A Reason for Rhyme

By Lynette Schrader

When is the last time you have picked up a poem and read it? I am not talking about the greeting card rhyme variety. I am talking about the real stuff: the classics. Longfellow, Tennyson, Donne, Whittier, Bradstreet, Eliot. The Road Not Taken. Dover Beach. The Lady of Shalott. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. If you are like the average adult, it has probably been years since you have read a classic poem. Perhaps never. This contrasts sharply with previous American societies, where the reading of classic poetry was a normal, enjoyable pastime. In fact, only as recently as fifty years ago, poetry clubs met with some regularity. Unfortunately, classic poetry has become a forgotten gem hidden away in our libraries and dusty old English books and most modern adults never discover it.

Why is this so? I would like to propose several reasons why you have not read a classic poem in?well, how many years?

Perhaps the most obvious reason is the pace of life. Who has time to read poetry when life is already a mad scramble? Time to read, period, is slim, and most of us are not going to choose to read heavy poetry in those last minutes when the house is quiet and we can relax a moment.

Another reason is that sometimes poetry is difficult to read and even more difficult to understand. It is filled with metaphors, symbols, personifications, imagery, wordy descriptions, and difficult sentence wording. For those who don't like to read (and sometimes, even for those who do), it is simply too much work to figure out what in the world the author was trying to say in the first place.

These reasons aside, the main reason you probably have not read a real poem in many years is that poetry, plain and simple, is out of fashion. Go into any library or bookstore and it becomes clear that classic poetry has fallen into disuse. The best sellers that greet you at Barnes and Noble are certainly not classic poetry. Poetry is, by and large, missing. It is not found on your neighbor's coffeetable or the chiropractor's magazine rack. It has just slowly and unobtrusively slipped into oblivion. Our society no longer appreciates, or even needs, the classics. I was struck by the difference between now and then when I re-read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. During the long winter, the Ingalls family fights the darkness of storms, hunger, and depression with, believe it or not, classic poetry. They spend evenings in candlelight reciting by memory all the poems they can recall. Poetry, not television, news, magazines, books, or the telephone, provided entertainment and inspiration. In our entertainment-laden society, poetry, calm and noninvasive, has fallen quietly by the wayside, outpaced by louder, more strident voices.

Unfortunately, these louder voices leave the modern American student unprepared to appreciate classic poetry. Raised on the fast-paced imagery of television and video games, many students find reading of any sort boring. Thus, the average modern student dismisses poetry as irrelevant and uninteresting. Certainly, then, as these students become adults with free choice in reading material, poetry becomes their last choice.

This is unfortunate because many adults dismiss poetry based on their experience with it in school. If they would take the time to go back and re-read some of the literature from their high school days that they disliked or did not understand, they may be surprised to discover that their understanding has improved with age and maturity. This has certainly been my own experience. Classic literature, including poetry, can be best loved and understood, not by the young students who are reading it (though hopefully their exposure to it will pave the way for appreciation of it later) but by their parents, who haven't read a classic poem in, well, how long was that again?

So why should you read classic poetry, anyway? I have given you a number of reasons why you probably are not reading it. Now I would like to convince you why you should carve some occasional space into your life for it.

Poetry, and actually all literature, is a reflection of the society which birthed it. If you like history, you can learn about it from poetry. For example, the earliest American poetry was written by Puritans. Thus, their poetry is mostly about God, home, nature. It reflected that society and its values. Move forward into the mid-1800's and suddenly, poetry's themes are different. Transcendentalism, a new (but, ah, how very old) philosophy on the goodness within, emerges. Though poetry still may moralize, it does not directly refer to God, but more vaguely to faith and goodness. And this is only American poetry. Every culture's poetry reflects the values, mores, customs of the time period in which it was written.

Poetry is also worth reading because it can teach life lessons. One of my favorite poems is Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant (see reprint on page 7). In it he discusses the absoluteness of death, compares the entire world to a giant tomb, and describes nature as simply the tomb's decorations. It is a solemn reminder that our days truly are numbered. But he doesn't end the poem there. The last stanza is an encouragement to live in such a way that we are prepared for death. At any age, that is a lesson worth heeding.

Additionally, classic poetry should be read just for the sheer beauty of it. The cadence of the words, the grandeur of the images, the precision of the rhymes is enough to make it worthwhile. Some poets spent enormous energy simply on rhythm and rhyme. One of the greatest poems ever written, the Inferno by Dante Alighieri, is written, in the original Italian, in something called terza rima. The entire poem is made up of grouping of lines of three, with the first and third lines rhyming. That, however, is not terza rima. What makes it terza rima, and what makes it so incredible, is that the middle line (or 2nd line) becomes the rhyme for lines one and three of the next grouping. Have I lost you yet? Try writing hundreds of lines of this, all in a specific rhythm (called iambic pentameter, for you literary buffs out there). And he managed to tell a pretty incredible story while he was at all this rhyming and rhythm business. Well-written poetry like this is worth reading just for the experience.

Another special thing about poetry is its power to communicate. We all know the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words." Indeed, a picture is worth a thousand words. But sometimes words are necessary to paint the right picture. Take, for example, this short love poem by Sidney Lanier: "So one in heart and thought, I trow, That thou might'st press the strings and I might draw the bow And both would meet in music sweet, Thou and I, I trow."

Those 32 words communicate exactly the beauty of unified love. And they do it in ways a picture could not. They also leave the reader with his own minds-eye picture which is just as powerful as any real picture.

The greatest reason I love poetry, however, is that it is like a giant hand that pushes back the frontiers of my mind and soul and increases my horizons. It lifts me out of myself, my muck and mire of daily chores and duties. Lofty ideas, grand intentions, great desires are expressed in classic poetry. And I find when I read it that I want to be a better person, a stronger individual, a positive contribution to society and Christendom. It also stretches my vocabulary, forces my mind to engage in new ideas, gives me new thoughts to mull over. The saying goes that if you don't use your brain cells, you lose them. Reading poetry is a sure guarantee that your brain cells will get a good workout! It will also make you a more well-rounded and thoughtful person.

If you are still not convinced to give classic poetry a try, at least take notice of the poetry that already surrounds you. The Bible has beautiful poetry, especially the Psalms, the Song of Solomon, and parts of Ecclesiastes. Some of the best-known poetry from these books includes the "time for everything" passage from Ecclesiastes and the "rose of Sharon" passage from the Song of Solomon. The Psalms have many beloved passages of poetry. Psalm 23 with its shepherd theme and Psalm 91 with the image of our huddling under His wings like a bunch of little chicks are only a few of the most loved ones.

Another excellent source of poetry is only as far away as most church pews (or perhaps your bookshelf). Hymns are a rich source of poetry. One of the beauties of poetry is imagery, where words provoke strong images in the reader's mind. Try reading the third verse of The Love of God: "Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made. Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man, a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky." Now that is imagery at its best! It is also poetry-beautiful, worshipful poetry.

Hopefully, at least a few of you who have cared enough to plug through this article on poetry will actually go to the library and read some! Your brain cells will live longer. The walls of your mind will expand. And you will have the fun of shocking your friends when they ask if you have read anything interesting lately, and you say, "Yes. Tennyson."

Lynette Schrader lives in Rosedale, Ohio, with her husband, Tim, and their two daughters, Madalyn and Malia. They are expecting their third child in May. Lynette has served on the staff and faculty of Rosedale Bible College.

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