Do you prefer more modern day poetry, or are you a lover of the classics? Or do you not even know or have a preference?  Recently on my YouTube channel (@ThePracticalPoet) I did a little challenge where I asked viewers which they preferred. My question was inspired by the memory of a college English Literature class where we had to dissect poems. The first poems we were given were very aged and written in old English, with words too big for my vocabulary. A classroom discussion confirmed that most of my classmates were as confused as I was, as we debated back and forth about the meaning of one word or one verse, or the overall meaning of the poem.  Poetry is open to interpretation, so no one was wrong in their assessment of the poem, but typically there is a common theme or message that most everyone picks up on, but even that commonality was difficult to find in some cases.  A few poems later, the Professor passed out a modern day poem, and I was easily able to decipher the meaning of the poem.  Even though there were some slight disagreements amongst the class, most everyone interpreted the modern day poem in a similar manner. Suffice it to say, I was definitely more drawn to the contemporary verse, and that is evident in my writing. Perhaps I felt a connection to or kinship with these lines and the poets who penned them.

So what exactly is classical poetry? Classic poetry is known for formal language and structured forms. Some people use the word classical to refer to poetry that is decades or even centuries old and has stood the test of time. The poem may be hard to decipher with the fluffy and descriptive words often used. Some classical poets include William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and Emily Dickinson. Sometimes the poem is written in a narrative voice and tells a story, such as Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, which is a tale of grief and the difficulty moving on with life after the death of a loved one, ultimately driving the main character into madness and despair. Another classic poem that tells a story is ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, which was published on December 23, 1823. Although the poem was initially published anonymously in The Troy Sentinel, it was later credited to Clement Clarke Moore, who included the poem in a collection of poems for his children in 1844, under the title “Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.”

Modern day poetry is much more flexible, and in my opinion, easier to understand, but not always. Recently, there has been a surge in popularity of very short poems that consist of just a few lines or one to two versus. I coined these poems “micro” poetry, but I have also heard them referred to as insta poetry, free verse, or short form.  Typically these poems don’t rhyme, and they often contain deep topics such as survival, child abuse, neglect, or love gone wrong. They may be accompanied by pencil sketches to illustrate the poem. Rupi Kaur is an example of a poet that writes in this way, and she has found unparalleled success with her books “milk and honey” and “the moon and her stars”. It is my opinion that the quick videos featured on TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram Reels have encouraged this type of poetry, as people have short attention spans these days with all of the media that is out there, and often want something they can digest in a minute or two, and then move onto the next video.  Time will tell if these short poems will last and eventually become classics, or if this is a fad that will fade away as people begin to crave content that is longer than a minute or two.

The type of poetry that I write is similar in form and cadence to what I was drawn to in that college literature class; modern, typically quite long, and often tells a story. My tagline on my YouTube channel is “Storytelling through Poetry”, and that is what I hope to bring to the world. In this harried, often rushed society that we live in, with insta poetry and quick video reels, it is my wish that people slow down enough to listen or read a bit of a longer poem, enjoy the story that is being told, absorb the words or the message, and hopefully return to the poem again at later date to see if they can pick up on something new, or find a new meaning that they may have missed the first time around.

So that leads me into this challenge. In my YouTube video,  I offered up excerpts from two poems written in very different eras. I read a few verses of each, and then I discussed the poem and the poet in a little more detail.  I will do the same here, posting the classic poem first followed by the contemporary verse, and then will provide more details about each one after. The YouTube video of this challenge follows at the end of this post.

The first poem, the classic version, is from 1916.  It was published in a book called “Lisbon Poets” that my best friend picked up for me when she visited Lisbon, Portugal.  Each poem in the book first appears in Portuguese followed by English. Here is a short excerpt of the poem called The Other One:

The duplicitous masked liar,
Who after all spent his life in incognito,
The phoney Moon King, the bogus bewildered –
Deep in his soul, a veritable coward.

Rather than a page boy, a conceited jester.
His soul of snow, made up of nauseous vomit—
His courage sung in all its arrogance,
A contrary and more than diligent lackey

Here are a few verses from the second, more modern day poem. As you read, see if the words are familiar to you. I’ll bet you’ve heard them before!

Late at night, a big old house gets lonely
I guess every form of refuge has its price
And it breaks her heart to think her love is only
Given to a man with hands as cold as ice

So she tells him she must go out for the evening
To comfort an old friend who’s feelin’ down
But he knows where she’s goin’ as she’s leavin’
She is headed for the cheatin’ side of town

Going back to the classic poem featured first, here is a little history. The poem was written in 1916 by a poet named Mario de Sa’-Carneiro. The poet was born in Lisbon in May of 1890 and died in Paris in April, 1916. He was just shy of 26 years old.  A brief biography in the book, “Lisbon Poets” talks about his troubled past. It was in Paris where he wrote his finest poems. He left France shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, but returned to Paris after suffering a moral and financial crisis, followed by a quarrel with his father. He spent his last months in deep depression and insurmountable grief. He wrote a letter to a friend expressing his will to end his life, which he did shortly thereafter at the age of 25.  One of the poems in the book credited to de Sa’-Carneiro is a poem called To be a woman. The poem makes one ponder whether or not his troubles and quarrels with his father stemmed from him feeling as he had been born as the wrong sex.

Did you recognize the second, more modern poem? Technically this is not really a poem, but rather a song lyric. But aren’t lyrics really just poetry put to music?! After all, Taylor Swift dubs herself as a poet with her 2024 release of the album called “The Tortured Poets Department”.  Back to the modern day poem/song, these are verses from the song Lyin’ Eyes from the musical group The Eagles. This is the poem that my college professor distributed for us all those years ago to dissect, and I instantly knew the meaning of this poem/song.  Lyin’ Eyes is a song written and recorded in 1975 by Don Henley and Glenn Frey. It appeared on the album “One of These Nights” and the single Lyin’ Eyes reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and number eight on the Billboard Country chart (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyin%27_Eyes)

The song lyrics tell the tale of a young woman married to a wealthy, older man. The woman is cheating on the man “with hands as cold as ice”, and she tells him she is leaving for the evening to go see a friend, but she is actually going to meet her lover. Oh such tangled webs we weave! The idea for the song, and the title came about one night when Don Henley and Glenn Frey were visiting one of their favorite bars. They were taking stock of all the beautiful women who were there with men presumably not their husbands. There was one woman in particular who caught their eye as she flirted with a much older man, and Frey is quoted as saying “she can’t hide those lyin’ eyes”, and the song was born. Much like my work, I am really drawn to storytelling, so I appreciate this storytelling through song.

So that concludes the classic versus modern day poetry challenge. Did you find one that resonated with you more than the other? Whether or not you did, I hope you will be open to exploring all different types of poetry; classical, contemporary, and ultra-modern in the form of insta poetry.  There is always something to learn and dissect, and I found I really enjoyed learning about both of these poems and the background of each. I hope you did as well, and I  hope to see you on future poetry challenges.