A Poem Is Not a Puzzle and a Play Is Not a Problem to Be Solved

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Of the three main genres of literature, namely, poetry, prose and drama, prose is the most common genre the world over. Novels and short stories are far more popular than Plays and poetry anthologies because they are considered very simple and straight forward. The indifference of the people to poetry and plays is mainly because of the attitudes that most people have adopted towards these genres. To most people, a poem is a puzzle that needs unraveling while a play presents a problem to be solved. The fact of the matter is that a poem is not a puzzle neither is a play a problem that requires any solution.

Starting with poetry, this is one genre of literature that is highly avoided by many people the world over because of the feeling that the genre is very complicated. To most people, poetry is like mathematics and it requires superior brains to unravel the puzzle presented in poetry. This is not true, the fact that there is a lot of hidden meaning and covert language does not make poetry a puzzle, neither does it require a superior brain to understand (Polonsky 13). Most of the instability in the world may be as a result of the high levels of poetry malnourishment because poetry is an essential part of life, yet people are constantly running away from it becausethey think it is a puzzle. May be the best way to understand the nature of poetry is by looking at its analogy to football. What makes players like Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott stand out? It is because of their dazzling strides in the field that bamboozles opponents in a graceful and aesthetic manner which brings satisfaction to the audience. This is why any club would like to possess a player of the caliber of the aforementioned players because of the aesthetics and the dazzle they add to the game. Their game is poetic, gracefully satisfying and imaginative. This is what poetry is; unpredictable arrangements of words in an aesthetic manner that gracefully evokes imagination, leading to higher levels of satisfaction than reading any other form of literature. If the use of aesthetic language in an unpredictable fashion is what people call a puzzle, then the notion that poetry is a puzzle to be solved is misplaced. Clubs that play poetic football full of dazzles, aesthetics and flamboyance attract a lot of following than clubs that play the ordinary flat football and this is what should be transferred to literature for people to be able to appreciate that poetry is only different not because it is a mystery, but because it is only that people have not struggled to understand what is beyond the ordinary.

Poetry is not like the ordinary speech, or ordinary piece of writing. It contains words, arranged rhythmically, sometimes with rhyme and other sound patterns using aesthetic elements of style. This makes it more imaginative than other common literary genres. The key word here is imaginative. For one to appreciate poetry, there must be a lot of imagination. Those who fail to imagine will find poetry as a puzzle but the moment the process of imagination starts, the beauty of poetry creeps. This beauty makes reading a piece of poem as satisfying as watching two world class teams playing play what is called poetic football. The poem The stone Hammer by Robert Koetsch, is one of the most beautiful poems. It tells a story using symbols and metaphor and the moment the reader starts the process of imagination, the poem will speak to the reader and it only after it speaks to the reader that the satisfaction of reading the poem will be attained.

Claiming that poetry is a puzzle is like insinuating that anything that is of a higher class is a puzzle. A movie does not become a puzzle just because it is of a higher class than the rest; it becomes more interesting and appealing to the mind and the same case should apply to poetry. This is because poetry is characterized by the use of a higher caliber language though comprehensible, and structured in verse form to express subjects in a way that is imaginative. The change of style and the form of language therefore does not mean that the genre has become a puzzle.

Music is one of the most popular forms of expressions and many people love music. They love it because it appeals to their imagination in a graceful and satisfying manner and the higher the class of music, the greater the level of satisfaction it guarantees. The questions that arises here is, what is the difference between poetry and music? The difference is very minimal.

Just like music, a poem is rhythmical in a way that impacts to the mind by lifting the moods and the spirits. Just like poetry, music has rhymes, rhyme schemes, sound patterns like alliteration assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, idiophones that make the composition more aesthetic(McCauley 14). The only main difference is that music has tune and poetry does not. This means that if people are able to derive enjoyment and satisfaction from music, they should also be able to derive the same or almost the same levels of satisfaction from poetry. To enjoy music, that music must engage the imagination of the listener and the same thing should apply to poetry. People find poetry complex because they fail to engage their imaginations as they read them meaning that the unique features of a poem will appear as puzzles to them. There is a lot of poetry in music and if no one has ever claimed that music is a puzzle that needs to be unraveled, then, there should be no such insinuations about poetry.

