On Poetry and Argument

When former poet laureate Ted Kooser claimed that poetry serves to "freshen the world," he cited a poem about homeless people.

The poem, "Fire Burning in a Fifty-Five Gallon Drum" by Jared Carter, begins with these five words:

"Next time you'll notice them . . ."

That is, after reading the poem, you'll see the homeless.

"Next time you'll notice them on your way to work
or when you drive by that place near the river
where the stockyards used to stand, where everything

is gone now. They'll be leaning over the edge
of the barrel, getting it started. . ."

The rest of the poem is filled with conscientious descriptions of the homeless. It's not an argument—the author doesn't rebuke the reader for not giving money to the poor, nor does he assert that we should vote for a policy that will give the homeless some housing. He merely translates what he's seen with words the way a painter would illustrate the scene with paint.

But the poem (hopefully) makes us see the world again, causes us to "re-vise" the world. In other words, even though this poem doesn't accomplish the same specific purposes that a political speech or an op-ed piece on the homeless would, it may help us in a more general way.

Art may, as Kenneth Burke once claimed, "leave us with a desire for justice." Good art doesn't preach to the world about which specific actions readers should take on a particular issue. Art isn't practical in this sense. It is instead about shaping and refining our feelings. Practicality isn't the realm of art; it is the realm of rhetoric—of political debate. When art gets too practical, too specific, we write it off, or at least we should write it off, as propaganda or a cold sermon.

So there's rhetoric and there's poetics (rhetorology). Rhetoric is the realm of argument, poetics is the realm of beauty. And we have a use for both.

When politicians and citizens find themselves at a headlock about how, exactly, we should help the poor—whether we should initiate more government programs or promote private charities—what we might need is better art. In the wrangling debate, in the midst of specifics, we might need a piece of art that would shift our attitude and remind us to reverence bare humanity.