The Practice and Love of Poetry

By Lennox Odiemo-Munara and Jean Bett Department of Literature, Egerton University, Egerton, Kenya A Discursive Lecture Delivered to Bondo English Teachers, March 4, 2010 In a recent publication, The Composition of Poetry (2009) the renowned Kenyan author, Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye, posits that poetry seeks a synthesis out of conflicting ideas and emotions; and that it is meant to be dynamite, that is, able to attack in order to indelibly draw attention to itself. Macgoyes contention is that the poem emerges as dynamite when the poet internalises serious practice and love of poetry, (Odiemo-Munara, 2010: 12). Macgoyes view seems to be in tune with James Reeves argument in his classic text, Understanding Poetry (1965), in which he holds that: The love of poetry is an affair of the heart. No one can talk you into falling in love, or talk you out of it, or persuade you to love poetry rather than anything else. Falling in love can occur suddenly, irrationally and when least expected. Falling in love with poetry, however, is different in some ways from falling in love with a person. You can fall out of love with a person for quite insufficient reasons. You may mistake infatuation for being in love. This is not likely to happen between you and poetry, unless your earliest acquaintance has been on the wrong lines. Moreover, between you and poetry there can be no such thing as unrequited passion. Poetry cannot refuse your advances, cannot refuse to give you as much as you give to her. Poetry is incapable of coldness, coquetry or infidelity. The love of poetry must also be an affair of the head. A two-year-old may fall in love with nursery rhymes for their pretty sound, but unless there is some sense in them, something to appeal to his dawning intelligence, his love will not take root. (4, first emphasis added)

I quote this at length because it gives us insights into the functioning of poetry, an affair of the heart that no writer can make you fall in love [with] (ibid.), and the best he can do is introduce you to poems of all kinds, tell you which he likes best, and live it at that (ibid.); as well as how to approach the genre as its practitioners and teachers, noting that the best poetry is inclined to be shy [and] needs bringing out (ibid.). I emphasise (the first emphasis) because as teachers of poetry, we are charged with introducing our pupils/students to the genre of poetry. But does the above intimate then that poetry is an impenetrable genre that should only be left to the poets and those initiated in the tradition? I do not conjecture it that way. We may get intimidated when a poet like the Nigerian Christopher Okigbo declares that he does not write/read his poetry to the non-poets, but the moment we come to the realisation that: [p]oetry is language. That is inescapable. It may contain ideas, but it is not ideas; it may tell a story, but it is not stories. It may express the whole range of human emotion, but unless its language is vital, fresh and surprising, these emotions will be blurred and ineffectual. Poetry, then, is vital, fresh and surprising language. (Reeves, 157) we become alert to the functioning of poetry. And, in this sense then, it is the fresh and original utilisation of the various resources that language affords that makes poetry at once poetry; and also mystified. And the idea of demystifying it then lies squarely in the elaboration by Horace in his classic Ars Poetica that so poetry, created and invented for the delight of our souls, if it comes short ever so little of the summit, sinks to the bottom (qtd. in Harmon, Classic Writings on Poetry, 2003: 72). It is with this submission in mind that poets such as Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, and the modernists such as T. S. Eliot ought to be understood and hence demystified; because, good poets are ever endeavouring to heed the call that [Y]ou my dear fellows you must have nothing to do with any poem that has not been trimmed into shape by many a days toil and much rubbing out, and corrected down to the smallest detail (ibid.).

So if in the composition of poetry the poet him/herself has to labour in trimming into shape the final text, the poem; it calls on the reader to equally labour in deciphering the meaning/s inherent in the poem. And, to be a good decipherer of these meanings, the final resource, just as the same applies to the writer, is to read and read, analyse, criticise and read some more of the excellent examples available in all places and times (Macgoye, 2009: 73). In essence, develop a genuine sense for the practice and love of poetry. Discursive Reflection in/to the Space/Genre of Poetry The English poet and essayist W. H. Auden notes that poetry is the only art people havent learnt to consume yet like soup. The question then is whether we, as teachers of English/literature, have internalised the idea and love of the art and craft of poetry [] So then, Why are teachers of English afraid of teaching poetry? And why, when it is taught, is it often taught poorly? To grapple with these questions, we need to be alert with the nature of poetry as a genre, a thing we have, in brief, attempted, in the introductory part of this essay, to demystify. The Meaning and Value of Poetry It is appropriate to hold that the value of poetry, like the value of the other genres of literature, rests not so much in the established meaning of a text, as in the relationship formed between the text and its readers. Let us note that poetry specifically and directly invites its readers to engage in reflection on the meaning of experience. Because, it is out of experience/s that poetry is made (poem itself begins as a past participle of a Greek verb meaning to make).

