Ars Poetica

A poem should be palpable and mute

As a globed fruit
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs
A poem should be equal to:
Not true
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea A poem should not mean
But be
A note: I stopped teaching CBSE 5 years ago and I'm out of touch. So I haven't really worked on
the explanations and edited them. You might find some of the explanations not up to the mark
especially this poem. You will surely find better explanations on the net. One such site
recommended by one of the readers which is really good and tailor made for CBSE
is http://englishportal12.blogspot.in/?view=mosaic
Archibald MacLeishs imagist idea of art for art's sake is expressed in the poem 'Ars Poetica'. The poem is
about the art of poetry or what a poem should be. It is interesting to note that as MacLeish states what a
poem should be, he illustrates it as well, in the poem by successfully using paradoxes/contradictions and
images to convey the idea that good poetry uses powerful images. The poem is divided into three
sections of eight lines each with four rhyming couplets.
In the first section, he insists that a poem should be 'silent', dumb' or wordless. This seems contradictory
or paradoxical as a poem uses words and is not silent. However, what he intends is the imagist concept of
art, namely being brief and being direct. This is achieved through using the right words and right images
which appeal to the readers senses of touch, sight, smell, hearing and taste. To convey this he has used
the image of fruit that can be tasted or directly felt without the need for words/explanations. Also 'globed
fruit' indicates the universality of the senses indicating that sensual images transcend individual cultures

and time. Medallions are dumb to the feel of the thumb yet the image of medallions that commemorate
past events recalls to memory the emotive past. Similarly, the silent image of 'sleeve worn stone of
casement ledges evokes the sense of touch and along with it nostalgic memories of someone waiting
and looking out by the window. Finally, the image of the soundless flight of birds touches the sense of
sight. There is action yet it is a silent action. So too should a poem be: it should speak silently, which
means, a poem doesnt brashly convey a message or meaning but should evoke emotion/experience and
impel imagination through images/words.
In the second section, he uses the image of the moon to state that a poem should be 'motionless in time'
like the moon. The moon moves but its movement can not be easily perceived. So should poetry be. This
could mean that good poems transcend time since they speak of universal experience. Yet each poem is
rooted in the concrete i.e. in real, particular experience. What make them universal are the images used
and the emotions evoked. Again, the poet uses imagery to illustrate the point. A poem leave
memories/emotions/feelings in our mind just like the rising moon. Its imperceptible, incremental
movement releases with its light, twig by twig the trees entangled by darkness and with continuous rising
leaves the winter behind.
The third section seems to refute the idea that art is a search for truth as echoed in Keats' line 'beauty is
truth, truth beauty'. For the poet, 'a poem should be equal to: not true'. Poetry is not concerned with the
generalities of truth, beauty, goodness or historical facts. On the contrary what it should do is to capture
human experience like an experience of grief, or of love, or of loneliness through images. As in the other
two sections he uses images to illustrate the point. He uses the images of an 'empty doorway' or 'a maple
leaf' to suggest the universal experience and history of grief and the images of the leaning grasses and
two lights above the sea' to evoke the experience of love. The last couplet 'a poem should not mean but
be' seems to re-echo the imagist principle of art for arts sake and poetry as capturing life using precise
images that achieve clarity of expression. Poetry should not try to take on great unanswerable
philosophical questions or convey some meaning/message. Instead good poetry should use concrete
images to capture and evoke a moment of personal experience to take in the richness of being.