Episode Transcript
Hey there, folks. Welcome back to Sort of Sophisticated. You know the deal. Amanda and I do all this research, so you can soak up some fun facts without falling into the doom scroll vortex. I'm Pete, your guide to useless knowledge that somehow makes you sound cultured at parties. And here with me, as always, is my co host, Amanda. Hey, everybody. Uh, Amanda. What? I'm ripping the band aid here. Okay. I'm just gonna say one word. Oh, no. Poetry. Ew. What about poetry? Is that the word of the day? Please tell me that's the word of the day. No, that's our topic for the day. Oh, okay. And stop. Because if it was the word of the day, it'd be stupid. Your eyes are rolling. Like, what's your problem over there already? Like, wha Get excited! I mean, not even. I love poetry. The Dead Poets Society might be one of my favorite movies of all time. Oh my god, yes. Totally. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. Robin Williams was amazing. I loved it. I wish I could have watched it earlier in my life, though. Because I was like 30 years old before I saw it. And it came out when I was like 16. I totally blew it. Wow, you were alive when it came out. Wow. I mean, when I was in 10th grade, my English teacher was still forcing us to read, like, The Odyssey. Okay? What's wrong with The Odyssey? Addy has to read The Odyssey. I wanted to commit suicide every day until we finished it. No! Yeah, that poem is way, way too long. Okay, But it's still a classic. A long classic. Yeah, whatever. That's what she said. Okay, hold on. Gross. Hey, I think we should let everyone know the reason why we're doing this episode in the first place. Well, I mean, wait, there's like two reasons, right? Is that April is National Poetry Month, so there's that. I didn't even know that was a thing. It totally is. See, here I go, bringing all of our pop culture relevance. Awesome. But also too, I think poetry might be the best thing I could think to get us outside of our little box and make us more cultured hashtag. Sort of sophisticated. Hashtag, I love it! Also, it's still weird to say hashtag. We should call it a pound sign. Okay. Pound it. Pound, that's what she said. Um. Goddammit. Um, speaking of cultured and curious, uh, can we do word of the day now? Totally, but I'm gonna do it because I have a good one. Wait, okay, go. Lay it on me. So our word of the day today is Perci flage. Perci flage. So fancy. It sounds like a dessert somebody would order, like, uh, excuse me, I will take the, uh, perci flage with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, please. Not even close. What does it mean? It means to playfully banter or to tease. Oh, okay. Yeah, so basically what we do to each other every week. Oh my god, I love this. Yeah, it's a very easy word. Yeah, so we're not like just annoying. We could argue like we are, like, linguistically advanced here. I can get behind that. Like, our perciflage is so awesome. Well, don't make it so easy. That's perfect. Goodness gracious, but that doesn't count. Why? Because you got to do it again somewhere else. That's the whole point of this. What happened to our, like, money jar with our dollars? Yeah, I'm winning, you're losing. That's what happened. It's fair. Okay. It's fair. We both get to, like, use the money, so it's fine. We both win. That's true, because we're just going to end up at dinner or something, anyway. It's true. Okay, fine. Okay, so in the meantime, What? Might as well just dive into the episode. Could we please? Thank you. Yes. An introduction to the magical, mysterious, and sometimes misunderstood world of poetry. Oh, I like that, with the three M's. That was very, like, alliteration ish. Ma ma Magical, mysterious, and misunderstood. Well, we always promise to make it fun, so. We better make it fun. Here we are. Oh, is this where you're going to quote something, like, super dramatic? Like, oh, captain, my captain? Am I supposed to, like, start crying? No, dude. We already talked about the Dead Poets Society, so just relax. Is that, like, the only thing you know that has to do with poetry? Basically, yes. You're such a liar. One, I don't believe that. But two, it's trivia time, because it's your favorite time. And I'm going to put you on the spot. Go for it. What? Okay, do you know where that quote actually originates from? What quote? Captain, My Captain? Yes, like, the poem. Oh shit, no, I have no idea. I just know it's Dead Poets Society. Go ahead, clock me. Okay, so, get this, it was actually written by Walt Whitman all the way back in 1865 