Is Form Equivalent to Meaning in Poetry?
From normal to “WOAH!”
My English teacher always talked about how the “form is meaning” in poetry, but I never understood what it really meant. After all,
How can the format of how a poem is written hold any significance?
This perplexity lasted until I was introduced to “A Recollection” by John Peale Bishop. Here it is:
Famously she descended, her red hair
Unbound and bronzed by sea-reflections, caught
Crinkled with sea-pearls. The fine slender taut
Knees that let down her feet upon the air,
Young breasts, slim flanks and golden quarries were
Odder than when the young distraught
Unknown Venetian, painting her portrait, thought
He’d not imagined what he painted there.
And I too commenced with that golden cloud:
Lipped her delicious hands and had my ease
Faring fantastically, perversely proud.
All loveliness demands our courtesies.
Since she was dead I praised her as I could
Silently, among the Barberini bees.
As some background information, my teacher told us that the poem was about a powerful family in the Renaissance period that sponsored many different artists to paint. He also told us to remember that the family always asked for its emblem, Barberini bees, to be stamped onto the artwork that it commissioned.
But even after I heard all this, I was still quite confused; the poem didn’t seem to have something very special to it.
However, when my English teacher took a pen and made a huge circle on the whiteboard, everything clicked. Here it is:
After seeing this, I immediately knew what the quote “the form is meaning” meant.
Combining the “Fuck you half-ass” with the main content of the poem, I was able to synthesize what Bishop was trying to say. I could now tell that he had no respect for artists who “ruined” their artwork with other people’s emblems for the sake of getting money from their commissioners. I could understand that he thought that they were just being lazy “half-asses.” Without the form, I would have never comprehended what the true message of the poem was, but I could now grasp that a part of the meaning was inscribed into the form.
The form and text created a perfect harmony that created a whole new meaning together.
Takeaway
Next time, whenever you see an artwork, whether it be a sculpture, poem, or really anything, try to not focus on the most obvious thing. Check for the taciturn ways it screams at you using its form; you never know what will await you.
