Poetry, Poetry, Wherefore Art Thou Poetry?

Source

"Poetry Makes Nothing Happen"?
By: Julia Alvarez

Listening to a poem on the radio,
Mike Holmquist stayed awake on his drive home
from Laramie on Interstate 80,
tapping his hand to the beat of some lines
by Longfellow, while overcome by grief
one lonesome night when the bathroom cabinet
still held her husband's meds, May Quinn reached out
for a book by Yeats instead and fell asleep
cradling "When You Are Old," not the poet's best,
but still ... poetry made nothing happen,

which was good, given what May had in mind.
Writing a paper on a Bishop poem,
Jenny Klein missed her ride but arrived home
to the cancer news in a better frame of mind.
While troops dropped down into Afghanistan
in the living room, Naomi Stella clapped
to the nursery rhyme her father had turned on,
All the king's horses and all the king's men ...
If only poetry had made nothing happen!
If only the president had listened to Auden!

Faith Chaney, Lulu Perez, Sunghee Chen --
there's a list as long as an epic poem
of folks who'll swear a poem has never done
a thing for them ... except ... perhaps adjust
the sunset view one cloudy afternoon,
which made them see themselves or see the world
in a different light -- degrees of change so small
only a poem registers them at all.
That's why they can be trusted, why poems might
still save us from what happens in the world.


Analysis

1. As I read this poem out loud, the approachable tone within it became very apparent through the vivid storytelling used to illustrate the purpose of poetry within today's world.
2. Expectations - The title for this particular poem, "Poetry Makes Nothing Happen"?, is interesting because it is not traditional. It places the question "does poetry matter" at the front of readers' minds, that sticks with them throughout the poem. Knowing that the subsequent text in and of itself a poem does cause the audience to speculate that poetry must matter, or else why would the author be wasting her time writing this?
3. Syntax - The syntax of this poem is different in the fact that there are many commas but very little periods. This causes only slight pauses, not full on stops, causing the reader to feel the poems rhythmic words rather than adhere to strict punctuation. It also influences the way in which the poem tells several stories, the continuation of flowing lines seem almost like a reiteration of memories.
4. Reference works - There are many works referenced within this poem, including in the title "'Poetry Makes Nothing Happen'?". The person who said this was W. H. Auden, a poet who lived during WWII. He argued that poetry does not make a difference or ignite change when it comes to politics. [1] This context is critical to the reading and understanding the rest of the poem. Julia Alvarez seems to be telling us that, yes, maybe poetry isn't always super influential on a large scale, but it can change individual lives in small yet very meaningful ways. 
5.  Who, what, where, when: 
• WHO? The speaker is the author herself, while she institutes several characters (i.e. a man driving home and an old woman), to act as examples to meet the purpose behind writing the poem.
• WHERE? The poem's setting takes place in several mundane scenarios, including a car, a home, and a train.
• WHEN? This poem was written in 2003 and references the war taking place in Afghanistan. 
• WHAT? The poem explores several different "plots", from examples of how poetry has influenced lives to the subsequent analysis on why poetry matters
6. Why does it matter? - The poem disputes that which Auden had said about poetry and the opinion that it has not and will not make a large difference in the world. The author chooses to illustrate that poetry affects people all the time in small and simple ways, such as a woman not choosing to kill herself after her husbands death (lines 5-11), but that doesn't make the art of poetry any less meaningful. 
7. Form - The first stanza discusses how poetry stopped something from happening, while the next stanza shows how poetry made something happen. The third and final stanza is a conclusion about the two that came before, where the author explains how any change wrought by poetry, no matter how small, is important.
8. Use of and departure from poetic conventions - The poem uses a common formatting where it presents the problem within the first couple stanzas, and then offers the solution by the end.

[1] http://bostonreview.net/poetry/robert-huddleston-wh-auden-struggle-politics