as a tribute to Abraham Lincoln after he was assassinated. Oh my god, now I like it even more. Well, you should. And it's a good segue because we're about to start the whole history of poetry anyway, so let's go. I love it. Let's go. Alright. So, to give some context, like we always try to do within our little history lesson section, poetry has basically been around forever. Like, forever. Forever. It wasn't just entertainment back then. It was literally how people preserved their history and their culture. Okay. So like, how long are we talking here? Like Jesus time? Like how long ago? No, no, no. Like way before that. Before Jesus time? Yeah. Like try 4, 000 years ago. So it was around the time that Stonehenge was being built. Let's go! Shout out to our Winter Solstice episode. Good work. And it wasn't that also in like another episode? Way to plug that in. It probably was, like Wonders of the World. I don't even know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just like Stonehenge. Okay, so the first known quote unquote poem ever written was something called the Epic of Gilgamesh, which they believe was written around 2100 BC. So this is ancient Mesopotamia, which is modern day Iraq. So it's the oldest surviving poetic literary work that we know of today. And it was composed of something called Akkadian cuneiform, on these little clay tablets. Dude, okay. And by like tablet, I don't mean like a tablet tablet, I mean like a stone piece of Dude, what? Slow down. That's way too sophisticated. Like, bring it down a notch. I have a few questions. What? Okay, who are they? And what is Akkadian Kuno whatever? What do you mean, who were they? Don't know you said like they they believe it was written in 2100 BC Who are they like some council on poetry or something like historians or something? You know, at least when I ask questions to you, they're a little more thoughtful. So you need to do better over there Oh my god, I did. I just asked what Akkadian cuneiform is to like fine. No, that one's better us Who were they? By the way, so for our show, I thought that was important to know who they is historians. Thank you We say they a lot and I'm not sure what we're talking about. Okay, go ahead. Okay, thank you uniform. Yes for our show Akkadian cuneiform is basically like an ancient version of texting except instead of typing with your thumbs You sort of just stab at the clay all day with sticks and try to write out your grocery list. Make sense? Oh my god. Yes, but I have to look this up online because I have to see what this looks. Okay Well, you should go look. Okay, but I'm gonna keep going Okay, so we're gonna fast forward to ancient Greece, which is like a thousand years or so and poetry got a glow up Thanks to Homer's epic poems. Do you remember Homer? Uh, yeah, we were talking about Homer earlier I want to kill myself poke my eyes out. Thank you. No. Yes. The Iliad and the Odyssey, which, who are we kidding, totally sets the bar for storytelling. And on top of that, around the same time, lyric poetry, the stressy ancient version of love songs, started spreading all around thanks to greek poets like Sapho, who basically invented emotional oversharing. Okay, wait, wait, wait, hold on. That should have been your favorite person. I just looked up Akkadian cuneiform. I don't know how anyone could read this crap. It seems impossible. It was like, really small. But I also looked up who they were because I just wanted to like, stick that in your face. Um, Deciding that Gilgamesh was the oldest poem thing. And apparently, there are people called Assyriologists. And I guess they spend their lives learning the history and culture of ancient Mesopotamia and then get jobs translating cuneiform. Go figure. Not historians, Assyriologists. Which are people who spend their lives learning the history and culture. So is that not a historian? I felt it was my duty. It's technically a historian. To clock you. Sorta sophisticated. Okay fine. You got way too sophisticated when you were talking about Akkadian cuneiform so I just wanted to like make sure I was at your level. Thank you very much. So, shout out to the Assyriologists. We won't say they again. Okay, fine. Now, there are these ologists. There's a lot of ologists here. Okay, so can we go back? Go back. Yeah, go. So, by the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, poetry got all fancy and intellectual Finally making the move from oral tradition to more like the written art form we know today. So people are like Chaucer, Dante, Shakespeare. Oh my