POETRY : INTRODUCTION (Subjective and Objective)

Subjective and Objective Poetry

Poetry treats of two kinds of subject matter - that which is supplied by external objects, such as deeds, events and the things we see around us and that which is supplied by the poet's own thoughts and feelings. The former gives rise to Objective Poetry , the latter to subjective. In one case, the poet functions as a detached observer, describing what he has seen or heard; in the other he brings to bear his own reflections upon what he has seen or heard. The same subject may, of course, be treated either way. If the poet views it from without, confining himself, that is to say, merely to it's externals, his treatment is Objective; If he views it from within, giving expression, that is to say, to the thoughts and feelings it arouses in his mind, his treatment is Subjective. One might put it more briefly by saying that Objective Poetry is impersonal, Subjective is personal. In the former the focus of attention is something that is outward - a praiseworthy act, a thrilling occurrence, a beautiful sight; in the latter it is the poet himself: whatever the subject may be, his mind is centred on his own thoughts and feelings. The following poems on " Youth and Age", by Shakespeare and Coleridge respectively, will illustrate the difference between the two methods of treatment. Shakespeare's is Objective making a plain statement of fact; Coleridge 's poem is Subjective, it is the expression of deep personal feeling aroused by that fact.

Crabbed Age and Youth

Cannot live together:

Youth is full of pleasance,

Age is full of care;

Youth like summer morn,

Age like winter weather,

Youth like summer brave,

Age like winter bare:

Youth is full of sport,

Age's breath is short,

Youth is nimble, Age is lame:

Youth is hot and bold,

Age is weak and cold,

Youth is wild, and Age is tame.

                     - Shakespeare.

Verse, a breeze 'mid blossoms straying,

Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee-

Both were mine! Life went a-maying

With Nature, Hope and Poesy,

When I was young!

When I was young? Ah, woeful When!

Ah! for the change 'twixt Now and Then!

This breathing house not built with hands, 

This body that does me grievous wrong,

O'er aery cliffs and glittering sands,

How lightly then it flashed along:-

Like those trim skiffs, unknown of yore,

On winding lakes and rivers wide,

That ask no aid of sail or oar,

That fear no spite of wind or tide!

Nought cared this body for wind or weather,

When Youth and I lived in't togethe,

Flowers are lovely; Love is flower- like;

Friendship is a sheltering tree;

O! the joys, that came down shower- like,

Of Friendship, Love and Liberty,

     Ere I was old!

Ere I was old? Ah, woeful Ere,

Which tells me, Youth's no longer here!

O Youth! for years so many and sweet

'Tis Known that Thou and I were one,

I'll think it but a fond conceit-

It cannot be that Thou art gone!

                              - Coleridge

Earlier Origin of Objective Poetry

      Objective poetry is older than Subjective. The primitive people among whom it developed, like the uncivilized races in some parts of the world today, were more interested in what they saw and heard than in what they thought. They valued the experiences of their eye and ear more than the experience of their mind. Deep thinking may even have been irksome to them, considering that their life was simple, composed more of action than of thought. Their poetry, therefore, dealt with deeds, events and the things they saw around them and it called for little mental effort from their hearers. To these poets of the dim past we owe the communal ballad, which is pure poetry of action affording little scope for personal reflection. At that early stage in his development, man had not acquired a Subjective outlook, which is a product of civilization. The epic and the drama are two other forms of this Objective poetry, in which, as in the ballad, the writer's personality remains in the background. The lyric and the elegy, which belong to later times, represent the Subjective variety.

Division More Theoretical Than Practical

   Though, theoretically, Subjective and Objective poetry belong to two distinct categories, in actual practice yet it is almost impossible to separate the one from the other. The most impersonal (and therefore Objective) of compositions may bear the stamp of its author. Something of Shakespeare's personality, for instance, can be gathered from his plays, and much of Milton's from his Paradise Lost; and yet drama and epic are Objective types of poetry. Similarly, the most personal (and therefore Subjective) of poems has Objective or impersonal passages, where the author lays aside his own opinions and sentiments and treats of what is outside himself. In the stanzas from Coleridge reproduced above, the lines in which the poet speaks of "trim skiffs", floating, without sail or oar, "on winding lakes and rivers wide", have very little Subjective colouring, for there he is relating not what he feels but what he has seen. He makes use of an Objective figure to illustrate a deeply felt emotion. For our particular purposes, however, the divisions holds, good; we must not look for scientific accuracy in literature. 

Activity:

Write down the elements of Subjective and Objective poetry from the above mentioned poems.