Welcome to the Dead Poets Society

Emotion, passion, individuality—when you hear these words, what comes to mind? If you didn’t think of the British Romantic poets of the late 1700s, then I think you should reconsider that, and I am here to tell you why. This week, Dead Poets Society is taking a look at one of the most significant poetic movements of all time and definitely has some really beautiful poems to delve into as well as some of the most interesting and remembered poets of all time.

As I mentioned earlier, Romanticism was a movement that developed in the late 18^th century. It was largely a reaction against a previous intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment, which dominated European philosophy, politics, and art from the mid 17^th century to the end of the 18^th century. While the Enlightenment thinkers valued boring things like reason and logic, the Romantic thinkers were not about that at all. The Romantics were more focused on the ideas and feelings of the individual and tapping into the potential of imagination. They also had a fascination with nature and explored man’s relationship to it in a mystical sort of sense.

Of the major poets involved in the Romantic era, some of these names may actually be pretty familiar to you. I know I’ve studied a few of them in my English classes before. William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, John Keats, and William Wordsworth, just to name a few, are all staples of high school English classes.

To start with, I’d like to take a look at a poem by John Keats. In July of 1820, Keats published his best known and most acclaimed book of poetry called Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems. The poems in this book centered on myths and legends of the ancient, medieval, and Renaissance time periods and contains a few poems considered among the best. One of these poems is known as “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” which details images that are on an ancient Greek urn. Here is a stanza that I found particularly interesting in its imagery:

“Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
  To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
  And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
  Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
    Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
  Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
    Why thou art desolate, can e’er return.”

Next up is another important member of the Romantic poet movement—Mr. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge was particularly influenced by philosophy, especially Plato’s Republic and even made plans with his college classmate to create a community similar to that of the Republic. It involved immigrating to the New World and establishing society with equal government by all. Obviously, this plan did not work out, but he did write some pretty cool poems. Check out this one, titled ‘Answers to a Child’s Question’:

“Do you ask what the birds say? The Sparrow, the Dove,
The Linnet and Thrush say, “I love and I love!”
In the winter they’re silent—the wind is so strong;
What it says, I don’t know, but it sings a loud song.
But green leaves, and blossoms, and sunny warm weather,
And singing, and loving—all come back together.
But the Lark is so brimful of gladness and love,
The green fields below him, the blue sky above,
That he sings, and he sings; and for ever sings he—
“I love my Love, and my Love loves me!”

Although there are so many other great poets and poems to be found in the Romantic movement, it would take much too long to go through all of them. But, if any of you feel particularly inspired by this week’s post, I’d encourage you to check out some of the other poets; I particularly enjoy poems by William Blake and William Wordsworth. I hope you enjoyed this dive into the past and wish you all happy reading!

Spring is finally in the air with its beautiful flowers, warm weather, and sunny days. Gone are the dog days of winter, as its barren coldness loosens its grip on our fine campus. As you may have guessed from this short introduction, and because I’m pretty predictable with this blog format, I will be focusing on poems about spring for this week’s edition of Dead Poets Society.

Poems about springtime differ from those about winter and fall in a lot of ways. They often contain stereotypical themes like romance and nature. The nature imagery is very, very detailed in spring themed poetry, seeing as the blooming of flowers and trees is an iconic part of spring. It was also much easier for me to find poems about spring than winter, as it seems to be a more inspirational topic for poets than the dead of winter. I have selected several poems that I found to be emblematic of the spring season.

First up is a poem by one of my favorite wacky poets, E. E. Cummings. His poem is titled ‘Spring is like a perhaps hand’ and is, as per usual, very weird with punctuation and line breaks. It is quite an interesting poem that I think nicely describes the transition of seasons, from old life to new life. I also really like the unique language that Cummings always seems to use in his poems as well as the play on grammar rules. Here’s a stanza that I particularly liked from this poem:

“spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.”

Next up is a poem titled ‘The Enkindled Spring’ by British poet D.H. Lawrence (continuing the trend of poets who use initials in place of a first name.) This poem is interesting to me because of its take on spring imagery. Usually, spring is described in very flowery and pretty terminology, but not in this poem. Instead, spring is described as a “leaping combustion” and the poem seems to rely on a lot of fire related imagery, which, again, is quite weird for a nice springtime poem. Here is the first stanza of the poem, which demonstrates what I am talking about:

“This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.”