God, Shakespeare. Right? He's so good. They basically started redefining all the rules of poetry and really started turning into a storytelling tool and I guess a love tool and maybe probably a political tool too. So got a lot of tools, people. You gotta love the tools, right? I mean, by the way, the only thing I remember about Chaucer was that he invented the whole, like, iambic pentameter thing. Thank you, Mrs. Smith, my 7th grade English teacher. Shout out to Mrs. Smith. Um, let's go, right? Okay, so, was that it? We basically jumped from like Shakespeare all the way to Kendrick Lamar? I mean, there's a little bit more in between, but yes, ultimately we get to Kendrick. So bear with me. So there's Shakespeare, who basically mastered that iambic pentameter was like the Kendrick Lamar of his time Well, really kind of more like the Ed Sheeran because they both wrote about love mainly And thanks to Petrarch, the OG founding father of the love sonnet, both Shakespeare and subsequently Ed Sheeran actually made money writing love songs and sonnets. Then if we go ahead and fast forward again to the 18th century where we had all the neoclassicists like I love that word neoclassicists. That's a good word. And it just flows right off your tongue, neoclassicists. Give me, give me a famous neoclassicist that we should all know. Like Alexander Pope, who could basically roast people with verses better than Twitter ever could. You gotta love Alexander. You do. And okay, so then after that, the romantics show up, like Lord Byron and John Keats, and they start yelling about passion and tragic love. It was totally dramatic, but only in the best way possible. Then finally after that, poetry kind of breaks free. Like literally the English, like Lord Tennyson. I mean, they tried to keep things pretty polished. Of course they did. Yes. Because they're English, right? Very proper, right? But meanwhile, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson over here in the United States were like, rules? What rules? We don't need any stinking rules. I mean, let's be real. Walt was just all over the place. He was a total animal and Dickinson was dropping like some really deep thoughts in these super short lines and sometimes in just a few words. And that really opened everything up. And so by the 20th century, poets really started messing with form. T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound then came along and basically turned poems into puzzle boxes and then you got Langston Hughes is dropping jazz rhythm into the mix. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Puzzle boxes? Puzzle boxes. Now who's level 7 lying? I'm not even lying. Like his most famous poem, The Wasteland, written in 1922, was the ultimate puzzle box. Like wait, like physically a puzzle box? No, like mentally, right? Like a literary puzzle box. A jump between different voices, languages, and literary illusions. Shakespeare, Dante, Hindu scriptures, you name it. It's like Elliot took a bunch of historical, mythological, and literary fragments, shook them up, and scattered them across the page, daring readers to put it all back together again, and like kind of And then once you crack the code, you realize Elliot wasn't just being difficult. He was showing how modern life feels disconnected, overwhelming, and kind of absurd, really. Okay, kill me now. Like, no wonder I hated poetry growing up. I was just trying to figure out how to rhyme, and this guy's secretly, like, screwing with me with his puzzle box. Absolutely. Yep. And finally, my last fast forward, today, poetry is everywhere. There's spoken word, hip hop, Instagram captions, even AI generated verses. Of course there are. Of course, AI. Um, but I mean, poetry has gone from castles and quills to open mics and TikTok, but at its core, the whole idea is that it's all about making people feel something big with just a few words. Uh, shout out to Kendrick Lamar. Absolutely. And here's the deal. Poetry has always been more than just words on a page. Um, or ancient tablets. Or, yes, ancient tablets. It's art, right? It moves your soul, it lingers in your mind, it leaves an imprint on your heart. All the things. Oh my god, settle down. But I just thought of something. Were the Ten Commandments considered poetry? That's how your brain works. Just like kind of pops in your head well ancient tablets. Yeah, like that's yeah, that's what I just thought of I'm googling this shit. I'm gonna find out right now. You keep going. Okay, so, I was going to change the subject, but now I can't. You