A Devout Lover
By Thomas Randolph (1605–1635)
I have a mistress, for perfections rare
In every eye, but in my thoughts most fair.
Like tapers on the altar shine her eyes;
Her breath is the perfume of sacrifice;
And wheresoe'er my fancy would begin,
Still her perfection lets religion in.
We sit and talk, and kiss away the hours
As chastely as the morning dews kiss flowers:
I touch her, like my beads, with devout care,
And come unto my courtship as my prayer.
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the timing of my re-kindled interest in poetry intrigues me.
the first year of my graduate studies in english literature, i took a class on poetics.
not being much of a poet and not having much interest in poetry at the time, i can't say that the class was very interesting to me. but i took it because it was available, and i had to select lit. classes that worked around my law school schedule at a time when i was still a 2L. yeah, that first year of grad. school, it was
not at all fun to have to select english classes just to get some credits and not for the sake of the subject-matter. at the same time, i'm glad that's what happened to me because i did end up taking classes that i otherwise would've probably avoided like the plague.
poetics is one of those classes. basically, it consists of exploring critical theories pertaining only to poetry. easy enough to conceptualize what the class would be about -- but definitely difficult to understand once you were in the class. especially for a person of my limited mental capabilities, this was, hands down, one of the most difficult classes i ever took.
if any one thing stood clearly out from the class, though, clear enough for me to understand, was that poetics, at least as taught by the particular professor, sure was limited. it was taught implicitly and yet oh so obviously from the new criticism point of view.
new criticism was a literary approach that was quite popular during the early twentieth century. as a school of thought, it appealed so much to literary scholars, who at the time mostly consisted of white, christian men. its main thrust was that a single piece of literature could have only one singular, overarching, objective meaning. it sought very much to ensure that the reading and interpretation of a text was free of the reader's personal biases and views.
as we all know now, it's not objectively possible for a reader, no matter how hard she tries, to completely disentangle her personal viewpoints from the reading of a book.
but one would be hard-pressed to remember this when sitting in on the poetics class i was taking.
long story short, i gave a short presentation to the class about this very issue, and i pointed to all the poetical works we had analyzed in class -- emily dickinson, mark strand, sherrod santos, and a few others, all of whose works, i thought, catered so neatly to the new critical school of thought, worshiping western thoughts and christianity.
apparently, my presentation was an eye-opener for the professor who was appointed as that state's poet laureate a couple of years later. i always heard inklings from other students about my presentation and its impact on her, but i'd always demurred. i didn't think it possible that
my thoughts and ideas could have an impact on her way of thinking. at the same time, i realize, in a way, that it must have discomfitted her to hear my presentation because it implied that she was not open to multi-culturalism.
anyhow, i just discovered, though, that the professor is currently on a panel that is soliciting recommendations from anyone on poets they'd like to appear at a poetry reading event, which happens to be a really big deal in that state.
her main wish, as she welcomes suggestions in an e-mail i just received today, is that while she welcomes any suggestions whatsoever, she'd like people to consider a
diverse array of poets they'd wish to hear a reading from.
i guess i got to her after all.
my work is done. :)
