Intention versus Attention: Meet Narrative Poetry

"Intention matters. Intention is a kind of attention, and the underlying attention of a poem (not necessarily singular, not necessarily preordained) is the agency which has discovered and calibrated its effects."

--Tony Hoagland

Recognition, Vertigo, and Passionate Worldliness

Poetry Foundation

To break the above mentioned statement into its parts:

1)

• Intention: the purpose of an agent 

versus

• Attention: a form of concentration 

"Intention is a kind of attention": means that the poet engages in a purposeful act of observation. 

2) 

"The underlying attention of a poem...is the agency which has discovered and calibrated its effects"

• Agency: is the capacity of an agent to act in the world

The poet is an agent, his/her intention is reflected in the attention he/she gives into their poem.

3)

Thus the translation of the above quoted Hoagland phrase is: The purposeful effort put into a poem is based on a form of observation of the world and is reflected in the artist art. This holds profound significance because the art is not arbitrary.   

Why am I talking about this:

Tony Hoagland writes narrative poetry which is in contrast to my lyric poetry. Narrative poetry tells a story in the shape of a poem. His work is extremely interesting and he has some powerful things to say about America, Living, Age, Sickness, and more. 

Narrative poetry by default tends towards a coherent meaning more than Lyric poetry. This is not always the case there are exceptions, which Hoagland points out in his essay. 

Meaning is questionable in a poem, and my family tend to advise me that my meaning is far to obscure. This is where I falter. Because while my family may appreciate the poetry of narrative writers more than the poetry of a lyric writers I cannot but help finding myself drawn to writing in lyric style...

Lyric gives me room to explore the page, to fiddle with language to the edges of nonsense and back. Narrative feels more confined. Though I love reading narrative poetry, I find my attempts at it come off sounding pedantic and flimsy. 

Here is a sample of Hoagland's narrative poem "Cement Truck"

I wanted to get the cement truck into the poem

because I loved the bulk of the big rotating barrel

        as it went calmly down the street

churning to keep the wet cement inside

                                                slushily in motion

.............................................

I knew that I might have to make the center of the poem wider

when the cement truck had to turn a corner

         scraping the bark of an overhanging tree, 

giving a nudge to the power lines--
...............................................

I liked the idea of my poem having room inside

for something as real as that truck

and having to get there by two o'clock or else

to pour the floor of the high school gymnasium.

--And I think at this point it would have been a terrible mistake

to turn the truck 

into a metaphor or a symbol for something else.

It had taken me so long to get the world into my poem,

and so long to get my poem into the world

.............................................

It's powerful! And has as much force as the previous poems I've studied which are lyric.

The full poem is here: Cement Truck by Tony Hoagland

Notice the effort at attention and intention in this poem. The wanting to make something out of one's attention (the cement truck) with an intention of making meaning (the reality of the human condition.)

Great!