need to look up your shit. I because I know that you're going to get distracted until you find your answer. So, are we, are we good yet? Yeah, but what are we about to talk about? Um, you're about to talk about the most famous poets. I tried that before. You didn't like that. Okay, fine. You're going to talk about the five most influential poets. Oh, shit. Okay, that's right. Okay, wait, here it is. Okay, yes, the Ten Commandments are considered poetic in structure, though they're primarily legal and moral instructions. Their composition includes several poetic and rhetorical devices that make them memorable and impactful, which was essential in oral tradition based society. The poetic elements in Ten Commandments are, and I quote, Parallelism, a common feature in Hebrew poetry where ideas are repeated. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. Okay, got it. Concise and rhythmic phrasing. The commandments are structured in short. Commanding phrases, making them easy to recall. Duh, that's how I memorize them. Repetition. Some commandments reinforce earlier ones, such as emphasis on honoring God in the Sabbath. And symbolic language. Phrases like, Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon their children, carry deep metaphorical and theological meaning. So, while not a poem in the traditional sense, the poetic style of the Ten Commandments helped them endure across generations and cultures. There you go. Who knew? Poems. It's true. That's the most random fact ever. And the way your brain works always intrigues me. So, did you get your Catholic fix out of the way? Can we move on? Oh, oh, wow. Okay, well, you're going to hell, but that's fine, I don't care. At least my soul's saved. Uh, okay. Wait, what am I doing again? Exactly. But your brain's not saved, but you can't remember shit. Okay, sorry. Sorry. Hmm. Five most influential poets of all time, please. Yes, okay. Okay, wait. One more thing about the Ten Commandments. What if God had a sixth sense of humor, and the Ten Commandments were all just persiflage? Stop it. Like, here, Catholics are freaking out over these laws for like 2, 000 years, and God's up there laughing. Oh my God, that would be funny. And I just Nailed another dollar. Okay, thank you. Okay, back to poets. Okay, most influential poets. First you have Homer in the 8th century BC. That all started with the Iliad, the OG epic poem we had to all read in high school. That basically set the foundation for all of western literature and hero stories, like, as we know it. It's the story that gave us Achilles, Hector, and the Trojan War's most dramatic moments. Without the Iliad, there's no Odyssey, no Shakespearean tragedies, and probably no blockbuster war movies. Seriously. Avi! There's probably not even, like, frickin like, um, Marvel movies, right? Seriously. It's true. Yeah. Okay. I can see that. So then, then next you have Dante Alighieri in the 13th century. Well, part of the 14th century too. And you might remember the Divine Comedy, also from high school lit class. Thank you. It's the one that basically took us on a trip through hell, purgatory, and then heaven, mapping out the medieval idea of the afterlife. It basically shaped Christian theology and moral philosophy and probably why we picture hellfire and brimstone in our nightmares. Who are we kidding? All right. Uh, coming in at number three, you got Jeffrey Chaucer. Who is basically known as the literary rebel who ditched Latin and French to write the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Which was like, the teenage phase of English, somewhere between Old English and Modern English. I had to look that up. Middle English. Which made literature actually readable for all the common people, instead of like, just monks and nobles. He packed the tales with a mix of wild characters, from like, shady scam artist priests, to party hardy blue collar dudes. Turning it into like, a medieval reality show that roasted society with humor and And don't forget, he was the iambic pentameter guy. So there's that. Uh, then of course you got Billy Shakespeare, 17th century. And let's be real, Shakespeare didn't just write plays or poetry, Amanda. He obsessed over them. He wrote 154 sonnets. Yeah, how many did Ed Sheeran write? Like, like 30. Not that many. Right, okay. Covered everything from beauty and aging to heartbreak and despair. His influence on language and romance is so deep that we still quote him today without even realizing it. Love is Blind. You know that quote, that's him. Merchant of Venice. Star