What Would Happen If Everything Were the Same?
Ferrick Gray
Prefatory Remarks
⠀ There is no doubt that the appeal of poetry has declined a great deal over the past decades. No one can disagree with this, but what could we say is the cause of this phenomenon?
⠀ At one point, there was a move away from formal verse to what became known as vers libre, or free-verse. For what reasons? I suppose people were thinking that all poetry had become the same. Was it? The answer to this question is partly yes, and no. Yes, formal poetry, in particular the pentameter verse, had reigned supreme for a long time, and no, all forms were not the same.
⠀ It may have been boredom, or it may have been that formal verse was deemed too difficult for the average person. Bear in mind that as populations grew and technology improved, more people were exposed to different aspects of literature. Hence, more people wanted to try their hand at different things and possibly improve their own situation, or make a name for themselves. The same still exists today.
⠀ In the case at hand, rather than turning and focusing more on the creative aspect of formal verse, the attempt was made to simplify the process of writing poetry. Rather than requiring skill, thinking, and at times, hard work to express ourselves, we relieve ourselves of the difficulty. We convince ourselves that we can express ourselves more easily and clearly by breaking free of the restrictive, formal style.
⠀ However, that degenerated even further. Vers libre is not an easy form to write, and now, vers libre is too difficult for the average person to write. In English, the vers libre needed to be made easier. Now everyone's a poet!
Can Everything Ever Be the Same?
⠀ Is it possible that everything can be the same? The answer must be appropriate to the subject of our consideration. If the product is designed for the masses, then yes, there must be uniformity in what is being produced and ultimately sold. This uniformity, or sameness, allows the product to be easily identified. If you want to sell the product, it must be something people can readily recognize.
Changing Appearances
⠀ Then along comes the competition. They want to be in on the action, and they are capable of producing the same product at a lower cost. The other alternative is that they can produce something that appears to be the same at a lower cost, but the quality is poorer. People like a deal. What will they go for? The cheaper item.
⠀ Then the competition changes the appearance. What it does and how it works are both the same, but it looks different. It may be bigger, smaller, shinier, and it may require less effort to operate due to its new design. What do people go for? The one that requires the least effort.
⠀ We have to admit that a cheaper or easier way to do something will always have its followers until another product comes on the market.
Uniformity
⠀ For consumable products that will be sold in great numbers, all need to be the same, or at least as close as possible. This is one reason for quality assurance. If the consumer does not get one the same, or it does not work as expected or advertised, they are entitled to another, or their money back.
⠀ Suppose, for example, all automobiles were the same regardless of branding and all white. What would this be like? There cerWhat Would Happen If Everything Were the Same?tainly would not be many complaints, because there is no choice to be made, apart from branding.
⠀ For a start, it would look very unusual, and clinical. Think of a very busy city, and road congestion where every car is identical. This must be a fair society,you think, because everyone gets the same. No more, no less. Observing this scene, there would be something very unsettling.
Loss of Identity
⠀ To make it even more dystopian, in this city, only one style of clothing is permitted. Everyone wears the same outfit. What do we have now? Novels like 1984 or A Brave New World may come to mind. What we do have is a loss of identity. One of the single most important aspects for us as members of the human race (homo sapiens) is a unique identity. When everything and everyone is the same, there is nothing special or different. There is no distinct identity.
⠀ The result of this singular loss is devastating. If people were still able to think (to a point), it would lead to mass depression and suicide. We need to be different; that is how we survive.
⠀ Imagine conversing. It would be a conversation with someone who agrees with every point that you make and offers no constructive comment or criticism. Something is dissatisfying about the whole business.
⠀ This will lead to stagnation and little if any progress, which means that the entire structure will fail at some point in time. The monotony will eventually induce boredom and lethargy, where there is no desire to function, and everything would lack a purpose. including the reason for being.
⠀ All this sameness has its effect on emotions, too, in that there will be a loss of emotion. Emotion will eventually lose all meaning because everyone reacts in the same way. It is easy to see the effect of sameness on people and society as a whole. Fortunately, we as members of the human race are not all the same. We all have a unique identity. Without this uniqueness, the human race would ultimately die out.
The Sameness in Poetry
⠀ By simply taking a subset of what we are capable of doing, we can see the effect of sameness. Keeping things in perspective, we can see that a similar fate awaits poetry, if it has not already happened. Poetry is something different because not everyone has the ability to produce verse, yet it is something that many people attempt. As individuals with a unique identity, we have different notions as to what we may call poetry or accept as poetry.
