The Voice of the Times: Connections in Poetry and Song

The Voice of the Times: Connections in Poetry and Song

The Voice of the Times:
Connections in Poetry and Song
Today, people around the world listen to music through their iPods, the internet and the radio.   Musicians use this to communicate their ideas and beliefs.   In the past, poets used their writings to communicate their political beliefs and inspire people to action.   Nazim Hikmet’s poem, “A Sad State of Freedom,” and the Flobots’ song, “Handlebars,” both about freedom, are each a voice of their time.
Nazim Hikmet was born in 1902 in Salonika, Greece.   He was exposed to poetry at an early age through his artist mother and poet grandfather, and had his first poems published when he was seventeen.   Raised in Istanbul, Hikmet left Turkey after WWI and ended up in Moscow, where he attended the university and met writers and artists from all over the world.   He returned to Turkey in 1924, but was soon arrested for working on a leftist magazine.   He managed to escape to Russia, where he continued to write plays and poems.   In 1928, a general amnesty allowed Hikmet to return to Turkey.   During the next ten years, he published nine books of poetry—five collections and four long poems—while working as a proofreader, journalist, scriptwriter, and translator (Academy of American Poets).   In the 1930’s, he introduced free verse poetry to Turkey (Aguiar).   He was stripped of his Turkish nationality in 1951, after serving another jail sentence for his radical acts; therefore, he moved to the Soviet Union, where he continued to work for the ideals of world Communism (Academy of American Poets).   Despite his imprisonment, he retained a deep passion for Turkey (Aguiar).  
After receiving recognition for his patriotic poems in syllabic meter, he fell under the influence of the Russian Futurists in Moscow, and abandoned traditional forms while attempting to "depoetize" poetry (Academy of American Poets).   Hikmet died of a heart attack in Moscow in 1963.   In 1965, Turkey lifted the ban on his poetry.   However,...