Poetry and the Truth-Bearing Poet

Langston Hughes once asked himself, “What is poetry?” He replied, “It is the human soul entire, squeezed like a lemon or a lime, drop by drop, into atomic words.” English literary intellectual and poet Richard Le Gallienne said poetry is the “Impassioned arrangement of words, whether in verse or prose, which embodies the exaltation, the beauty, the rhythm and the truth of life.” Poetry, just like other fine arts, can be used to illustrate truths which could not otherwise be expressed using sound arguments or philosophical dialogue. While poetry may involve either of the latter components, it is more an emotion – a display of the poet’s affection on a given subject. Edwin Markham beautifully explains that “poet is a dweller between two worlds, the Seen and the Unseen; he beholds objects and events in their larger outline and deeper mystery. He never rests with the sensual, the apparent. He frees us from the tyranny of the moment. His mission is an eternal quest for the absolute reality and veracity behind the veil of senses.” The poet liberates us from what is transient and mingles words that would otherwise never be conjoined. Though the role of the poet seems ambiguous, he is “forever pressing onward through the superficial, the things that show, to the significant, the permanent, the universal truth behind the facts. He is forever ignoring the mere outward shell, giving us instead the inner spirit” (Cynthia Pearl Maus). Yes, this is the poet; the one who will honor and love Christ with all of his or her mind, heart, and soul (Matt 22:27) by meditatively searching out the depths of His heart to articulate insightful and reflective truths.