Finally, we have a poem simply titled ‘Spring’ by Gerald Manley Hopkins. Certainly the man gets right to the point with this one—it is definitely a poem about spring. He talks about the beauty of spring in this poem, but uses some rather interesting analogies to do so. He also makes biblical references later on, referring to the story of Adam and Eve, which makes sense, seeing as Hopkins was also a reverend and a Roman Catholic convert. Here is the poem in its entirety:

“Nothing is so beautiful as spring—    
  When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;    
  Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush    
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring    
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;    
  The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush    
  The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush    
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.         
What is all this juice and all this joy?    
  A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning    
In Eden garden.—Have, get, before it cloy,    
  Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,    
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,    
  Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.”

While there are many more poems about spring that I could have featured on this blog, I thought that these three were the most intriguing out of the ones I read. Instead of using typical images of flowers and romance and beauty, these poems made unique connections and metaphors. Hopefully these poems will help you enjoy this beautiful season even more, and hopefully the trend of good weather will continue from here on out. As per usual, I hope you enjoyed this week’s post and happy reading!

I do not know what/to write about for this week/Wow, this blog is hard. Oh, I know! I’ll write about haikus, seeing as I just conveniently wrote one. Terrible, terrible jokes aside (that I totally didn’t plan ahead of time or anything), this week’s Dead Poets Society will be focusing on the traditional Japanese poem known as the haiku.

I’m sure most of you have heard of or remember writing haikus in elementary school. That’s not surprising given that the haiku is one of the easiest poetic forms to write for. The poems are three lines each with a specific syllable count. The first and last lines each have five syllables and the middle line has seven. They’re pretty simple to write and actually pretty fun to come up with in my experience!

However, the haiku did not start out as a prime poem for elementary school aged children. It began as the opening to a style of Japanese poem known as ‘renga,’ which is an oral poem that has a haiku beginning followed by around 100 stanzas. These longer poems are also composed with the syllable account in mind. In the sixteenth century, the haiku broke away from the rest of the renga to become a poetic form in its own right.

Although the haiku is simple in nature, there are poets who are considered experts at the form. A Japanese poet named Matsuo Basho first mastered it in the seventeenth century. His most famous haiku is as follows:

“An old pond!
     A frog jumps in—
     the sound of water.”

Traditional haikus usually focus on themes of nature and are very direct in the emotions they convey. In the past, they were typically composed in first person and had other rules such as a pause in between the first and second lines. Today, many of these rules have been broken, even the all-important 5/7/5 syllable rule! Now, the emphasis is more on the idea behind the haiku being a quick but effective expression of a certain feeling using powerful images.

Modern poets have also taken up the art of the haiku. Finish poet Anselm Hollo’s ‘5 & 7 & 5’ is actually a very interesting take on the haiku. He composed the poem entirely of stanzas that are just little haikus. The language of these haikus is very untraditional and quite unusual, but very entertaining in a way. It’s also kind of jarring. Take, for example, this stanza/haiku:

“night train whistles stars

over a nation under

mad temporal czars”

I’m not entirely sure what any of that is supposed to mean, but it sounds pretty cool. Most of the other stanzas in this poem are similarly bizarre, but in a way, are kind of beautiful in that way.

Overall, I find the haiku to be a simple, but underrated form of poetry. Its simplicity and accessibility makes it fun to compose your own and play with some of the conventions of the form. I also find it fascinating how an entire genre of poetry could come from just the opening to another type of poem. This has certainly been an interesting look into a style of poetry this week. Happy reading!

This is the week of the Irish, as St. Patrick’s Day arrives on Thursday and greets everyone with a sea of people wearing green. Granted, I am only a teeny tiny percent Irish, so I don’t typically make a big celebration of the day. However, even I enjoy delving into the culture a little bit. So, to honor the great nation of Ireland, this week’s edition of Dead Poets Society will be focusing on two of the best Irish poets and writers of all time.

First up is probably the most renowned and remembered poet from Ireland—William Butler Yeats, or W.B. Yeats for short. Born in 1865 in Dublin, the Irish-born poet is considered one of the greatest poets of the 20^th century. He was very traditional in the types of poetic forms he used and typically stuck to very romantic topics. His poetry is actually quite beautiful. Take a look at one called ‘The Living Beauty’:

“I’ll say and maybe dream I have drawn content—
Seeing that time has frozen up the blood,
The wick of youth being burned and the oil spent—
From beauty that is cast out of a mould
In bronze, or that in dazzling marble appears,
Appears, but when we have gone is gone again,
Being more indifferent to our solitude
Than ‘twere an apparition. O heart, we are old,
The living beauty is for younger men,
We cannot pay its tribute of wild tears.”