For one to be able to enjoy poetry and gain a sense of satisfaction there must be a lot of attention being paid to details. Reading a poem like Wishes by Patty L Harjo, an unimaginative person may not be able to get the message in that poem and they will go with a negative attitude that the poem is mathematical. However, if the person is able to engage the imaginations to the poem, they will be able to pay attention to details, ask themselves questions and as they answer that question, the poem will start talking to them. In this way the reader will be able to understand the impact of repetitive phrases like cloudless Ivory sky and blue rainbow. The reader will be able to get the deeper meanings of the wide range of metaphorical expressions used by the poet. The poem ceases to be a puzzle when it talks to the reader, engaging their imagination in a way that they enjoy the dazzles and the beauty presented by the highly developed language of poetry and the poetic features of style (McCauley 14). Just like poetry, plays have been victims of inattention by many literature lovers because of the attitude that plays are problematic. However, this attitude is misplaced because plays are not problems, the change of structure from prose to drama should not pose a problem. The difference between a play and a prose is that in prose, the story of the characters is told out but in drama, the real characters emerge, and present the story through their own actions. The notion that a play is a problem can wither away if people are able to understand the conventions that are used in drama. Lack of understanding of these conventions will present problems as people attempt to understand a play. To be able to appreciate a play, one must be able to understand the setting of the play. The setting is either temporal or spatial. Temporal setting refers to the time in which the play was set while spatial setting refers to the place in which it was set. This is because the setting provides the reader wit background knowledge that will enable the reader to interpret the play. Failure to grasp the background details that are presented by the setting may hamper the understanding of the play meaning that the reader will develop an attitude that all plays are problematic. In the book, Shakespeare and his predecessors, F.S Boas claims that Shakespeares plays re considered problematic while in actual fact, they are not. The problem most people find in the plays of William Shakespeare is not the use of archaic language. The problem arises from the context of the plays ( Branch 287). This problem can be easily solved by the understanding of both the spatial and the temporal context of the play. For example, one would mot easily enjoy reading the Merchant of Venice without the background knowledge of the rivalry that existed between the Jews and the venetians during the 15^th century, neither will one appreciate The Enemy of the People by Henrique Ibsen without the understanding of the corrupt society that existed in Norway at the end of the 19^th century (Boas 56). This is why Boas claims that plays will cease being problematic once the context in which they are set is clear. One of the most interesting plays ever written is Act without Words by Samuel Becket, and there are many people that have denied the chance to savor the rich and satisfying episodes of love and betrayal just because they harbor an attitude that plays are problematic.

The other dramatic convention that is very important in the comprehension of plays is plot. Many people fail to appreciate plays because they lose track of the arrangement of events in the play. John Ciofalo, in his book The Ascent of genius in court and Academy claims that the most taxing plot is the non linear plot in plays. The non linear plot is where the events in the play start at the middle or even at the end. The play starts with the resolution part or even the climax and then goes on to explain what had led to the outcomes that have already been presented. It is only when the reader is able to identify the linkages that are there in the plot that plays will become ease to interpret and enjoy (Ciofalo 78).

Generally, plays are not problematic and they are richer in content and in levels of satisfaction than the prose. The beauty of plays is that the story is presented in the first person, where the reader interacts with the character directly. This brings the reader closer to the happenings in the play making it more affective than reading a story written in third person in the prose. The reader is able to relate with the characters easily because there is no subjective agent between the characters and the reader.

People fail to gain the richness that is presented in plays because of harboring attitudes that plays are problematic and they involve finding solutions to problems posed. According to Ibsen, every play will pose a problem but that does not mean that the play has become a problem. When a play presents a problem, it is not the work of the reader to solve the problem, the problem will get solved as the play progresses and the work of the reader is to enjoy as the problem get resolved (Ciofalo 78). This misunderstanding needs to be cleared. Another misconception that has led to the attitude that plays are problems to be solved is the existence of the term problem plays. This term was coined by F.S. Boas; however, it was not meant to imply that plays are problematic, the term is just used to classify plays that had issues of moral dilemma in them and they required the protagonist to make tough choices. These plays include the Shakespeares Hamlet, all is well and measure for measure, and a variety of plays by Norwegian playwright, Henrique Ibsen, likes the enemy of the people.

To say that a poem is a puzzle and a play is a problem to be solved is an attempt to run away from the finest forms of literature due to the failure to go beyond the basics and appreciate the unique features of literature that are inherent in the two genres. The use of unconventional language and elements of style are not enough to complicate a genre of literature. The problem is that people are not eager to move out of the comfort zones created by prose making them to view any other genre that deviates from prose as a puzzle or a problem. This denies them the opportunity to enjoy the richness and diversity that is found in poems and plays. It is only when people move out of the ordinary that they will be able to derive utmost satisfaction from literature because it is these unconventional genres that have a richer heritage.

Works Cited

Boas, Fredrick. Shakespeare and his Predecessors. London: John Murray,2000.

Branch, Glenn. Theory in Theory and Practice Outreach 1:287289.

Ciofalo, John. The Ascent of Genius in the Court and Academy . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

McCauley, James. Versification: A Short Introduction. Michigan State University Press 1983.

Polonsky, Marc. The Poetry Readers Toolkit. NY: Sage,2002.

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A Poem Is Not a Puzzle and a Play Is Not a Problem to Be Solved

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