Currently, I’m about half-way through Quintilian (35–100 AD), who is teaching me rhetoric, and while reading him, I recalled this passage that had previously read from Ernst Robert Curtius (1886–1956):
The reading of the poets recommends itself not only through the delight and refreshment which accompany it; it inspires the mind, gives sublimity to expression, and teaches the orator to influence the emotions of his audience. To be sure, it must not be forgotten that poetry* is close to epideictic (not to forensic) oratory….
*Quintilian uses the neutral expression “hoc genus†(X, 1, 28), which is presumably to be completed by “eloquentiae.†Or is it used absolutely? Ordinarily he says “poetae.†Only once (XII, 11, 26) does the word “poesis†appear, and it is extremely rare elsewhere in Latin. Horace has it once (Ars poetica, 361), but in the meaning “poem.†Poetica or poetice is also rarely “poetry.†Neither Roman antiquity nor the Latin Middle Ages had a current word for poetry.
(Europäische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter (European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages), trans. Willard R. Trask. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1953; Seventh Printing, 1990) p. 437)
I find comfort in that last line, because I get very uncomfortable trying to critically understand or analyze what we in 2021 call “poetry.†Yes, Coleridge’s definition of “the best words in the best order†is a good start, but hardly takes us (those of us who did not grow up reading, writing, reciting, translating poetry) very far toward understanding or appreciating the medium—particularly what contemporary poets are trying to do in and with the form.
A lot of modern poetry (post 19th century) I just don’t get. (I hear little rhythm in much of Yeats.) But here are three strong poems that caught my eye and ear this past year. I don’t want to quote from them, because to do that would affirm Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)’s theory that to quote a text is to interrupt its context. (“What is Epic Theatre?†Illuminations, ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. Harry Zohn, (New York:Schocken Books, 1968) p.151).
Three strong poems recommended by Bookbread:
- C. S. Fuqua’s “At the MRI†in Howls from the Underground: an Anthology, eds. Tony and Nicole Nesca, (Winnipep: Screamin’ Skull Press, 2018): 208–10. (Although I think the repeated line: “Early morning at the MRI†makes for a better title.)
- Meghann Plunkett’s “In the Fist of the Blade Holder,†in The Missouri Review (Spring 2018): 85–86. (A fabulously vivid portrait of a butcher’s shop.)
- Esteban Rodriguez’s “Ode to a Texas Porch,†in Chattahoochee Review (Spring 2018): 100–01.
I strongly encourage any and all readers to check out these powerful works.