From magazine issue: 8 August 2020. iStock. "—Jessie Forand, "Clear, unpretentious, witty prose makes his tour of poetry both entertaining and enlightening. A gifted poet and acclaimed teacher, Parini begins by looking at … The book ranges far and wide with chapters on poetry's engagement with voice, metaphor, tradition, politics, religion, and the natural world.' Parini is a scintillating guide to the unfathomable, and he will be welcomed both by poets and by anyone intrigued—or baffled—by poetry. D. McClatchy, "With the light touch and intelligent eye of a great teacher, Jay Parini makes this concise little book a marvel, plumbing the depths of the reasons for poetry and the underpinnings of the art from metaphor to vision, from nature to politics . November 16, 2017 By John Garvey Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Commentary, Guest Commentary, Intellect and Virtue. Charlie Dark performs his poem, 'Airborne' Duration: 01:37 Related Content. We bring our own past to bear on poetry's metaphors to achieve a great consolation, a way to be sympathetic with another human being's private utterance. Anyone interested in the history of poetry will benefit from this book, whose slim dimensions belie its range and ambition. 2 quotes from Why Poetry Matters: ‘Poetry is a language adequate to one's experience.’ Nightly my father lulled me to sleep with the many poems he knew by heart. Why poetry matters. The one sort they have never liked is the sort they are told to like. Unfortunately, many had a bad experience and long ago concluded they just aren't the poetic type. Information about your device and internet connection, including your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Verizon Media websites and apps. My hope is that this book will make poetry available to a much wider audience by talking about its essential aspects in straightforward but suggestive ways. "—Christopher Benfey, author of, "Jay Parini celebrates not simply poetry but glorious life itself. And as long as the world needs changing, we’ll need poetry. His poems, articles, and reviews appear regularly in such journals as the Atlantic, the New Yorker, Harper’s, Poetry, the New York Times Book Review, the Guardian, and the Times Literary Supplement. Indeed, a poet might well be described (in Aristotle’s terms) as someone capable of noticing likenesses. On long journeys or stuck in traffic-jams we played rhyming games or changed the lyrics to songs and nursery rhymes. They are like genres of music, everyone has their preference. He ponders Aristotle, Horace, and Longinus, and moves on through Sidney, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Eliot, Frost, Stevens, and others. Poetry may be the art most suited for mobile technology. "—Samuel Pickering, author of Autumn Spring and Letters to a Teacher, “Concise, cogent, and convincing, Jay Parini clarifies a complex subject with common sense and uncommon insight. Please ensure you're using that browser before attempting to purchase. But Jeff Munroe was the perfect guest to help explain why an appreciation of poetry is critical for reading the Bible and why its worth a second chance. One reason is that many people still enjoy some sorts of poetry. Similar programmes. Often when he talks about why it matters, it comes off as if poetry were a sacrament, akin to Christian communion. It gives voice to certain intimacy and connections that would otherwise be lost. Poetry doesn't matter to most people. Find out more about how we use your information in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. April is National Poetry Month! 'Why Poetry Matters offers itself as a timely, passionate defence of the poetic. Welcome to this continued exploration of why poetry matters, especially during quarantine. On long journeys or stuck in traffic-jams we played rhyming games or changed the lyrics to songs and nursery rhymes. Writing with a casual grace, Parini avoids jargon and makes his case in concise, direct terms: the mind of the poet supplies a light to the minds of others, kindling their imaginations, helping them to live their lives. He shows that poetry can quicken the mind, purge damp melancholy from the cold heart, and spread goldenrod across fallen days. A brief, passionate book about the nature of poetry and its use in the world Poetry doesn’t matter to most people, observes Jay Parini at the opening of this book. — Matthew Bevis, Modernism/Modernity Vol.17 In-depth conversations with experts on topics that matter. But, undeterred, he commences a deeply felt meditation on poetry, its language and meaning, and its power to open minds and transform lives. Poetry indeed matters. I hoped that the bears were asleep. 19:59. This is the perfect hip-pocket compendium of signposts to Poetryland. One reason is because it can touch different people in different ways. Poetry matters. Poetry is a powerful language that speaks of the value of each and every thing, and it doesn’t matter if anyone else at all thinks it – or you – are valuable. Among his many books are five volumes of poetry, most recently The Art of Subtraction: New and Selected Poems. Reading poetry and or writing poetry can drastically improve your life, because it has improved mine. Poetry feasts on the similarities and differences between things. Dana Gioia, chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts under President George W. Bush and poet laureate of California, talks about the importance of poetry in the United States. The first involves the role of language in a free society. Why Poetry Matters. By the end of the book, Parini has recovered a truth often obscured by our clamorous culture: without poetry, we live only partially, not fully conscious of the possibilities that life affords. By contributor Jennifer Cox. Our shopping cart only supports Mozilla Firefox. "With gentle insistence, Parini's book makes the case that poetry is worth reading—indeed, that it must be read—especially in a dark time like our own. This is a book for both the newcomer and the old hand—a rousing and eloquent survey of an art that goes to the very center of our lives.”