{"id":228,"date":"2021-07-16T13:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nclacommunity.org\/newdefences\/?p=228"},"modified":"2021-07-16T13:27:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T13:27:59","slug":"a-defence-of-the-dispensable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nclacommunity.org\/newdefences\/2021\/07\/16\/a-defence-of-the-dispensable\/","title":{"rendered":"A Defence of the Dispensable"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Michael Brown<\/p>\n

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One might assume that poetry is quite capable of fighting its own battles these days. That in 2021 the muse no longer requires me or any other embittered, self-righteous hack to weigh in on its behalf and protect its dark art from permanently being consigned to a state of utter oblivion or irrelevance which it has periodically threatened to inhabit.<\/p>\n

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No need for such a grandiose, Shelleyan intervention, then?\u00a0 \u00a0After all, this most democratic of arts is now more widespread and more prevalent in English universities \u2013 notwithstanding Geoffrey Hill\u2019s implied criticism of MA programmes \u2013 than it has ever been (Flood). \u00a0All you need is a pen, a Zoom platform and you\u2019re half way to an ISBN.<\/p>\n

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And yet a defence, it seems, is necessary after all.<\/p>\n

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Following the 2020 closures of schools as part of lockdown, \u2018significant concern[s]\u2019 were expressed by teachers as to the lack of available classroom time to complete the teaching of all components of the English Literature curriculum for the 2021 cohort of children (\u2018Coronavirus\u2019). The Government\u2019s belated response was to offer schools optional routes through the labyrinthine curriculum so that pupils would no longer be assessed on poetry if the teacher deemed it too time-consuming. \u00a0Shakespeare, sacred national institution, remained compulsory of course, but poetry along with its bloody-minded refusal to conform to the margins of a page was relegated to \u201can option\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Having spent 30 years teaching English Literature in a secondary classroom, I have seen first-hand how the fear of poetry\u2019s complexity can affect teachers\u2019 strategies to engage young people with a poem that is nuanced or ambiguous. \u00a0Ever conscious of senior management and the drive for results, many alter their teaching methods to become overly didactic so that phrases such as \u201cthe poem\u2019s meaning is\u2026\u201d or \u201cthis is an example of persona voice\u201d are stated as gospel platitudes and submissively scribbled down by students who have been denied the opportunity to explore and investigate the subtleties of language for themselves. We\u2019ve done that one. <\/em>There is usually another one<\/em> to do next lesson. \u00a0Poetry has been devalued by being regarded as something merely to be \u201cgot through\u201d, a body of liquid knowledge that has to be poured into receptive empty vessels. \u00a0A bit irksome and onerous but something to be finished on time. Like adolescence.<\/p>\n

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It has become a one-way process. \u00a0But poems \u2018do things to us as well as say things to us\u2019 (Eagleton 90). We have lost sight of the distinction. \u00a0Impact is every bit as important, if not more so, than a poem\u2019s supposed single empirical meaning and the cold interpretation of words. \u00a0Shelley said that \u2018poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world; and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar\u2019 (681).<\/p>\n

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What poetry needs, then, is a defence of its possibility <\/em>to take young, embryonic minds out of their known selves, their natures and put them \u2018in the place of another\u2019 (Shelley 682). A poem read well has the potential to \u2018penetrate far beneath the intellect, infiltrating the visceral depths of the body and its secret psychical domains\u2019 (Eagleton 92).<\/p>\n

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In a society where teenage depression and anxiety is said to be increasing at an alarming rate even before the national lockdown (83% of teachers reported rising cases of self-harm and anxiety amongst pupils) and where some charitable mental health services say they have seen a 70% rise in demand over the past three months post-covid (Weale; Savage), there has never been a more relevant time to bang the drum for this ancient mode of language. \u00a0We live in times of accentuated uncertainty (this has particularly affected young people \u2013 if not through hospitalisation \u2013 at a stage when many are only just beginning to discover who and what they might actually become). The trusted structures of time and habit have had to change.\u00a0 We have all had to adapt.\u00a0 A lot has been put on hold. \u00a0Losing certainties at such a young age, however, can have a profound effect on self-esteem and relationships. \u00a0Not being able to look ahead with much clarity of vision or a degree of conviction for the next few weeks, let alone years,<\/em> has meant many cannot imagine their next steps into adulthood, a future career path, or, indeed, when or whether<\/em> they are going to university as they had originally planned.<\/p>\n

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What poetry needs is youthful readers; young readers need poetry. \u00a0Poetry rarely offers up glib, easy answers to life\u2019s complexities and as such it is in step with the uncertainties young people are facing now more than ever. As the poet Anthony Anaxagorou puts it: \u2018Poetry shouldn\u2019t be regarded as a response to memory \u2026 [it is able to] get into the spaces other modes of language can\u2019t\u2019 (qtd. in Wills and Shearing). The rise of spoken word artists such as Kate Tempest and Holly McNish has highlighted the relevance of poetry to the young through powerful live performances that resonate as \u201cgigs\u201d. In addition, the fast-paced, quick interactions of social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube, used by a majority of teenagers, appear to be conducive to the brevity of what we used to call the lyric poem.<\/p>\n

