Critique on the Hegel Poetry Form: Poetical Expression and Meter Arrangement

I. Introduction
G.W.F. Hegel, a German philosopher in the 18th century who put forward a new system of philosophy about fine art, influencing many philosophers in later centuries. His historical and cultural view of art, bought a new perspective on aesthetics at that time when Kant’s philosophy was the prevailing one. One of his most interesting views is that Poetry is the supreme form of art in all genres of artworks. In the book “Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art”, he explained his philosophical view on poetry and also discussed some essential elements a poem should contain. Although his poetry system is quite comprehensive, in this essay, I will argue that Hegel’s view on poetry has some deficiencies.


II. Art Content and Form
To being with, it is important to understand Hegel’s view on art so as to understand his views on poetry and the subsequent discussions. For Hegel, art is not a service of anything but has its intrinsic goal. The goal is to present the Idea in a sensuous medium. He said that: “It has already been said that the content of art is the Idea, while its form is the configuration of sensuous material. Now art has to harmonize these two sides and bring them into a free reconciled totality” [1]

Hegel believed the Idea and the sensuous material can be harmonized and united into an object (i.e. the artwork). The definition of Idea will not be explicitly discussed in this essay, as it will involve his view about world formation, but a brief explanation will be made for a better understanding of his aesthetic view. Hegel stated that: “For the Idea as such is indeed the absolute truth itself, but the truth only in its not yet objectified universally.” [2]

Therefore, the Idea is the absolute truth existing in the world with universality. However, this Idea can only be apprehended through itself being objectified in the empirical world. In gist, the content of art is the Idea which is presented by a sensuous form.


III. Development of Art Forms and Particular System of Art
The objectification of the Idea is a development process in different stages of History. His divided art forms into three types: Pre Art and Symbolic Form, Classical Form and Romantic Form. It is important to note that these three types of art forms are three stages of historical advancement instead of separate and unrelated genres. At the beginning, the Idea was still in indeterminacy so the first form of art, i.e. Pre Art and Symbolic Art, was only a search for presentation of the Idea and hence not articulation it well.

Hegel used the early pantheism of the East, which content was abstractly presented, as an example. Then, the Idea started to find an appropriate shape and advanced as Classical Art. At this stage, the content was confined in human shape only, so only part of the Idea is presented and Classical Art failed to present the absolute Idea. Finally, the third stage was the Romantic Art (E.g. painting, music and poetry) is able to present the true nature of the Idea:-

“.....at this third stage the subject matter of art is free concrete spirituality, which is to be manifested as spirituality to the spiritually inward.” [3]



IV. Poetry and Its Essential Elements
Among all genres of Romantic art, (i.e.architectures, paintings, music and poetry)，he ranks poetry as the most supreme of all:-
“.....most spiritual presentation of romantic art, we must look for it in poetry.” [4]


Hegel explained that poetry was able to present the subjectivity part of the Idea. Although painting and music can deliver the subjectivity part of the Idea, it is presented in an indefinite way that cannot be comprehended clearly. However, words, as a presenting medium in poetry, describe the subjectivity part more concretely.

“Poetry, to a still ampler extent than painting and music, can comprise in the form of the inner life not only the inner consciousness but also the special and particular details of what exists externally….” [5]

After explaining the reasons for the supreme position of poetry, then, I will briefly elaborate on Hegel's essential elements of poetry: the poetical expression and music of the words.


A. Poetical Expression
He spent a lot of passages explaining the differences between poetical expression and prosaic expression, which the differences arise from their content.

As art is to express the Idea concretely in a sensuous medium, the only content of poetry, as a kind of art, is the Idea. As contrast, prose treats the world as some knowledge and categorize. Its main aim is to define something clearly and group similar things in terms in order to serve a practical purpose. Therefore, words and languages serve as a means to that particular purpose only and treat the subjectivity part of Idea as insignificant. With different purpose, prose and poetry deploy different expressions:-

“In this way, even on is linguistics side, poetry has the vocation of being a sphere of his own, and, in order to separate itself from ordinary speech, the formation of the expression becomes of more important than mere and enunciation.” [6]


Hegel argued that the language used in poetry should be figurative such as metaphors and symbolic signs. Such languages are not merely as decorative but an essential element in poetic expression as Idea is comprehended more clear by analogy through the figurative description.

