The Poem's Poem

Archibald Macleish's "Ars Poetica" is, at it's heart, a poem about poems. But what does it say about the poem, as a genre?

1.  A poem should be palpable and muteAs 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.
   
   
2. Well, based on this poem being titled "Ars Poetica," Macleish seems to be telling us that he will be trying to convey the essence of a poem.
3. As I read through Macleish's poem, he gives a list of images describing what a poem is and he associates attributes with the images. This poem is riddled with metaphors about a the stillness and the quiet that are part of the essence of poems. To literally read Macleish's "Ars Poetica" is to read a list of comparisons.
4. --
5. Macleish sets the poem in the night, outside, under the moonlight, surrounded by grass and trees. The night is young and passing by, but at the same time, the poem stops time.
6. Macleish leaves us with the answer to what he has been trying to convey: "A poem should not mean But be." In essence, there is not meaning to this poem. The question to ask is: "Is this poem what Macleish describes a poem to be?"
7. Alliteration and "Silence" seem to go together a lot in poetry. It is the same in this poem. Macleish says "Silent and the sleeve-worn stone" in his third couplet. When reading this aloud, the alliteration with the letter "s" begs for it to be read in an almost whisper, sounding like a hiss. "Leaving, as the moon . . ." is quoted twice, surrounded on both sides by "As the moon climbs." It causes me to think of the chiasmus, and it makes me wonder if this is the most important imagery included in the poem.
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