crossed lovers. Yeah, that's him. Romeo and Juliet. Uh, I wear my heart on my sleeve. We say that all the time. Yeah. Othello, you get the idea. All that Shakespeare. Um, and finally, rounding out the top five is our buddy Walt Whitman in the 18 hundreds, he was the guy that broke all the rules, especially his famous work, leaves of grass. Sort of turned everything upside down on us. No rhyme, no form, just free verse celebrating life, man. He was out there for sure, probably smoking doobies and basically paved the way for all like the modern stuff today. Oh, can I do, like, quick honorable mentions, please? Because let's be real. Yeah, poetry's got way too many legends. Um, okay, T. S. Eliot, we talked about. The puzzle guy. Uh, Emily Dickinson. The queen of the short, mysterious poems. Total minimalist. Edgar Allen Poe. Yes, our boy Eddie, remember him? Shout out earlier episode. The dark, brooding mastermind who made poetry all gothic y and murder y and all that shit. And then Langston Hughes. The voice of the Harlem Renaissance people. So, um, but then if you think about it for a sec, really the five most influential poets of all time don't necessarily have the five most famous poems of all time. Wait, why do you say that? Because like influence is more about like changing the face of literature. It's like transformative, like Whitman's whole free verse thing or Shakespeare basically shaping modern English where like famous poems are more just like broad recognition across the world. That makes sense. Well. Now I just want to know what the five most famous poems of all time are well I thought you'd never ask. I'm pretty sure I loaded that one up. You sure did right? Um, just gotta keep that little interest, right? Well, these like these are the interest. Let's be honest These are things we have to take to the party, you know I mean, this is what we got to know Okay, so coming in at number five Robert Frost the road not taken, you know two roads diverged in a yellow wood Sorry, I could not take them both. Um, which, by the way, isn't actually about marching to, like, the beat of your own drum, like everyone thinks. No, what's it about? Yes, it's more about, like, whatever happens, happens. Like, it's about the illusion of choice. Like, we convince ourselves that the paths we take in life are all unique and meaningful. Even though they often aren't all that different. Hmm mind blown, right? You sort of kind of can end up at the end anyway Okay, fourth most famous Emily Dickinson because I could not stop for death side note Did you know that Emily Dickinson was like the queen of recluse? No, she wasn't. Yeah, like, I don't even know if I used, like, that right, but like, you know what I mean. Like, she was reclusive, right? Yeah, she barely left her house, avoided everyone she possibly could, and somehow still wrote hundreds of poems! Well, what else was she gonna do? Right, well, yeah, right, she's hiding in her house. They weren't even published till after she died! Isn't that how everyone becomes famous? I know, right? They gotta die first. Thank you very much. Have you read this one? No. No. But you're gonna tell me the two, aren't you? Well, you have to, because if you're gonna get more culture, it's time. Come on. Okay. It's an excellent poem, and it's super short. She somehow makes death, like, sound almost, like, polite, in a way. It's like Death showed up in an uber black, unordered, but really polite and took you on a one way trip that you didn't realize you even booked. Very nice. That was the most random analogy you could have come up with. Well, whatever, like, I mean, it's super, it's like, it's nice. It's a nice, comfortable way. Okay, it's more like, how about, how about like a carriage ride? In New York City, you just get in the carriage, and death just takes you to Okay, right. You get the idea. Okay, number three. Uh, Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. The guy who invented free verse and believed poetry could be wild and full of life? Walt Whitman? Uh, that guy. Yes, rules are for suckers, right? His famous poem, Song of Myself, is all about nature and being connected to the universe. Think cosmic hippie vibes, but, like, way back in the 1800s. Okay, but who's the runner up? Okay, runner up, number two. Good old Edgar Allan Poe with The Raven People, once Upon a Midnight Dreary, While I Wandered Weak and Weary. And shout out to our Poe episode that we did last year, if you haven't listened to it, you probably should. Totally. Serious people. If you only do one thing