Novalis: A Tribute

[jdeirmend]

...and though two of my teachers were prize winning poets, neither did very much by way of teaching the basics of formal poetry.

Who were your professors? I had the opposite exposure in undergrad.

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People of poetry:

It is important to keep an open mind. Poetry needn't be written the way humans speak. In fact, and while I respect the contemporary view of "use the language you use," I am of the school that it shouldn't; we speak the way poetry is written.

In lieu of falling into a diatribe, I present a few examples in the form of traceable before and after occurrences:

Spoken English before Chaucer.
The writing of Chaucer.
Spoken English after Chaucer.

Spoken English before Shakespeare.
The writing of Shakespeare.
Spoken English after Shakespeare.

Spoken English before Modernism.
The writing of modernism.
Spoken English after Modernism.


As such, I wonder if we should argue not the trivial presentation of syntax, but rather the poetic effect of the chosen syntax. Is English presented in a new light? Is the subject matter redefined? Does the way the words are presented speak? does it force you the reader to speak?

Please, debate this matter.

EDIT: Welp. This was meant for a different forum, but hey, I'll keep it here anyway as I'm curious as to what you guys think on the subject. So yeah, this is not directed toward anyone here, but what say you to the way contemporary poetry is approached and written vs the way I describe my preference?

I had a number of teachers. The most influential of them for me, perhaps, recently won the Agha Shahid Ali prize.

But to echo your sentiments: I too was a little dismayed at what little work my readership thus far seemed willing to put into finding the sense in my first draft. I guess the original was a good tribute to Novalis, in that vein, as the original German of the Hymns has notoriously tortured syntax.