Poetic Eyes

We were instructed to blog on the idea that “poetry is what you see with poetry seeing eyes.” At first I was interested in the intellectual impact of a statement like that, that's the kind of talk that makes you feel intellectually superior when discussing it with other people. It's got some cognitive heft to it, if you know what I mean.

I watched the film “Shakespeare in Love” this afternoon, and it brought the concept into sharper focus for me. Throughout the movie Will Shakespeare speaks in very poetic language and I realized that this character of William Shakespeare sees the world through poetry seeing eyes, much like the real William Shakespeare probably did. He is able to eloquently describe the richest emotions, painting a bright picture for happiness and a dark but passionately beautiful picture for sorrow. His possession of poetry seeing eyes adds a significant layer to his character, making him a very expressive character, pretty much the opposite of Keanu Reeves.

Applying poetry seeing eyes to my life is something that will take concerted effort over a period of time, but once learned would probably significantly effect my attitude in a positive way. Not only thinking about how to describe my emotions and my surroundings but how to eloquently and beautify describe them would be the ultimate goal of truly seeing with poetry seeing eyes. And it couldn't hurt to rattle off some impressive language like Bill Shakespeare in front of the ladies.