Architectural Echos in Poetry Creations

1., 1942, Jose Luis Borges:

                      …We have dreamt the world. We have dreamt it resistant, mysterious, ubiquitous in space and firm in time; but we have left in its architecture tenuous and eternal interstices of unreason, a reminder not that the world we know is false, but that it is always the world as we observe it. 

 From the birth of literacy in the fourth millennium BC to the contemporary moment and across the globe, buildings have stimulated poetic responses, often read aloud at dedication ceremonies or other ritualized events.

For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives

In the valley of its making where executives

Would never want to tamper, flows on south

From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,

Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,

A way of happening, a mouth.

~  In Memory of W. B. Yeats from W. H. Auden,

 These poetic responses serve as a way to honor and celebrate architectural achievements, capturing the awe and inspiration that buildings evoke in people. Whether it is a grand cathedral or a humble dwelling, the power of architecture to move and inspire continues to be recognized and celebrated throughout history. The most famous examples in western tradition are the ekphraseis of epics, from Homer (Book 18 of The Iliad) until the eighteenth century. (The goal of this literary form is to make the reader envision the thing described as if it were physically present.) These ekphrases not only describe the physical aspects of the buildings but also delve into their historical and cultural significance. They transport the reader to a different time and place, allowing them to experience the architectural marvels firsthand through vivid imagery and detailed descriptions. There is a debate over whether the two disciplines of architecture and poetry have any real connection.  While it may not be argued that great architecture breeds great poetry, at the very least, it has a keen sense of place in the world of poetry and has been the inspiration for many great works by many great poets.  

 

Architecture and poetry are both forms of expression and communication which are sometimes related, and always relatable. 

The galloping collection of boards   

are the house which I afforded   

one evening to walk into

just as the night came down.

Dark inside, the candle

lit of its own free will, the attic   

groaned then, the stairs

led me up into the air.

From outside, it must have seemed   

a wonder that it was

the inside he as me saw

in the dark there.

~ “Somewhere” from Robert Creeley 

The effect of architecture into the poetry consist on the intangible feelings and memories which places are able to invoke. Due to the place itself the poets can provide a descriptive vocabulary of the physical features of place. They point to the personal nature of places and their existence over time. Poetry as creative practice has powerful abilities to affect change, and is a potential source for alternative knowledge, new awareness, dissemination and critical reflection. The poetry and architecture have a meeting point which is the imagination. The architect must fulfill the user experiences, feelings, desires and needs by translating them into graphics and physical forms. 

Seagulls fly over the ocean

In a cloudless sky tune.

Their breath sails over the bluish serenity

Merging with my heart’s cheerfulness.

Sun light warms up the soul

Passing through East & West.

Bosporus!

Everyone remains apart!

Half of the heart beats in the city’s liveliness.

The other half in memories left hostage.

~"Bosfor" from Brunilda Basha

Poetry is words describing feelings, memories, and emotions. Poetry expresses an image to its readers through words, so that even if you are not with the person writing the poetry, you can still understand what the poet meant by the words used. A photographer/painter does the same thing with photos or painted pictures. In architecture, buildings and how they are built, the materials used, the designs these become the expressions of the designer, the engineer, the architect of what they want to express through their building. No one just throws up a building without thought to materials, costs, and design. Painters don't just throw paint onto a piece of paper without thought, photographers don't just throw film into a camera and shoot whatever without thought. Thoughts are important for any expression of art. Architecture is poetry in built form because it expresses this ideal. 

The house we built gradually

from the ground up when we were young

(three rooms, the walls

raw trees) burned down

last year they said 

I didn’t see it, and so

the house is still there in me 

among branches as always I stand

inside it looking out

at the rain moving across the lake 

but when I go back

to the empty place in the forest

the house will blaze and crumple

suddenly in my mind 

Where did the house go? 

Where do the words go

when we have said them?

 ~The Small Cabin from Margaret Atwood

In one building, we could find some part of the building or maybe the whole building we like. In architecture, it has some element of architecture like repetition and rhythm just like poet. This elements make the building alive and just like poet, architecture have the message to deliver.

A Mind Poet

Stays in his house.

The house is empty.

And it has no walls.

The poem is seen from all sides,

Everywhere,

At once.

~As for Poets from Gary Snyder 

 

 Brunilda BASHA