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This is not all. Poetry must be defended for the diversity of voice it brings to audiences and readers.\u00a0 Poems such as \u2018Checkin\u2019 Out Me History\u2019 by John Agard or Imtiaz Dharker\u2019s \u2018Tissue\u2019 (both included in AQA\u2019s most recent syllabus) ask more questions than they provide answers for and each poem gives a marginalised voice a platform at the centre of a stage. \u00a0Poetry has a unique ability to showcase a range of voices from outside the immediate spectrum of a reader\u2019s peer group.<\/p>\n

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Are we really saying that such encounters are dispensable<\/em>?<\/p>\n

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It is quite possibly because<\/em> it does not always provide such simple answers that poetry is sometimes marginalised either by Government or teachers or both. \u00a0But the classroom needs to keep step with what is happening outside of its four walls.\u00a0 Kate Ariel and Deborah Alma\u2019s anthology for the NHS, These are The Hands,<\/em> based on Michael Rosen\u2019s tribute poem, is another example of poetry\u2019s responsiveness and engagement with recent events. \u00a0Poetry is a form of song that can deal more spontaneously with unexpected and transient trauma so it seems counter intuitive not to foster its practice in schools.<\/p>\n

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To mangle Adrian Mitchell\u2019s reductive and oft-deployed soundbite:\u00a0 Most people [have] ignore[d] most poetry because most poetry explores <\/strong>most people<\/em>. And, indeed, people are complex, multi-faceted creatures. \u00a0They don\u2019t fit so easily into an answer book.<\/p>\n

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Despite society\u2019s efforts to contain, trivialise or prescribe its boundaries, poetry seeps through the cracks anyway and gets to some of us; it is our collective effort to dissect, analyse, consider or even imagine the \u2018circumscribed \u2026 internal world\u2019 (Shelley 696) by entering the territory of another creature through the portal of this poetry bug that has been resistant to all known viruses for millennia.<\/p>\n

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Our world has become a whirling diamond of consumable stimuli from 24 hour rolling news, the post-truth Twitter outrages of an hour: what\u2019s trending?<\/em> \u00a0Poetry, in its own inimitable way, is still trending and it, too, has become just such a commodity; but it is, as it always was, a kind of beautiful antidote to loneliness, depression, anxiety and trauma, though you wouldn\u2019t know it unless you knew where to look and some of our youngest, most creative and troubled minds might need a bit of help in finding it.<\/p>\n

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Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2018Coronavirus: GCSE students allowed to drop poetry in 2021 exams\u2019. BBC<\/em>, \u00a04 Aug 2020. https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/education-53645824<\/a>. Accessed 14.05.2021.<\/p>\n

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Eagleton, Terry. How to Read a Poem<\/em>. Blackwell Publishing, 2007.<\/p>\n

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Flood, Alison. \u2018Carol Ann Duffy is \u201cwrong\u201d about poetry, says Geoffrey Hill\u2019. Guardian<\/em>, 31 Jan 2021. https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2012\/jan\/31\/carol-ann-duffy-oxford-professory-poetry<\/a>. Accessed 14.05.2021.<\/p>\n

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Savage, Michael. \u2018Doctors fear new child mental health crisis in UK, made worse by Covid\u2019. Guardian<\/em>, 27 Feb 2021. https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2021\/feb\/27\/doctors-fear-new-child-mental-health-crisis-in-uk-made-worse-by-covid<\/a>. Accessed 14.05.2021.<\/p>\n

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Shelley, Percy Bysshe. \u2018A Defence of Poetry\u2019. The Major Works<\/em>, ed. by Zachary Leader and Michael O\u2019Neill. Oxford UP, 2003, pp. 674-701.<\/p>\n

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Weale, Sally. \u2018Mental health of pupils is at \u201ccrisis point\u201d, teachers warn\u2019. Guardian<\/em>, 17 Apr 2019. https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2019\/apr\/17\/mental-health-young-people-england-crisis-point-teacher-school-leader-survey<\/a>. Accessed 14.05.2021.<\/p>\n

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Wills, Ella, and Shearing, Hazel. \u2018GCSEs: Here\u2019s why you shouldn\u2019t give up on poetry\u2019. BBC<\/em>, 4 Aug 2020. https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-53648412<\/a>. Accessed 14.05.2021.<\/p>\n

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Michael Brown<\/strong> is a retired English teacher. He taught students English for 30 years. Michael\u2019s work has been published widely in magazines including The Rialto<\/em>, Southword<\/em>, The North<\/em>, Finished Creatures<\/em> and others. He was selected by Clare Pollard for a Northern Writers\u2019 Award (New North Poets) in 2017. His pamphlets, Undersong <\/em>(2014) and Locations for a Soul<\/em> (2016) are available from Eyewear Publishing and Templar respectively. His first collection, Where Grown Men Go,<\/em> was published by Salt in Autumn 2019. He will begin a research degree in Poetry at Newcastle University in 2021 where he completed an MA in 2007.<\/p>\n

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Michael Brown<\/p>\n

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