So then, what is this genre that invites its readers to engage in reflection on the meaning of experience? Here are some reflections by poets themselves on what poetry could be: William Wordsworth: Poetry is the imaginative expression of strong feeling. Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and happiest minds. Emily Dickinson: If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that it is poetry. T. S. Eliot: The poet is occupied with frontiers beyond which words fail, though meanings still exist. Robert Frost: Poetry is one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another. Note: Realise the diversity in the reading/s of what poetry is by these practitioners in the craft. Perhaps the lesson for us as teachers of poetry should be to try to see teaching poetry as an invitation to response, rather than a mandate to memorise or rehearse previously constructed interpretations. Introducing Poetry In introducing poetry, once again, we should emphasise the avoidance of such statements as poetry is difficult; its the most complex of all the genres of literature because such statements only help to far remove poetry from the immediate grasp of the young learners. Attempt to define what poetry is; but present the process of definition as an evolving one, a one that should not be seen as absolute and closed. Allow the students to amend and refine as they grow in the genre. Avail to the students a wide variety of poems and then ask them what they have in common. (A wide variety indeed, African, European, Asian, African American .)

In asking the students to reflect on the similarities and differences between the wide array of examples, they may be able to se the difficulty in capturing poetry with a single definition. As well, explanations of what poetry is by poets themselves can be viewed for their varied perspectives/readings. Selection of Poems In order to not mystify poetry, start by selecting poems that are inviting and accessible to the learners [as adolescents, teen-agers]. In this way, they can readily recall related experiences that serve to call into attention the meaning of the poem. You should be able to find out what appeals to their emotions best (develop an awareness of how and why particular poems will appeal to your students), for instance: enjoyable rhythm or rhyme (see, for example, the poetry of Langston Hughes) visual/concrete images (as is in most lyrical poetry) topical youth issues (see, for example, Kwani? literary magazine writings)

And, in all these, the notion that should be collapsed is that of poetry being purely an academic activity/exercise. You also need to assume that students are coming to a poem fresh, and hence you let them own the poem. But as teacher (and secondary reader), be able to control interpretation/s. Two Approaches to Teaching Poetry The teaching of poetry can only be enjoyable and meaningful (to both the teacher and the student) if is approached from the premise that poetry is a refreshing genre that draws from our day-to-day experiences and not some arcane, abstract threatening thing. That even if the poem appears impenetrable, it is only that poetry is the best words in the best order, and hence requires of both the teacher and the student some patience in reflecting the various significations of the images and diction used.

Approach 1: Underline the qualities of the genre In here, you should discuss the general characteristics of poetry and then apply those characteristics to a variety of poems. Beware, however, not to distance/remove poetry from students immediate experiences and lives. Approach 2: A Focus on the experience of poetry In here, endeavour to enhance weekly poetry readings, performance of poems, writing of poetry You should also incorporate poetry as a vital component of other units topical, issue-oriented, thematic, or historical. A necessary process would be the use of real poets in the classroom. This has the capacity to make students view poetry as alive, robust and vital. (For instance, during the 2003/4 academic year, author Oludhe Macgoye was invited as writer-in-residence in the Department of Literature at Egerton, and students of literature as well as other nascent writers found her workshops and readings a more inviting way of appreciating poetry.) Some Strategies of Understanding Poetry The basic counsel in understanding poetry is to read and re/read the text (poem) informed by the various components that constitute the final product of the composition of poetry -- the poem. In this reading process, the following strategies can prove useful in the understanding of a poem: i. Reading poetry aloud: this has several merits, including, inter alia, (a) the sense of the poem can come alive through the sound of it students should be actively