⠀ If we consider poetry from a formalist point of view, we have numerous tried and tested forms to work with. These forms require thought, innovation, and the creative spirit. Combining all of this and exercising them will result in originality to a degree. Even in the case of imitation, the result may be original as far as content is concerned. We also have the variations in forms to allow the poet to exercise their skills with varying degrees of success. It may even be that the poet becomes an inventor of a form which may or may not bear some similarity to another.
⠀ Even poems of the same style exhibit a difference which reflects the personality and skill of the poet, their individuality. There is no escaping this, even under the guise of imitation. Differences will always be found. Anyone who says that formal poetry is unoriginal only shows their ignorance of the matter.
⠀ The move away from traditional metrical rules emerged from France around 1886. This allowed the poet rhythmic freedom. Note rhythmic. As always, any push eventually arrives on the doorsteps of English poets. Their concern was that the pentameter (iambic pentameter) was too restrictive, but more than that, it had dominated English poetry. Essentially, poetry as it was became too difficult. More so, not everyone was capable of writing creatively within the constraints of these forms.
⠀ Vers libre disregards a strict rime and meter, but there is still a rhythm. Any poem, irrespective of form, cannot be devoid of structure. The English interpretation, free verse, is quite the misnomer, and unfortunately, today, English verse has developed into something more than the deliberate breaking away from strict, conventional prosody. If one reads the work of Eliot and Pound, it becomes obvious that the way has been lost.
⠀ It is unfortunate that a lot of free verse we read, if you can, is uninspiring to say the least. It can range from trivial prattle to lengthy, drawn out description that no one except the poet is interested in. This change arrived more in the early 21st century, along with the even less inspiring social media platforms.
⠀ It became monkey see, monkey do. Boom! Everyone's a poet! Pope had warned us of The Goddess of Dulness, and her reign and influence are certainly stronger today. The more people who participate in this crude style, the greater the influence and the greater the effect. So much so that it will become expected. Dulness waves her wand, smiles, and so it is done.
⠀ The lack of variation, creativity, or originality would eventually result in death. Everything would appear to be mimicry, as it could be (re)produced by anyone. There is little to no interest in any of it. There is nothing to stimulate creativity and originality.
Social Media and Artificial Intelligence
⠀ Social media, higher populations, and economic reasons account for so many wanting to make a name for themselves. However, when it comes to poetry, such an influx of the 111-informed can only bring an early death for poesy, the beginnings which we are seeing today.
⠀ At this very time, artificial intelligence has come along to make the task even easier. I have to admit, it does a very good job of it, too, at least enough to make others think about using it. I do not doubt that there are unscrupulous individuals who use this latest creation (or damnation) to produce poetry collections and novels. Is this another easy way out? Certainly!
⠀ Whereas the artificial intelligence has no idea what it is doing apart from gathering (stealing) information and presenting it to the user, the user themselves is aware that they are purposely deceiving their audience. However, what is not realized is that there is not a great deal of difference in what it produces. The result is always very similar to what it has produced before.
⠀ Whatever the reasons, we find that the more recent manifestation of free verse, or pseudo-vers libre, has a familiarity about it regardless of who writes it. It is like everyone is imitating each other. The new free verse is one of the greatest deceptions of all time due to the flooding of social media with those little electronic devices.
⠀ This latest manifestation of vers libre has successfully infiltrated social media and has been seen as something anyone is capable of writing. Indeed, it is, but it is also misleading to the masses. Due to the ease of its construction and the speed at which it is done in any language, it has essentially replaced the original vers libre, which is now a ghost from the past.
Final Remarks
⠀ Can you see it now? This is the result of not so much sameness, but of simplicity. Under certain conditions, there may be nothing wrong with sameness. What we have seen over the past decades is the continual loss of appreciation for poetry. This is where sameness causes a problem. Sameness could be contained, but when large numbers participate in the activity, we have a loss of identity, which hastens the death of poesy. No one is saying that vers libre or formal verse has caused this; it is the perverse incarnation we see today.
⠀ It is unfortunate that Stafford’s, everyone is born a poet, has become somewhat of a prophecy, but any suggestion of innate creativity has been erased from its meaning.