because of this episode, read The Raven. It's Poe's most famous work. His magnum opus, people. It's this creepy gothic masterpiece about grief, madness, and like, really a very talkative bird all rolled into one. Get on it. Wait. I thought you said when we did the Edgar Allan Poe episode that the raven was the most famous poem of all time, and now you're telling me it's number two? Um, I think we need to check tape, because I think I said it might be, uh, the most famous poem of all time. And who are we kidding? You never know. It might really still be. It's not like they have, like, scientific evidence to prove all this shit. But for the sake of this episode, it comes in at number two because of, uh, Shakespeare. Okay? Alright, so you're going to tell me Shakespeare is number one. Um, totally. Shakespeare is number one. Sonnet 18. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? How can it not be? He was the ultimate hopeless romantic. I would argue he's probably a little obsessive and over the top. Okay, fair. But, Sonnet 18 is awesome. I mean, in 14 lines. He basically says, AF and compares her to laying on the beach and tanning all summer. But unlike the weather, her hotness will stay forever. Because we have plastic surgery now. Okay, not really. But you get the idea. Right? I mean, okay, sure. But let me make sure that I'm tracking all of this. So we have learned so far that poetry is pretty deep. It can be dark sometimes. It's also pretty weird, but apparently it's timeless, right? Yeah, I like that. Okay. And you don't get famous till you're dead because that's just how it works. Okay. So you're good at this way to sum it up. So are we going to keep going or are we wrapping it up? Oh, no, no, no, dude, we're still going. We didn't do how to appreciate poetry yet. Dude, your turn again. Oh, that's true. Go for it. Okay, I forgot about that part. So, how does one actually enjoy poetry if one is not already into it? You may be asking. Well, there's a cheat code. Just don't overthink it. Like that's it? That's it. Just don't try to find some hidden meaning in all of it? Exactly! So here's my sort of sophisticated three step guide to reading and interpreting poetry without feeling like an English teacher is hovering over you. Oh, I'm gonna love this. And we all know, just disclaimer, um, English is my worst subject. So step one, let's go. First things first, just read the poem. No overanalyzing, no dissecting, no stressing over what the poet was really thinking. Spoiler alert. Sometimes they didn't even know themselves. Read it out loud. Poetry is meant to be heard and you might catch rhythm, tone, or some other meaning that gets lost on the page. If something sounds weird, if dramatic or oddly beautiful, congratulations, that's poetry. All right. So step two, Figure out who's talking, what's the vibe, and what's actually happening. Poets love to bury meaning under their pretty words. But once you strip it all down, most poems are just people having big feelings about life or nature or how much they just hate Mondays. Everybody hates Mondays. I mean, yes. Step three and finally, find the so what. What does it mean to you? There's no single right answer here, so don't freak out. If you can back up your interpretation with something from the text, you are golden. And if you don't get it at all, that's okay too. 'cause who are we kidding? Some poems just exist to sound cool. And remember people. Poetry isn't a puzzle you have to solve. Well, wait a second. Apparently, unless you're like T. S. Eliot or something. Okay. Good point. But if you're everyone else, poetry is a mood, a vibe, a way to make language dance. If you walk away with a feeling, a thought, or even just a favorite line, you're probably doing it right. Promise. I feel like I'm about to go read me some Dickinson and start writing haikus or something. Well, you better get on that. I want to read your haikus. Okay. Wait, but one last thing here before I do that. I want to make sure our listeners know. It's not just a bunch of old scale poetry we're talking about here It's like alive and well today like music, of course, right is the easiest place to see it But there's some like pretty famous modern poets making a name for themselves right now Thank you. Like okay, you have Rupi Coor, who's all over Instagram and TikTok right now. She's the one that somehow turns, like, hard feelings and heartbreak into those little bite sized, line broken wisdom clips that make you wonder if she isn't a genius already. Like, when Gabi died, like, I was getting all of these grief poems. They were all her. They're amazing. Okay, I'm sure you've seen them. Um, then you have Amanda Gorman. 