Committed poetry is a kind of poetry which is at the service of a cause. Its goal is to make the reader think. Committed poetry extols the virtues of a particular ideology. We can speak about committed poetry when a poet takes a position through his text. It’s often written in troubled times. It’s risk-taking and a responsibility for the author who criticizes throughout his poem the political regime of the moment.
Causes of commitment are manifold:
- In the XVI century, they are philosophical. Authors take position in conflicts of ideas for example Aubigné (1952-1585) stranded up for the Protestants with the tragic (1616) whereas Ronsard (1524-1585) dedicated Speech on the miseries of the time for Catholics.
- They are also politics for example Chenier (1762-1794) wrote the lamba during the French revolution, Victor Hugo (1762-1794) was famous to have criticized "the little Napoleon" in punishment. - During the Second World War poets of the Resistance denounced the Nazi occupation. The most famous was René Char (1907-1988) with Sheets Hypnos, there was also Eluard with Liberty and To visit Germany. It has always been difficult for committed poets to be published. Some publishers have yet made their specialty, they might be censored.
