Comments on: Pledging Allegiance to Poetry http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/ A blog from the Poetry Foundation where contemporary poets debate classic and contemporary poetry from America and around the world. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:27:05 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Andrew http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/#comment-25703 Andrew Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:20:51 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/#comment-25703 not so, not so! i read poems almost every day to start our English class with sixth graders last year and they were fascinated! they enjoyed it and asked questions about it every once and a while--they were also mystified by me being able to read a poem in Spanish, as some of 'em were Puerto Ricans. the big brother voice is only optional, and only for those who aren't trained in reading a poem. but if a teacher or a practiced reader or even a student reads the poem, the meaning becomes more solid--if they pay attention to the announcements. not so, not so! i read poems almost every day to start our English class with sixth graders last year and they were fascinated! they enjoyed it and asked questions about it every once and a while–they were also mystified by me being able to read a poem in Spanish, as some of ‘em were Puerto Ricans.

the big brother voice is only optional, and only for those who aren’t trained in reading a poem. but if a teacher or a practiced reader or even a student reads the poem, the meaning becomes more solid–if they pay attention to the announcements.

]]> By: Sheila http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/#comment-25649 Sheila Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:14:25 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/#comment-25649 But this isn't the only poetry they get, right? I tend to agree with Henry, that if they only get the bureaucratic big brother voice of the poem every morning and not the intimate voice of the poet, then I'd have to be they'll end up hating poetry as much as I hate the pledge (since I did it every morning at school growing up). But this isn’t the only poetry they get, right? I tend to agree with Henry, that if they only get the bureaucratic big brother voice of the poem every morning and not the intimate voice of the poet, then I’d have to be they’ll end up hating poetry as much as I hate the pledge (since I did it every morning at school growing up).

]]> By: Terreson http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/#comment-25572 Terreson Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:34:25 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/#comment-25572 I get it. Terreson I get it.

Terreson

]]> By: Henry Gould http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/#comment-25570 Henry Gould Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:23:53 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/pledging-allegiance-to-poetry/#comment-25570 The trouble is, the world as it might be - without the world as it is - turns out to be sort of boring. The Pledge & the Poem, say, at two ends of a continuum. Either end, without the other, is liable to sing-song mockery. There is something poetic in the unspoken gesture of the Pledge. & there is something bureaucratic in the *****150***** Days of Pure Poetry (via loudspeaker). See RP Blackmur, "Language as Gesture" - a classic essay. The trouble is, the world as it might be – without the world as it is – turns out to be sort of boring. The Pledge & the Poem, say, at two ends of a continuum. Either end, without the other, is liable to sing-song mockery.

There is something poetic in the unspoken gesture of the Pledge. & there is something bureaucratic in the *****150***** Days of Pure Poetry (via loudspeaker).

See RP Blackmur, “Language as Gesture” – a classic essay.

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