Writing Poetry with the Greats

Kimberly Phinney's "The Chronically Ill Woman Sits Alone at the Bay Window" and Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott"

Hello, Poetry Friend

Recently a fellow told me he was a poet, meaning he scribbles poems in a notebook. (Same so far.) He doesn’t share them with trusted friends. He doesn’t try to publish them. And he doesn’t read any poetry. He especially doesn’t read any Great Poetry.

Oh, my poetry friends, if you want your poetry to become greater, you need to read greater poetry. As in poetry by the Greats.

Kimberly Phinney recently shared a poem of hers titled “The Chronically Ill Woman Sits Alone at the Bay Window,” which is inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott.” His was written in 1832, but trust me, you can dig it. Read Kimberly’s, then read Tennyon’s.

Here’s what I commented on her post:

Thanks so much for introducing more folks to Tennyson's poem! Your poem is elevated for being tied to and buiilt on "The Lady of Shalott." All of its feelings and yours mingle and interweave in meaning. They inform each other.

To be clear: Kimberly’s poem is great on its own. But it’s enhanced by being tied to Tennyson’s Great Poem. The Chronically Ill Woman [who] Sits Alone at the Bay Window is being compared to The Lady of Shalott, and the Lady is being compared to the Woman. Both are “half sick of shadows.”

Tennyson’s poem is a complete story, yet it leaves room for mystery. Read it once, and it sticks with you. All those feelings. All those images. Those iconic lines, repeated in other creative works. And now all of that is in Kimberly’s poem too.

If you are a poet — and even if you’re not a poet but you are a writer — it behooves you to read Great Poetry. Go to your library and check out a collection by a name you remember studying in school. (I cannot recommend highly enough the Poetry for Young People series, complete with illustrations and short, simple commentary.) Listen to a poetry podcast which incorporates some old and some new poems. (I love The Daily Poem.) Subscribe to a service that offers a variety of poems, like Every Day Poems. Follow Jane Kenyon’s advice and “have good sentences in your ears.”

You never know when a line from a Poetry Great will raise its hand and say, Hi. I can help you write your story.

Happy poeming!

Megan