26 year old activist who gained, like, her celebrity for her poem, The Hill We Climb, when she delivered it at the 2021 US Presidential Inauguration when Amanda, she was only 20 years old. Dang, talk about accomplishments. Yeah, and then, of course, there's Kendrick Lamar. No bullshit. Winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his album, Damn! Where basically a bunch of classical music scholars had to sit down and say, Uh, yeah, this guy is amazing. I mean, I love that we're talking about Kendrick, because I feel like a lot of people missed his brilliance. They do. In his, uh, Super Bowl performance. They do, they do miss it. Okay, so yeah, poetry isn't just alive and well, it's evolving. Right from what you're saying and whether it's winning Pulitzer Prizes or going viral on Tik Tok It's still shaping how we express emotions challenge ideas and tell our stories I think you should really take a poetry Pete. Oh, dude. It's on my list. Let's go Okay. Well then next thing I'm gonna do After all these episodes I take up something. So here we go Right a haiku a haiku or two Anything else If not, then it's time for fun facts. No, no, let's go, fun facts, fun facts. Okay, so why don't you give me the good stuff. Okay, yes, Captain, my captain. Ha! Well played. Okay, here we go. Um, alright, so we already know the world's oldest poem, Gilgamesh, and some of the longest, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Oh, sorry, and Mahabharata, which we never actually talked about, but like, that's the longest poem in the world. But do you actually know the world's shortest poem? I don't. So poet Aram Soroyan wrote a one word, four letter poem, La yite. Yes, that's it, La yite. Somehow this weird little typo looking poem became famous in the poetry world, and it even got him, like, a cash reward. Like, L I G H G H T, La yite. Talk about efficiency. What does it even mean? Like, what's it about? What the hell do I know? I'm not good at all this stuff. You're gonna have to Google that shit. Okay, fine. I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. Okay, number two. Haikus are the original Twitter posts. Okay, so traditional Japanese haikus are just 17 syllables long. Five, seven, five. Proving that poets were masters of short form content way before social media people. Imagine if Shakespeare had to fit, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day, into a tweet. Oh my god, that would be hilarious. Yeah, it would be. But, hold on. What? So I googled, Ly lyte. Ly ite. Ly ite. Ly ite. Uh, it's subject to interpretation, but a couple thoughts are it's either a visual representation of flickering or extended light, like the extra GH could symbolize movement, distortion, or the way light lingers. Or it could be a commentary on the flexibility of language. So challenging what we consider a real word and proving that poetry can exist even in a single, altered word. Oh my god, like, Look at us, we are being so sophisticated right now. We're like doing poetry, right? Okay, can I move on? Absolutely. Okay, but I am proud of us. Okay, um, number three. So, speaking of Shakespeare, did you know he invented over 1, 700 words? 1, 700 people? Like what? That's a lot of words. Like have you ever said the word bedroom or lonely or swagger or how about critic? Really? Yeah. Those are all his, yeah. Oh, thanks Shakespeare. Huh? The guy just made up words when he needed them for his poetry and plays, which honestly feels like cheating. But we let it slide 'cause he was just that good like, and now we use 'em all the time. I mean, I wish I was the, that's why I love fun facts. I wanna be the inventor of words. Okay. I mean, you try to TM a lot of words. I do. No, you already do it. And I'm gonna be famous, Amanda, after I'm dead. Just gonna die. Alright, that's terrible. Okay, number four, Dr. Seuss, right? Can't have poetry without Dr. Seuss, right? He's the best. Yes, he once used poetry to outsmart a bet. How? Okay, when challenged to write a book using only 50 different words, Dr. Seuss gave us Green Eggs and Ham. It remains one of the best selling children's books of all time. Proof that limitations sometimes spark the greatest creativity. Go Dr. Seuss. That's a good one. 50 words. Uh, and finally, I saved the best one for last. Did you know there's a poem on the moon? What? Like the moon moon? Yeah, like the moon. Yeah, like