A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
Poetry – literature generally – doesn’t give us all the answers. It may not even give us any of the answers. But it may, perhaps, give us the courage to ask the questions.
We murder to dissect
I’m big on demystifying stuff, especially poetry. I see a lot of books and websites that make poetry look like something daunting, something intimidating. And don’t even get me started on examination boards!
I’m opposed to all that. It makes the average person feel as if poetry couldn’t possibly be for them, which is the opposite of what poets themselves say. As William Carlos Williams famously said, “If it ain’t a pleasure, it ain’t a poem”. It’s not supposed to be for academics to intellectualise about.
Wordsworth wrote:
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:–
We murder to dissect.
He’s talking about nature, not poetry, but I think he and I are on the same page here; for many people, their classroom experience of analysing poetry – “dissecting” it – kills it. What could have been a lifelong source of enrichment and pleasure has been destroyed.
Read that last sentence again: “What could have been a lifelong source of enrichment and pleasure has been destroyed.” Let it sink in. The classroom – the place where many people are introduced to poetry for the first time – instead of fostering a love of poetry, instead of imparting the joy of exploring our inner selves through the words of others, has murdered that inside us. I don’t have words to express how tragic that is, so I’ll just leave you to think about it.
Of course, it isn’t always like that. I remember my English teacher, “Jumbo” Smith, reading poetry to us in his plain, down-to-earth Hampshire accent, bringing it to life with his laconic comments, and inspiring us (well, me, anyway!) in a way no one else could. And I was deeply influenced by Raymond Wilson, my father – poet and educationist – who tossed poems my way from earliest childhood. A quote from his obituary in the Independent sums it up well:
Without an education of the emotions, science and technology cannot of themselves bring happiness.
“An education of the emotions”. That’s really the whole thing in a nutshell. Because, properly understood, that is what poetry is – education of the emotions.
But if you just came here to get help passing school tests, well, that’s OK. You’ll get that too!
