Wise King Taken by the Foolish One essay no. 24 Poetry Dan Plonsey January, 2002 Keywords: poetry, Lord of the Rings, movie vs. book, the past Go to: Wise King essays, home page, or one of the Wise King essays: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, or Plonsey's "Kingdoms Diptych" home page, or Dan Plonsey home page.

Poetry

The fascination of poetry is the relationship between things, deeds, words, sounds, patterns, structures: the poem depends upon our knowledge of language, music of our culture(s), the history of life, and the identity of things and places (places being collections of things at a particular time), and also depends upon our capacity for the imagination of ideal forms.

Poetry reflects upon itself: upon the reflection of reflection, upon the transformation of things and deeds into words and sounds. Poetry is an advocate for poetry, and a lament for what is to be lost in its birth: the birth of the poem is the death of what it is about. The poem exists to mark the passing thereof, and may be ephemeral or eternal.

Now: in the movie The Lord of the Rings none of the main characters ever recite poetry, let alone invent it, and yet that is what the book is all about: the making of stories, legends, and above all, the poetry that is contrived from the passing, the history, of the world. The making of legends into poetry, resulting in the book: The Lord of the Rings. Which is of course a work of "fiction." And no other book better stakes the claim that the point of the making of a book is the making, in the light shed by previous makings, and in competition therewith. No other book better stakes the claim that narrative is only grist for the mill - and it does this with an overwhelming amount of narrative, all of which it shows to be utterly superfluous! The characters are real, and their poetizing is real - or was, for that is the book's other claim: that the age of making poetry is coming to an end. And the movie, The Lord of the Rings, is the best proof that Tolkien was right: that some time between his writing and the making of the movie, the making of poetry came to an end.

For the most part.

For is it not clear to you yet that that is what I am doing?

"At least he tries so hard. Harder than I ever would, if I were to become real some day. What would I do? I would laze around the pool!"
--A. Fishio

-- Dan Plonsey, January, 2002 El Cerrito, California Go to: Wise King essays: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, or Plonsey's "Kingdoms Diptych" home page, or Dan Plonsey home page.