“...its symbolic procedure necessities of a wide search for kingship and to accompany its universal meanings it provides a great multitude of concrete and comparable phenomena…” [7]

Secondly, figurative language provides us with a new experience that frees us from ordinary life, which implies that the language used in poetry must be different from the mundane one we encountered in daily life. Hegel wrote this: “In every way art ought to place us on a ground different from that adopted in our everyday life, as well as in religious ideas and actions, and in the speculations of philosophy.” [8]

It is apparent that Hegel views art provide a special aesthetical experience to humans. Only through this experience, one grasp the Idea that hides in our daily lives.


B. Music of the Words
To deliver an appropriate sensuous feeling, each type of art should have an appropriate form. As the form is important in presenting Idea, Hegel regards symbolic art, which lacks an appropriate form, as inferior to classical art. Poetry expresses Idea through musicality which the meter and rhyme of poetry are described as a sensuous fragrance:-

“....a poetic idea is not only clothed in words but is actually uttered, and therefore passes over into perceptible element of sound……….meter or rhyme is absolutely necessary for poetry, as its one and only sensuous fragrance…” [9]

Rhythmic Versification and Rhyme are the musical languages used in poetry. Rhythmic versification is the arrangement of syllables to achieve a fixed temporal, i.e. the temporal duration and movement, without the need for rhymes. For example, a long syllable is placed near a short syllable in a sentence such as iambus or a trochee (a meter arrangement). This kind of rhythmical versification was widely used in classical poetry such as Geek poetry but, in Hegel’s view, such simply temporal arrangement cannot fully provide a sensuous medium for feeling. Therefore, here comes the rhyme, which appears widely in romantic poetry, such as alliteration, assonance and one-letter rhyme. The function of rhymes is to enhance one inner feeling and emotion:-

“Amongst the particular sorts of poetry it is especially lyric which is fondest of using rhymes owing to its subjective character, its inner feeling and its mode of expressing it,” [10]


V. Critique on Hegel’s system of Poetry
In this section, I am going to discuss argue that:-
A. Figurative language should not be a sufficient condition of poetry
B. Poem should not be confined to a specific form


A. Figurative Language in Poetry
In Hegel’s view, figurative languages, such as metaphors and symbols, are used for preventing the actualization of an event, a situation or an environment concretely because Idea should not be a particular case but contains universality and objectivity. By poetic expression, a particular event or emotion will be sublimed into the universal truth.

However, I think figurative languages may be unable to present the Idea concretely. Symbolic language requires a symbol and a symbolized object. For example, peace is usually symbolized as pigeons which the pigeons act as the symbol, the sign. Whenever we see “pigeons” in the poem, we perceive the beginning melanin,i.e. peace. However, there are neither specific relations nor similar characteristics between the pigeons and peace, the decoding depends on the reader's personal experience and exposures in their lives. In fact, one can substitute the pigeons with any objects so, sometimes, the poet has to predefine the symbols and their meanings before using them. Once they are explicitly defined, the readers have no room for imaging the meaning of the symbols, readers are just told to accept something instead of perceiving something from a poem. The poem will fall into prose easily and no longer an art.

Meanwhile, metaphor operates by relating two objects, that have similar characteristics, and their common similarity becomes clear when compared. However, whether the similarity shared of two objects may not be easily discovered. It depends on the experience of readers and the cultural environment where they are living. For instance, a sentence of “Destiny is like a merry-go-round" can be perceived as destiny is always happy or can be interpreted as destiny has high and low time. This interpretation is quite dependent on the readers’ view. If there is a person who has never seen a merry-go-around in his life, a Himba tribal child living in Africa for instance, he never understands what destiny is like by telling him “Destiny is like a merry-go-round”.

One may argue that if some commonly seen objects are used in metaphors, such a problem can be resolved. However, take the following sentence as an example, “She is like a cat”, which, in fact, there are many characteristics a cat possesses. Therefore, it is still difficult for the readers to comprehend what is/are the characteristics of ‘She’. In this view, the figurative languages fail to be the sufficient condition of poetry as they cannot present the Idea concretely to the readers. However, I agree that figurative languages are important in poetry as they provide us a place for imagination and free us from mundane life so that we look at things from a different perspective.


