sp09250dhill

="Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish (1926)=


 * David Hill**

ARCHIBALD MacLEISH

Ars Poetica

A poem should be palpable and mute As a globed fruit,

Dumb As old medellions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone Of casement ledges where the moss has grown-

A poem should be wordless As the flight of birds.

A poem should be motionless in time As the moon climbs.

Leaving, as the moon releases Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves, Memory by memory the mind-

A poem should be motionless in time As the moon climbs.

A poem should be equal to: Not true.

For all the history of grief An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea-

A poem should not mean But be.

Way 1: First Impressions
"Ars Poetica" is a poem about writing a poem. It describes what a poem should be and that through a poem the reader should have his senses touched. He should touch, hear and see the subject of the poem. From the note at the bottom of the poem I see that the Latin words of the title are translated as "The Art of Poetry." In the poem Archibald MacLeish uses phrases like "Dumb - as old medallions to the thumb," and "Silent as the sleeve - worn stone" that bring up the question of what do these phrases really mean? Are they imagery representing something else or are they literal images that can be seen for what they are? Also the last line of the poem seems to contradict the rest of the poem when it says "A poem should not mean - But be."

Way 2: Engaging with the Text
Listening to the poem as I read it aloud was a completely different experience from listening while my wife read the poem. I read the lines as if they were the sentences in a paragraph and it sounded stilted and wooden. But when I heard someone else read the poem I could suddenly hear the ebb and flow of each line and the rhymes that ended most of those lines. The rhythm of the poem flowed in a cadence. I felt that this natural rhythmic flow helped to emphasis the ryhmes that MacLeish used in his poem. Most of MacLeish's rhymes were actual rhymes line "stone" and "grown," but he also included some near rhymes like "time" and "climbs." What was missing from "Ars Poetic" as I listened? Missing is any form of alliteration or assonance, but rhythm and rhyme make up for the absence.