Poetry List Project:
There are many different genres of philosophical writing: essays, dialogues, aphorisms, parables. One genre, in particular, seems to get very little attention from philosophers: philosophical poetry. Why is that? What are the advantages, and disadvantages, of exploring philosophical issues through poetry? Do we lose anything by trying to "translate" a philosophical poem into prose? Are there certain ideas that are best expressed through poetry?
I am very interested in these questions. So, I have decided to put together a list of "philosophically interesting" poems -- poems that either (a) provoke the reader to engage with philosophically interesting topics, (b) appear endorse, or rebuke, philosophically interesting claims, or (c) explicitly present an argument in support of philosophically interesting claims. (This list is a work in progress. Poem recommendations are welcome!)
I am very interested in these questions. So, I have decided to put together a list of "philosophically interesting" poems -- poems that either (a) provoke the reader to engage with philosophically interesting topics, (b) appear endorse, or rebuke, philosophically interesting claims, or (c) explicitly present an argument in support of philosophically interesting claims. (This list is a work in progress. Poem recommendations are welcome!)
- T'ao Ch'ien, "Substance, Shadow, and Spirit"
- Mary Oliver, "In Blackwater Woods"
- Mario Benedetti, "That Battle"
- Robert Browning, "Summum Bonum"
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox, "Solitude"
- William Wordsworth, "The World Is Too Much With Us"
- Fernando Pessoa, "Discontinuous Poems"
- Wallace Stevens, "Esthétique du Mal"