involved as readers and observe the intricacies of reciting/reading [rhythm, tonal variation ]; (b) responding aloud to poetry students should be given the opportunity to talk through their interpretation of a poem, this is informed by the fact that oral response is more directly and fully reflective. ii. iii. Memorising a poem: in asking students to memorise poems they value, the process may help them ingrain them, to make the poem (s) part of them. Writing poetry: in integrating the reading and writing of poetry, as in integrating the reading and writing process in the current KCSE integrated approach to the study of English, we can help students appreciate poetry more. Caution: Resist the temptation to simply ask students to begin writing poetry. You need to provide students with patterns, models, formulas; as this makes the process of writing poetry less threatening and intimidating. Consider asking them, for example, to translate their love letters, their teen-age experiences into poems and (directionally) encourage peer response. Students own poetic composition should be seen as windows to their hearts and minds, and should be delicately encouraged. And even with these strategies, let us note that responding to poetry is a complex process. It can never be a simple, linear process of reading the poem and extracting meaning, but a discursive, sometimes circular process in which readers are called upon to employ various strategies: restating associating paraphrasing hypothesising interpreting seeking closure connecting 7

 allegorising evaluating An Illuminating Observation Consider this observation from Robert Blake and Ann Lunn in the essay, Responding to poetry: High School Students Read Poetry, Few students are aware of the processes available to them for a satisfactory reading of a poem. Students who say, I dont like this poem. Its Dumb, usually mean, I dont understand this poem, and my teachers who always know what every poem means always make me feel stupid. Ignorance is frightening; knowledge is reassuring. (72) Haply, as teachers of poetry, we ought to self-evaluate ourselves in light of how our students perceive their ignorance/knowledge of poetry. (My personal experience in teaching Soyinka and T.S Eliot to the university literature students, for instance, often reveal to me how intimidating I have been in over-assuming -- that the students are aware of the images, the allusions, the traditions, the mythologies . In other words, I have learnt, over time, how not to take anything for granted, however common it may seem.) Some Perspectives in Understanding Poetry The following perspectives could be utilised in enabling students respond to various categories of poetry: Textual perspective Social perspective Cultural perspective Topical perspective

Another Illuminating Observation This observation is of a teacher who had been trained in the sciences and not in English/Literature, yet could capture the imagination of his students very well in poetry: He had a passion fro poetry and read a good deal himself. He believed utterly in its value, and that it could be made accessible to everyone the secret appeared to be a deep personal conviction, a profound belief in the pupils, a wide knowledge of poems which appealed to all levels, an ability to read poetry aloud and talk about it at the pupils level but seriously, a wide variety of classroom activities, and an inspiring classroom manner. He was not a paragon; he seemed simply to like poetry, like his pupils, and like teaching, and he expected his pupils to enjoy learning. (Travers in Coran and Evans (Eds.) I believe that this is what it means to love poetry and to involve/seduce our pupils into this love, to engage in the practice of poetry as teachers of English.

In lieu of conclusion We can hope to continue reflecting the more on the love and practice of poetry. William
Harmon, editing the marvellous Classic Writings on Poetry (2003) sets his agenda as, I hope to show that while poetry has been many things to many sorts of people, it has not been remote from the daily lives and work of ordinary people. That is by no means to say that poetry itself is ordinary or simple; it isnt. But if you stay alert, you can hear poetry in many places besides a classroom. (xiii) The study of poetry offers a lot to ourselves and our students it [to our students] offers the imaginative, critical and creative thinking ; and this, obviously enables them grapple with the various realities of life. I can thus only hope that we will create spaces for ourselves and our students to always stay alert to the immeasurable pleasures of poetry.

I wish you well as you endeavour to ingrain the practice and love of poetry.
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References Beach, Richard W., and James Marshall. Teaching Literature in the Secondary School. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991. Blake, Robert, and Ann Lunn. Responding to Poetry: High School Students Read Poetry, in The English Journal 75(1986). 68-73 Harmon, William, ed. Classic Writings on Poetry. Columbia: Columbia UP, 2003. Odiemo-Munara, Lennox. Priceless Tools for Creative Writers of Prose and Poetry, in Sunday Nation, Lifestyle 12, Feb. 21, 2010. Oludhe, Marjorie Macgoye. The Composition of Poetry. Nairobi: Nairobi University Press, 2009. Reeves, James. Understanding Poetry. London: Heinemann, 1965. Travers, Molly. Responding to Poetry, in Bill Corr Coran and Emrys Evans (eds.), Readers, Texts, Teachers, 197-217. Veper Monclair, NJ: Boynton Cook, 1987.

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