By Renee O’Connor, Opinion Editor
I love poetry! The second I say that, I can practically hear your thoughts, and most of them are filled with judgement. However, I can confidently say that everyone also loves poetry, they just may not know it yet. I believe you all deserve to know that you more than likely consume one form of poetry everyday.
Poetry is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language and it can be found in most art forms. I will cover narrative, lyrical, and modern or slam poetry. Let’s cover the one your high school english teacher told you about: narrative poetry.
Narrative poetry is exactly what it sounds like; it tells a story. There are thousands of examples of narrative poetry, but we are going to look at some of my favorites and the most notable.
This is the man I’m sure your mind immediately goes to when I talk about poetry. Edgar Allen Poe.
Classics like The Raven, The Cask of Amendiato, and my favorite Annabel Lee made him an instant classic.
Anabel Lee is a poem about the enduring power of love, loss, grief and the supernatural. Lines such as “ That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.” Make it still required in high schools across the country.
Unlike Poe, Phillis Wheatley is one of the most inspirational poets, and was the first published Black poet, even though she was enslaved. Wheatley is most known for her writings about slavery and religion. Oftentimes, tying into one another.
In arguably her most famous poem, ‘On Being Brought from Africa to America’, she writes, “Taught my benighted soul to understand/That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too.”
In modern language, she is calling upon the newly religious that Black people must be included in Christianity.
Taylor Swift! Now that I’ve got your attention let’s talk about music. Or, lyrical poetry. Every piece of music is poetry. To reinforce this idea, I’m going to teach you examples across genres of my favorite poets.
Regardless of whatever your opinion is on her, Taylor Swift is widely considered to be one of the greatest lyricists of our time.
Many scholars praise Taylor for her constant uses of metaphors, references to literary works, and clear expansive knowledge of, as Travis Kelce so eloquently puts it, “big words”.
While there are hundreds of examples of her poetic lyrics, I’ve chosen my favorites. Lyrics such as, “My knuckles were bruised like violets / Sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep-talked / Spineless in my tomb of silence / Tore your banners down, took the battle underground”
Along with Taylor Swift, Zach Bryan is known for his poetic lyrics, which makes him just bordering on the brink between genres, being folk and country.
Zach Bryan has truly changed what it means to write country music. Most of his lyrics, similar to Swift, are incredibly profound and deal with topics like grief and loss, specifically pertaining to his mom.
Unlike many artists, Bryan includes not just lyrical poetry in his songs, but also spoken word poems in his albums.
Though I love pop music, rap is my favorite genre. And no one does poetry in the rap scene quite like Kendrick Lamar. Rap in itself is inherently poetic, but he takes it to the next level.
Kendrick uses metaphors and historical references to create beautiful songs and art. One of my favorite examples of his poetry is in his song Mother I Sober, where he raps, “So I set free myself from all the guilt that I thought I made / So I set free my mother, all the hurt that she titled shame.”. This is the purest example of lyrical poetry and he’s using metaphors of spirituality to do it.
Honorable mentions for lyrical poetry include Bo Burnham and Travis Scott, who I didn’t have time to include but would be up all night if I didn’t at least say their names. Now that you know about lyrical poetry, let’s talk about her much angstier sister, slam poetry.
This poetry has no rules–other than the fact that it’s rhythmic. It’s the only one that doesn’t have to rhyme. Similar to the lyrical poets, these poets are performers.
Rudy Fransisco is one of the greatest slam poets of our time. From race, to love, to heartbreak, to art, to Starbucks, he makes his work insanely relatable. Rudy uses his work to promote social change and most importantly, conversations.
His poems will often start comical, then turn darker. In a more serious poem, he writes, “I left notes in random places hoping that you would stumble across them, I carved our names in trees and then prayed that it would jog your memory.”
Neil Hilborn is a poet I’ve been obsessed with since my freshman year of high school. I even have a tattoo based off of one of his poems. In 2024, I got to do the coolest thing ever and meet him. This is the one exception to meeting your idols.
My all time favorite poem was written by him, titled OCD. It’s the poem my tattoo is based on. In this poem, he writes about his struggles with OCD and how they have seeped into his relationship.
Everything is amazing, until it isn’t. He ends the poem with the simple “I leave the door unlocked, I leave the lights on.”
Now that we’ve learned all about the three major types of poetry, let’s summarize what we’ve learned.
In conclusion, poetry takes many different forms and chances are, you interact with at least one of these types every day. Poetry finds itself in every single art form, which I believe is the most beautiful thing about it.
By explaining the differences between narrative, lyrical, and slam poetry, I hope every single one of you can now confidently say, “I love poetry!”