By Gabriel Foster
Of all the different types of poetry that’s in existence today, none may be as tough for the average poetry lover to fully understand, than the genre of mystic poetry. Mystic poetry tries to describe the experience and universal view of a mystic’s experience. This kind of experience has a long history dating back thousands of years across the globe, across religious institutions and those few lucky men and women who see themselves as average people.
There are well-known poets who’ve been identified as mystic poets. Many of their poems do indeed seem to reflect mystical experienced traits in their writings. Poets like Rumi, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Zhuang Zhou, William Blake, Walter Whitman and many others.
Mystic poets all try to describe their experience through poetry, for according to them all, the experience itself is none describable with any known language. The language of poetry seems to come the closest in bridging that gap in communication. What nonpoetic language communicates to us about the experience according to them, is that every living thing in the universe is connected. The stars, oceans, animals, plants, people everywhere etc. and they, the poet, undergo a sense of peace, harmony and great joy during the mystic experience. They further elaborate that the experience is specifically different for everyone but largely remains the same overall.
So, if the nonpoetic language describes the mystic experience above, how does poetry do a better job than that? Simple! Poetry’s DNA is made up of evocative and symbolic expressions that can describe places where the normal language can’t go or is incapable of describing a mystical experience. In the hands of a skilled poet, poetry will unlock the mystical experience through the clarity of imagery, symbols, metaphor, emotions, memory and host a long line of human features to paint a picture that you will immediately recognize and understand fully. Something not capable by ordinary language, but by the language of poetry.
Here are a few examples of mystic poets describing parts of the experience itself. Let’s start with…………
Rumi – One of my favorite poets and his poetic quote “Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you”, end quote. He just poetically described the connective nature of the experience between you and the universe itself and where the connection takes place (inside of you).
Emily Dickenson – Quote “The Brain—is wider than the Sky— For—put them side by side— The one the other will contain With ease—and you—beside—” end quote. Dickenson poetically also described the connection of you to the greater universe and where. An experience in the brain somehow flows through what is greater than you. The rest of her poem goes on to show more of that connection.
Ralph Waldo Emerson – Quote “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile” end quote. Emerson tries to show through poetry that even the mundane and routine occurrence of seeing the stars light up at night, is miraculous. Mystic experiences usually bestow on you a new appreciation of that which you have observed or experienced a thousand times since your birth.
Zhuang Zhou – Quote “Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man” end quote. Here the poet and philosopher Zhou poetically advised that the connection was so powerful, he did not know which he was, butterfly or man because the during the connection experience, it was like a dream and he could not distinguish which he was.
William Blake – Quote “To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour” end quote. Blake’s poem eloquently implies that God or the divine can be found everywhere, including in a grain of sand and that the eternity of time can be experienced in an hour. His use of poetry to describe the experience would have been less communicative using prose.
Walter Whitman – Quote “I hear and behold God in every object yet understand God not in the least” end quote. Whiteman poetically advised that he’s experiencing the divine everywhere and in everything yet does not truly understand the nature of God.
Hopefully after reading this article, you’re a little closer to understanding mystic poetry. You may not fully understand it, and that’s normal, because you have not undergone such an experience yourself as the poets featured here and many people the world over. I suspect that if you did, this article would not be needed. My advice to you is to read more mystic poetry in its entirety coupled with research into mystic experiences to get an even better understanding of these poets’ experiences.
GF Poetic Wisdom | Mystic poetry enlightens the heart and points to a spiritual adventure so profound, that its poems linger in the mind like music. ~ Gabriel Foster
