion. The poem makes use of considerable white space, breaking up continuous lines of thought that in speech would be seamlessly rendered. Even the visual texture of the poem, after its initial line and first mid-sentence line break, notes that the poet is constructing a bit of a game with the reader. Only though use of poetic enjambment technique can the meaning of why the poet dislikes the medium of poetry itself can be understood.
The Next Poem Could Be Your Last," by Rafael Campo is arresting before the reader even makes note of the first line. The title suggests in the mind of the reader the phrase that this next breath could be one's last. This may also seem to deflate the poetic project, making the reading of the poem a joke, in comparison to such serious tasks as breathing. But equally plausibly, the analogy of reading poetry with breath taking is a vital claim for the necessity of the poetic medium even in modern, prosaic times. Human life is short, the title suggests, and human expression must be short to make full use...
Only poetry, a notably brief medium in its lyric form, can thus fully give expression to the brevity of the human existence and the intensity of the thoughts that come with every human breath.
In
contrast to Campo's later work, Moore's poem is a more thoughtful claim for the importance of poetry, although she does assert the importance of poetry eventually over the course of her poem, most forcefully in the last
stanza. She is, however, a bit more coy and subtle in her argumentation and poetic suggestion than "The Next Poem May be Your Last" author. Regardless, her poem and the argumentative structure of her poem, like Campo's, can be read as an example of a kind of metapoetry. Metapoetry, like metafiction, could be said to be a kind of verse that is a musing and a discourse over the
nature of poetic structure itself.
Both writers are dealing with a world where the need for poetry, unlike in
ancient times, is not assumed but constantly must be justified. What about this literary form that, unlike even nonfiction or fiction, appears to do no real work in the world, is so difficult and to some, so unrewarding to understand? Only poetry suggests Campo, in his opening title and in his poem, makes such spare and vital use of language and the metaphorical associations and
connections of language to communicate in an economical and elemental level. Only poetry, suggests Moore, constantly seeks to justify itself and its existence, and that is why it is so important.
Moore begins her work with a suggestion that the reason many students and modern reader dislikes poetry is the sense of unreality it conveys about the material world. She echoes the common refrain of many adolescents, why can't the author just say what he or she means, when they are forced to encounter a poetic work in class.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one discovers that there is in
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