during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, astronaut Buzz Aldrin carried a microfilm with poems from Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost to the moon. And just laid it there for some aliens to find and hopefully interpret one day. That's awesome, let's go. How are they supposed to interpret that? Like, what did he really expect? But they're literally on the moon right now. I don't know, but I'm hooked. And those pics were straight up legendary. So, good job. You've got an unfair talent for this. Oh my god, thank you so much, I heart you. That's very nice. Okay, but before we peace out, why don't you hit me with the TLDR. You know, the part where I pretend to have it all together while I'm secretly speedwriting over here my little notes. Alright, I'm ready. First things first. If you haven't already, go read some poetry, people. Obviously. I'm not saying, like, get all into it. But, like, check out some classics. Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, whatever. Just pick your vibe. Even if you don't love every line, you'll at least sound sort of sophisticated at your next dinner party. And that's the goal, people. And really, this one's really easy, because, like, sometimes I tell you to go watch a movie or go somewhere. Like, this is, like, five minutes of your time. Okay, second, go see some live poetry. Yeah, uh, it's a thing. Slam poetry nights, spoken word performances, open mics. Trust me, it's all an experience. There's nothing like hearing a poem performed out loud, the way it was meant to be felt. Plus, you might discover a new favorite poet, who isn't just some dead guy from your high school English class. I had to do it in college. It was totally awesome. Highly recommended. Um, third, if you're being bold, try writing something yourself. Look, I ain't saying you're gonna be the next Billy Shakespeare or anything, people, but just play around with some words. Like, write a haiku we were just laughing about. Like, when you're, like, doing your morning coffee thing. Try a silly limerick about your dog. Right? Do some persiflage. Come on, people. Who knows? You might tap into something deep, right? Okay. Uh, finally, here are some key poetry facts to casually drop into your next convo to sound effortlessly sophisticated. Number one. Poetry is one of the oldest art forms, dating back to ancient oral traditions. Before books, before alphabets, before everything. If you think poetry is just a classroom chore, remember, this stuff was the original form of storytelling. Passed down for centuries, before people even started writing it down. And the earliest form of poetry that we know of is the Epic of Gilgamesh, written around 2100 BC. Commit that to memory. Number two not all poetry rhymes and it doesn't have to be fancy free verse is a thing Some of the most famous poems have no strict structure or rhyme proving that poetry is about feeling not just form number three poetry isn't just old and dusty It's everywhere rap song lyrics commercial jingles poetry sneaks into pop culture all the time If you've ever belted out a Taylor Swift bridge People, you've felt poetry. And finally, The meaning of a poem is whatever YOU take from it. Sure, poets might have intended a specific theme, but if a poem speaks to you in a completely different way, you're still reading it right. And that's it! You're officially ready to drop poetry knowledge like a pro now, people! And there you have it, fellow listeners, your crash course in poetry. A world that's far more than just old books And flowery language. The next time someone rolls their eyes at the mention of poetry, you can just hit them with, Actually, did you know Shakespeare invented over 1, 700 words? Or that Chaucer helped standardize the English language through verse? Poetry isn't just about rhyme schemes and metaphors, it's storytelling, emotion, and history, all wrapped up and carefully chosen words, from the epic tales of ancient civilizations to the verses we see in modern music. It's a living, breathing art form that has shaped the way we express ourselves. So if we've done our job right today, you're leaving sort of sophisticated, armed with enough poetry knowledge to impress at your next dinner party, or at the very least appreciate that song lyrics are just modern day poetry in disguise. If you enjoyed this episode, Make sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with anyone who loves language, literature, or just learning about cool things. Until next time, stay curious, stay inspired, and keep embracing the art of words.