—J. Furthermore, Why Poetry Matters provides a perspective on poetry that suits both Gioia’s literate reader and the practicing poet. Mum … I've also been a teacher of poetry for as many years, and Why Poetry Matters is to some degree a result of trying to help students to read poetry with genuine appreciation and feeling. Why Poetry Matters — David Xiang our team Jun 05, 2020 Jun 05, 2020 Vanessa Hua January 16, 2020. Poetry matters because it can make us feel more fully alive to the mysteries of common life. We have rounded up some quantitative examples to demonstrate how poetry matters in … There are at least two reasons why the situation of poetry matters to the entire intellectual community. Poems sing to us that life really matters, now. Juan Carlos, ex-King of Spain, behaved foolishly in … He was, Dana Gioia said, the finest poet of his generation and the greatest American Christian poet since Eliot. When we needed her lessons -- each of us … Subscribe to hear when New Releases or Catalogs are ready. "—Molly Peacock, poet and creative nonfiction writer, author of. Why Poetry Matters. Truth & Dread: Why Poetry Still Matters & The Risk of (Too Much) Empathy. Get this from a library! Comments Share. There certainly is a case to be made that poetry "can ground us in spiritual and moral realities, offering the consolations of philosophy, teaching us how to speak about our lives, and how * * * to live them" -- but so can fiction, art, and music, not to mention religion. We and our partners will store and/or access information on your device through the use of cookies and similar technologies, to display personalised ads and content, for ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Subscribe Today. English professors looking for a textbook that explains what poetry is and how students can benefit from reading it should order. Text settings. Poetry helps build early literacy skills. But, undeterred, he commences a deeply felt meditation on poetry, its language and meaning, and its power to open minds and transform lives. In an era of Twitter and texting, poetry matters more than ever, said Dana Gioia, poet laureate of California, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and author of five poetry collections. Good poetry is not a place for easy consolations, for platitudes. — Matthew Bevis, Modernism/Modernity Vol.17, Carolyn Forche; Foreword by Stanley Kunitz. So why does poetry matter? He lives in Weybridge, VT. Click here for an extended question & answer discussion with the author. As my friend, the mythologist Michael Meade writes, “It is easy to feel lost and betrayed in a world of increasing alienation, where greed, injustice, and dull materialism obscure the underlying dream of life. Why Poetry Matters. Exactly how metaphor works in poetry, and why this matters, will be the subject of this chapter. More clips from Why Poetry Matters. Reading Poetry. I've long wanted to do an episode on poetry. Instead, poems can be a space where uncertainty and complexity commingle. Why Poetry Matters. I was born into a house full of poetry. There are plenty of different kinds of poems to appeal to people's different tastes. To enable Verizon Media and our partners to process your personal data select 'I agree', or select 'Manage settings' for more information and to manage your choices. Log In. Every year or so, mainstream media outlets circus-bark the “death” of poetry. Poetry matters because it is the cordial of language – what is left once most of the water has been boiled away. Nightly my father lulled me to sleep with the many poems he knew by heart. Poetry can give us back our dailiness in musical technicolour: in a thousand yarns or snapshots. There is a certain kind of freedom that comes from writing a poem without ending punctuation, or playing with sentence fragments, but there is also the joy that comes from operating within the constraints of poetry's unique structures: from haiku to sonnets to ballads to cinquains to odes. It doesn't matter if you're reading a poem by Poe or Dickinson about death or a poem by Shakespeare or Donne about love. A gifted poet and acclaimed teacher, Parini begins by looking at defenses of poetry written over the centuries. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Your Privacy Controls. Beginning with that notorious anti-poet Plato and stopping off for brief conversations with Shelley, Wordsworth, Stevens, Eliot and even Louise Glück, Parini gives us a generous, knowledgeable tour of why poetry matters to us now. Because it is so concentrated it can’t be drunk like water, sometimes it can barely even be sipped. That is why poetry is at this moment necessary, irreplaceable, of inherent value. By Jay Parini June 27, 2008 Premium content for subscribers. May 5, 2020. In this article I will attempt to articulate why poetry is important to read and also to write. Poetry doesn t matter to most people, observes Jay Parini at the opening of this book. I was born into a house full of poetry. Poetry indeed matters. And, hundreds of thousands of people are attending and participating in poetry readings, workshops, conferences, slams, and festivals each year. Author: Emilia Phillips | Nov. 21. The book ranges far and wide with chapters on poetry's engagement with voice, metaphor, tradition, politics, religion, and the natural world.' Rhyme, rhythm, and sound are emphasized in … He argues that a poet’s originality depends on a deep understanding of the traditions of political poetry, nature poetry, and religious poetry. Richard Wilbur died last month. They … It really does! [Jay Parini] -- Poetry doesn't matter to most people, observes Jay Parini at the opening of this book. "If you are going to tell Jay Parini that poetry doesn't matter, you should probably start working on your debate points now—he's got a lot more. It is not threatened, not in the sense that people are about to stop writing it or reading it or thinking about it. Poetry is as old as the human need to communicate and enriches human consciousness, Gioia said in an address at the National Press Club April 20. Why poetry matters. Step right up and watch its last gasp, they seem to say. Why Poetry Matters. 2016. Parini examines the importance of poetic voice and the mysteries of metaphor. However, the nicest line in this book says something like, ‘poetry can … 'Why Poetry Matters offers itself as a timely, passionate defence of the poetic. Jay Parini, a poet, novelist, and biographer, is D. E. Axinn Professor of English at Middlebury College. Posted in Reading No comments. By genre: Why poetry matters The story of 20th-century poetry teaches us that language is not a luxury: we need the right words in order to survive. The author’s love of poetry suffuses this insightful book—a volume for all readers interested in a fresh introduction to the art that lies at the center of Western civilization. Poetry matters because it is both free and deeply structured. Why poetry matters. This month, I was teaching creative writing in the mountains of North Carolina. Poetry is a way to impressively carry ideas and emotions, which in turn is a way to impact and change this world. That can … When I read a poem that resonates I feel like I have found a long lost friend. Why poetry matters now. Why poetry matters Contributor 10.30.14. HuffPost is part of Verizon Media. It's threatened in a larger sense, in that its root, which is the particular idiosyncratic stuff of selfhood, may itself wither or become as rare as a Florida Panther. Special guests include Theresa Monteiro, an MFA student at the University of New Hampshire, and Montrose sophomore Jenn Uche. 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