Audrey Lorde posits, “The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.”
In an age of misinformation, misused political jargon, and incendiary or obfuscated social arguments, poetry is a concise, multifaceted tool that creates a sense of community and empowerment when it reflects the popular sentiments of oppressed peoples.
In her 1977 essay “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” Lorde eloquently put forth that; “For women, poetry (…) is a vital necessity of our existence. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.” The identification and expression of oppressive circumstances is often the first step in creating meaningful change. In communities where literacy is not widespread, the spoken word becomes increasingly critical for its ability to educate, motivate and mobilise underserved community members.
Moreover, as is the nature of all creative endeavours, poetry takes inspiration from current social climates. The influx of war poetry, examples of which include “Dulce et Decorum Est” and “In Flanders Fields,” which followed the outbreak of the First World War in Europe, aptly demonstrate this phenomenon. Poetry became a medium of communication between soldiers, civilians and political leaders alike. It described the abhorrent conditions of the war, expressed public dissatisfaction with leadership and at times became a form of protest conscription or poorly organised war efforts.
However, in a university context, where we, along with thousands of our peers, dedicate a minimum of four years to reading texts and subsequently discussing their merits in a (semi) professional manner, it is often easy to forget that literature of any form can have another purpose than education. It would likely serve us well to remember that poetry and literature have countless real-world applications.
The origins of poetry are much debated, and some believe it developed from ancient oral traditions such as folk epics, and thus, is much related to musical forms of communication. Others posit that poetry does not predate literacy and, therefore, was integral in promoting community, cementing, through storytelling, collective memory and shared histories. This long-lived historic tradition has evidently been central to civilisations for centuries. It is no surprise then that the modern adaptation of poetry is so intrinsically linked with political or social climates and is subsequently uniquely capable of amplifying so-called “hidden voices.”
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