A little poetry theory

[Chester]

William Matthews (1942-1997) observed that most poems fall into one of four thematic categories:

1. I went out into the woods today and it made me feel, you know, sort of religious.
2. We’re not getting any younger.
3. It sure is cold and lonely (a) without you, honey, or (b) with you, honey.
4. Sadness seems but the other side of the coin of happiness, and vice versa, and in any case the coin is too soon spent and on we know not what.

I would think from anybody else this would be a pretty cynical view of poetry. But Matthews was a poet, and a damn fine one at that.

Is this cynicism? Is it an oversimplification? Or is it a challenge to rise above? Should we look at our work and see if it falls too neatly into one of Matthews’s categories and, if so, consider it too trite and trash it?

Or is there nothing wrong with falling into one of these categories because, short of total abstraction, everything fits into some category or another (even abstract stuff)?

[Virgil]

I actually met Bill Mathews. He came to speak at my college one day. He might have even been a teacher there. A very nice man from what I can tell. And yes a damn fine poet. Unfortunately he died prematurely.

Haha, I do think that's a little cynical, but it is amazing how many poems, especially from us ameteur poets, fall into those catagories.

[JBI]

Where does the Aeneid fall?