B. Appropriate Forms of Poetry
Musical Language
The musical form of poetry has to follow a specific syllable and rhyme arrangement. For example, a lamb refers to a foot that is comprised of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. While an iambic trimeter (i.e. a kind of meter arrangement) means a line contains three iambic feet. For example, “We pour the milk in pots” is iambic trimeter. One can see that if every sentence follows the same rule, it imposes great constraints on constructing a poem. Hegel had acknowledged this issue:- “In the first place it is obviously untrue that verification is a mere hindrance to the free outpouring of inspiration. A genuine artistic talent moves always in its sensuous element as in its very own, where it is at home."[11]

Hegel used artistic talent to resolve the hindrance of presenting content by meter arrangement which it is assumed that all words are replaceable by other words. It is paradoxical from the word creation.

Words are created for communication. For precise exchange of information, each word is created based on a necessity to present an object, an action and a feeling which each word should not be replaceable. Although there are words that have some synonyms, these words and their synonyms only share similar meanings instead of exact meanings if one takes a closer look at them. If a word has the same meaning as another word, then it means words are superfluous as a tool of communication.

Sentence and Verse Requirements
Hegel argued that an appropriate form of art is necessary for presenting the Idea. However, a specific predefined form will result in hindrance to expressing the Idea and I will use ancient Chinese poetry for illustration.

In ancient Chinese poetry, its form is strictly predefined. For example, there is an ancient form that the poem must be made up of four sentences and each sentence only contains five Chinese words. Further from the requirements on the number of sentences and words, the meter arrangement of each sentence must be the same with each other. With such restriction on the number of words and meter arrangement, Idea may sacrifice articulating itself clearly for achieving the rules of form.

The hindrance of an ideal poetry form is not completely solved by the artistic talent, which Hegal argued for because the hindrance arises from the structure of a language system rather from insufficient vocabularies being possessed by a poet. For example, in Chinese, a word can have different meanings by itself or by how it is pronounced. For instance, “Head” can be meant as a human head as well as human hair in ancient Chinese. It is confusing for a reader when he reads a sentence of “His head was cut” in Chinese as it may mean his head is cut off or his hair is cut off. In fact, in this case, if more words are allowed in a sentence to supplement the weakness of the language system, the content of poetry will be more clearly articulated. It is worthwhile to mention that in modern time, the poetry forms, including the requirement of words and sentences and also meter arrangement, has been abandoned in a worldwide sense. If Hegel’s belief in the advancement of art is a historical advancement, then the prevailing of modern poetry, which abandons the strict requirements imposed on poem form, seems to be ironic to his philosophy of historical advancement and a definite art form. I would like to append a poem by Marianne Moore, who believed that a poem should not be confined to meter arrangement and a specific form and was famous on her acute observations of human, as an example:-

“My father used to say,

“Superior people never make long visits,

have to be shown Longfellow’s grave

or the glass flowers at Harvard.

Self-reliant like the cat—

that takes its prey to privacy,

the mouse’s limp tail hanging like a shoelace from its mouth—

they sometimes enjoy solitude,

and can be robbed of speech

by speech which has delighted them.

The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;

not in silence, but restraint.”

Nor was he insincere in saying, “Make my house your inn.”

Inns are not residences.”[12]

From this illustration, it is self-demonstrating that a poem is able to present the Idea - the universal truth, without adhering to a pre-defined form but still giving a sensuous feeling and meaning to readers. I do not mean that the musical elements in a poet are not important, but the predefined form of musical arrangement may not necessarily arouse a sensuous feeling and aesthetic experience. In fact, all the strictly predefined requirements are hindering poetry from presenting the Idea concretely, which contradicts the self-aim of poetry as a kind of art.


VI. Conclusion
To conclude, the art content in Hegel’s view was discussed. As a kind of art, poetry possesses the most supreme position in art. Its elements, which Hegel believed are essential, were discussed and my critique was then presented. It is concluded that the figurative languages are not the sufficient conditions of poetry and the predefined form of poetry actually imposes hindrance on expressing the Idea, i.e. the absolute truth.


Footnote
[1] Hegel, Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art Volume I, translated by T.M.Knox, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1988), P.70. (This book will be henceforth be abbreviated as A)

[2] A P.73

[3] A P.80

[4] A P.88

[5] Hegel, Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art Volume Ii, translated by T.M.Knox, Oxford: Oxford University Press (1975), P9.61. (This book will be henceforth be abbreviated as B)

[6] B P.974

[7] B P.1094

[8] B P.1097

[9] B P. 1011

[10], [11] B P. 1031

[12] Marianne Moore, 1887-1972



First written 2017
Edited 2021