April is National Poetry Month. Historians also tell us that William Shakespeare, a man well-known for his fourteen-line sonnets, was born during this poetic month. Hence, this blog is my tribute to poetry and The Bard.
Were you required to memorize poetry in school?
I remember studying some of the classics and having to memorize “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Longfellow, Shakespeare’s sonnet “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day,” and Poe’s “The Raven.”
I required my high school sophomores to memorize Shakespeare’s “When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes.” We discussed rhyme schemes and couplets and iambic pentameter and other poetic elements. Personally, I never wanted to overanalyze a poem. As a result, I may have short-changed my students by not focusing on rhyming patterns, etc., but I simply wanted them to enjoy the beauty and the lyricism of the work.
I confess I did spend quality class time teaching my students about Shakespeare’s life, his works, and specifically his play Julius Caesar. According to most sources, Shakespeare was “the greatest playwright of all time.”
According to Who was William Shakespeare? by Celeste Davidson Mannis, Shakespeare’s education was quite different from that of our students today:
School days were long. Will rose before sunrise, ate breakfast, finished his chores, and walked to school. He was at his desk by six o’clock in the morning during the summer, seven o’clock in the winter. School ended at six o’clock in the evening. Classes were held six days a week, all year round. Will’s only days off were Sundays, market days, and holidays.
Will learned to read from a hornbook: a board with the letters of the alphabet and the Lord’s Prayer printed on it. He also learned many other prayers.
A year or two later, Will began to read Aesop’s Fables and Bible stories. Will learned a lot that he used later in his plays. The Bible story of Cain and Abel is mentioned twenty-five times in his work.
Learning Latin was very important. Will began studying it when he was seven. Church services were held in Latin. Laws were written in Latin. As Will grew older, he and the other boys were not allowed to speak English at school. Only Latin. They were spanked if they spoke English. Will learned Latin grammar; he knew famous speeches in Latin by heart. He could write in Latin.
Wow! And our students think they have it tough.
This clever man must have had a disciplined work ethic.
While Shakespeare is most known for his tragedy, comedy, and history plays, he also wrote 154 sonnets. Because an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague forced the closure of theaters in London between 1592 and 1594, Shakespeare turned to writing those fourteen-line poems worthy of memorization. These lines have continued to inspire the world with insight into love and beauty and immortality.
The Bible tells us that God empowers each of us with special gifts. I believe poets such as Shakespeare have received the gift referenced in 1 Corinthians 12:8: “To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom.”
The anthology One Hundred and One Famous Poems, compiled by Roy J. Cook, is another book that still holds a special place in my library. A book well-loved by my father and often referenced by an attorney for whom I once worked, this collection contains inspiration from Shakespeare as well as many other classic authors. From “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Tennyson to “The Spider and the Fly” by Mary Howitt, this book is chock full of words that can only be God-inspired.
I shared much of the wisdom from this book with my high school students in the springtime of the year: “The Daffodils” by Wordsworth, “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae, and “If” by Rudyard Kipling. In my opinion, these poets’ insight into human nature is unsurpassed.
I believe Emily Dickinson was so inspired when she penned these words:
I never saw a moor;
I never saw the sea,
Yet know I how the heather looks
And what a wave must be.
I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heaven,
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.
Other poets who have inspired me include Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Frost, Pablo Neruda, Robert Browning, Langston Hughes, William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Naomi Shihab Nye, and so many more. I believe they have all been gifted with their words.
The study of poetry (and most certainly the memorization of it) appears to be a dying art. For those critics who see no benefit in committing a poem to memory, think of it as a muscle exercise for the brain. Like endlessly singing “The Alphabet Song” or reciting the times tables over and over or repeatedly studying the words of favorite Bible passages, we can forever carry this knowledge and inspiration with us wherever we go.
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God.”—2 Timothy 2:15
When we reflect upon the words written by the poet David, the one who found favor with God, I think we can all connect to something universal.
“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul.” (from Psalm 23)
According to Laurence Perrine’s Sound and Sense, poetry is “central to each man’s existence, something having unique value to the fully realized life, something that he is better off for having and spiritually impoverished without.”
Whether you read it or write it, there can be power in a poem.
In September of 2001, my students and I were gravely impacted by the evil that attacked our country. I encouraged us all to express our thoughts about those events by turning to poetry. Using an “I Am From” poetry template, we reflected upon our inner selves, our feelings, our hopes, our dreams at this critical time in history.
I was blown away by the insight of my students. They shared their innermost thoughts about patriotism and faith and family, and they amazed me with their knowledge of literature and sports and the arts. They understood the power of the pen. Without permission from them, I won’t share my students’ work, but these lines are from my poem “I Am a Candle Who Lights the Way”:
I am from Homer to Hawthorne
And from Tennyson to Tennessee Williams.
I delight in sharing pearls of wisdom
From the pages of the immortal bard.
My voice is more active than passive.
My conjugations are always intense.
My moods are not indicative of my emotions.
I can be imperative if I need be.
I can be three persons,
And I am very possessive
Where my apostrophes are concerned.
In most cases, however, I can be objective.
I am from confusion to epiphany.
I am an English teacher,
Consuming myself
While lighting the way for others.
Whether the words come from the unrhymed iambic pentameter of Tennyson’s Idylls of the King or the psalms of David or the succinct lines of Sandburg’s “Fog,” poetry can inspire and say something that cannot otherwise be said.
I hope you will take a moment to reflect on a poem this month. Don’t analyze it or study its meter or its rhyme scheme. Simply ingest the power of its words.
“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.”–Edgar Allan Poe
“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”–T. S. Eliot
“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”–Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Psalm 40; Lamentations 3:22-23; 2 Corinthians 4:7-9; Isaiah 55:11
Love your poem!