Literature is a significant human experience as it is the vastitude of human emotions, a part of history, and a reflection of life. Despite the limitations of one’s lifetime, through literature, experiences, events, realities, and messages are extended throughout different cultures, people of different ages, and even to future generations.
Similar to art and every other form of visual, auditory, or oral extension that can be preserved through human interaction, literature withstands and exists according to its purpose - may it be within the political, social, personal, or spiritual domains. It exists with the people and through people. The privilege, burden, or intensity of experiencing the emotions and understanding the message of a literary piece do not only affect the writer but also the audience/readers.
When we read a poem, we are not only skimming through words, nor are we only absorbing the literal meaning of the words used, rather, we are envisioning and experiencing the reality and learning the message that the author is portraying through the symbols and feelings being evoked. When we read literary pieces most especially the works of our ancestors, it is as if we are traveling back in time and learning from them - their culture, history, joys, suffering, and everything in between.
It is through literature that we can relate, share, and understand each other’s emotions and experiences – whether you are a writer or a reader, once you witness or read a literary piece, a moment is shared, and this moment is an experience that only humans can understand and learn from. This is the significance of literature to our lives – emotions are extended and life is poured out into words.
These words represent a people’s beliefs, traditions, sufferings, aspirations, and life. These words represent a person’s ideal, perspective, emotions, and purpose. These words reflect the meaning of one’s life and it is through reading/witnessing literary pieces and studying literature, life is learned.
Here are at least three purposes of literature:
(1) Literature is used as an instrument to express emotions, realities, and events of a person or a people’s life. Although not everyone writes poems and other literary pieces, we are all capable of writing and being poetic. When we use literature as an outlet of perspectives, imagination, and emotions, we are not only making meaning through words, we are also extending a version of ourselves through words, therefore, representing our beliefs, culture, ideas, and desires.
(2) Literature is used to shape civilizations and expose social and political injustices. It is not only used as an instrument for one’s own purpose (such as self-expression) as it is more dynamic than that, for example, the works of Dr. Jose Rizal (Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo) were used to portray a reality brought by the Spanish colonial period to the Filipino citizens. The literary pieces exposed the oppression and abuse and it enlightened the Filipinos about this reality, thus, it brought the citizens together.
(3) Literature is used to study a person or a people’s life. Since literature is part of history, it reflects a person’s life, including their beliefs, ideas, and perspectives. Myths, epics, and folktales are used to study a people’s culture and used to better understand and make meaning of the early times.
Understanding a phrase from William Carlose Williams' literature - a poem entitled 'Asphodel, That Greeny Flower'
“It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.”
Poetry uses figurative language, therefore, deciphering a poem’s message can be tricky since its literal meaning is, more often than not, supposed to be overlooked. The poet is stating the importance of poetry – that it doesn’t only reflect emotions but also knowledge and realities. This importance is not equal for everyone as others do not appreciate this craft and there are others who cannot learn from them.
Learning can be difficult. We cannot force people to learn from our mistakes. We cannot force others to accept our beliefs and perspectives. No matter how fruitful or meaningful our words can be, there will always be opposing/different sides. Sometimes, others can’t understand us no matter how hard we want them to and no matter how hard we try to. It’s not because our message couldn’t get through them, it’s simply because they couldn’t learn from perspective. In relation to the poem/line, I understood it as the poet’s way of telling us that knowledge is present in poetry but there are others who can only understand without learning its message/intention.
I also believe it is the poet’s way of implying the difficulty of understanding a poem’s message and that others are privileged enough to decipher such meaning while others are not. We learn from art and we learn through art. In the art of poetry, for those who have experienced the luxury of such craft, they are able to gain realizations, appreciation, and self-consciousness, and awareness that can be used to help others and can be brought until the end of the time, however, for those who have chosen to deprive themselves of such art, it may be contrary.
The experience of poetry is something else. It stirs our perspective in love, challenges our opinions in politics, teaches us about life, and affects us as a person – it all affects how we view life and death. In life, poetry is the teacher and we are the learners. It is solely up to us whether we want to learn or not. It is solely up to us whether or not we use the knowledge we have gained, and whether or not we apply such knowledge in our lives. It is better to learn the hard way at the end of the day than to gain nothing out of an easy process.
