Advice From Walt Whitman & Lindsey Buckingham : A New Poetry Appreciation Workshop

I have begun teaching some Poetry Appreciation Workshops through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Richmond (Virginia), and I will be offering some notes and poems from the class on this Forum. All readers are welcome to respond in the Dialogue Reply Box Below:

Advice from Walt Whitman on Poetry:

In “Leaves of Grass,” Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is concerned with the qualities of great poets, and their influence over people. To Whitman, there is no better thinker, helper or worker than the poet, who can outrun the swiftest runners, and who can “make every word he speaks draw blood.” By his definition, the greatest poets avoid the trivial, by turning small themes into big themes, connecting reality to the human soul. Among his commandments, Whitman charges his readers to love the earth, give alms to whoever asks it, to go freely, to have patience, “and dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.” The poet’s role toward the universe is one of a lover to his beloved, and this dictum informs all of his work…”

Some Definitions of Poetry:

• Type of literature based on the interplay of words, images, ideas, rhyme, and rhythms that may be too complex or abstract to describe in other ways.
• Classic poetry often adhered to established sets of rules on lines and meters, but some modern poetry does away with rules altogether.
• Poetry is the oldest form of literature and often started by retelling stories, such as in the Bible, the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer.
• Percy Bysshe Shelly (1792-1822) defines poetry as providing a record of the most profound (happy/sad) ideas produced by humanity. It is an expression of the deepest imagination. It sprouts from a seed and then becomes infinite.  See Percy Bysshe Shelly’s Poem, Ozymandias below.

• I met a traveller from an antique land
  Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
  Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
  Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
  And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
  Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
  Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
  The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
  And on the pedestal these words appear:
  “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
  Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
  Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
  The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

Examples of Some Types of Poetry:

• The Greek poet Homer wrote some of the ancient world’s most famous literature. He wrote in a style called epic poetry, which deals with gods, heroes, monsters, and other large-scale “epic” Homer’s long poems tell stories of Greek heroes like Achilles and Odysseus, and have inspired countless generations of poets& novelists. He writes, “Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.”
• Poetry gives powerful insight into the cultures that create it. Because of this, fantasy and science fiction authors often create poetry for their invented cultures. J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote different kinds of poetry for elves, dwarves, hobbits, and humans, and the rhythms and subject matter of their poetry was supposed to show how these races differed from one another. Star Trek fans have taken to writing love poetry in the invented Klingon language. There is poetry in everyday language as well as in popular music. See the song by Lindsey Buckingham/Fleetwood Mac: below:

Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow by Lindsey Buckingham

• If you wake up and don’t want to smile
  If it takes just a little
  Open your eyes and look at the day
  You’ll see things in a different way
• Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
  Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
  It’ll be here better than before
  Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone
• Why not think about times to come?
  And not about the things that you’ve done?
  If your life was bad to you
  Just think what tomorrow will do
• Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
  Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
  It’ll be here better than before
  Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

Perhaps this song is Buckingham’s response to the more melancholic song, “Yesterday” by Paul McCartney of the Beatles. McCartney writes that he believes in “Yesterday,” where all his “troubles seemed so far away.” Buckingham’s song invites us to put aside those troubles and look at things in a different way. It suggests that we enjoy the things that are in front of us every day and look forward to tomorrow. That philosophy is exactly what poetry is trying to do for us: to help us see things in a different way. Why not try to do that and to enjoy some selections or poets from www.poetryfoundation.org and/or write your own and send them to me at ellisonms2@vcu.edu to be considered for this column.

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