But there is one weird thing about Yeats, and that is that he had quite an unusual interest in occultism. He actually joined a secret society called the Golden Dawn that practiced ritual magic and had a series of ten different levels you could be inducted into, although the three highest were only attainable by the magi, who were thought to have a connection with the supernatural. Yeats remained an active member of the Golden Dawn for 32 years, even as he continued to write romantic poetry.

Our next featured Irishman not just a poet, but also a playwright, novelist, and essayist, or none other than the famous Oscar Wilde. He is probably best known for his plays and was quite a popular playwright throughout the 1880s. Two of his most notable works are the play The Importance of Being Earnest and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. He was a gifted writer, a talent he inherited from both his mother and father. This is an excerpt from a poem titled ‘A Vision’ that I found particularly interesting in its language.

“Two crowned Kings, and One that stood alone
With no green weight of laurels round his head,
But with sad eyes as one uncomforted,
And wearied with man’s never-ceasing moan
For sins no bleating victim can atone,
And sweet long lips with tears and kisses fed.”

Unfortunately, Wilde was homosexual in a time when having that orientation meant imprisonment. After prosecuting the Marquess of Queensberry, his father’s lover, for libel, evidence was uncovered that indicated his orientation. He was sentenced to jail for “gross indecency” with men and died at the age of 46 in a prison. The last poem he ever wrote was a long poem titled ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol,’ which detailed the harsh reality of prison life. While Wilde’s life was filled with hardship at its end, he is still celebrated for the great writer he was.

And that concludes this week’s Dead Poets Society! I hope you enjoyed this look into Ireland’s most interesting and famous writers; I certainly learned some very fascinating things about them in my reading, especially Yeats’ involvement with the occult. Of course, both men also wrote some stunning poems that I was glad to feature on the blog. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, and as always, happy reading!

When you hear “Shakespeare,” what is your first thought? For most of us, it’s probably all the times we were forced to read his plays for some high school English class; it’s virtually impossible to graduate without having read at least one, like Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth. But while many of us tend to associate him with boring English assignments, the reality is that this guy was kind of a beast at writing poems.

His signature style of poetry is what is now known as the “Shakespearean sonnet.” These poems contain fourteen lines and must be written in what is known as iambic pentameter, which means that there are alternating unstressed and stressed syllables in a line (like this: “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”) Not only that, but the rhyme scheme of the fourteen lines is super specific and goes like this: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Basically, each of the three stanzas has lines that rhyme every other time, and then the poem concludes with a rhyming couplet, which is just two lines.

Sound complicated yet? Not surprising—the sonnet is one of the most difficult forms of poetry to write. I had to write one for an English assignment a few years ago and definitely felt the struggle as I tried to complete it. But Shakespeare felt no such struggle and wrote 154 of these poems! This week on Dead Poets Society, we’re going to take a look at a few of his most notable sonnets.

First up is actually his first ever sonnet, aptly numbered as ‘Sonnet 1.’ All of Shakespeare’s sonnets are numbered, but are also referred to by their first line. Here is the sonnet in all its glory:

“From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’st flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.

Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.”

This sonnet contains themes of beauty and love and life, but basically has the message that pretty people should procreate so as to preserve the world’s beauty (“That thereby beauty’s rose might never die.) Such a warm message!

While that sonnet may seem a bit blunt, the theme of beauty through time is one that is often explored in his sonnets. Take, for example, ‘Sonnet 18,’ which is one of the most famous Shakespearean sonnets of all time. This poem comes from the play Romeo and Juliet and has since become a common reference in pop culture. Even those who have not read the play will recognize these lines:

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

This sonnet is actually quite romantic; Romeo is basically saying that Juliet is very pretty, comparing her beauty to that of summer. But while the beauty of summertime will eventually fade into autumn, Juliet’s beauty (“thy eternal summer”) will never fade away. How endearing!

Finally, we have one of my personal favorites by Shakespeare, ‘Sonnet 130,’ or ‘My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun.’ In a way, this sonnet is almost a parody of the language used in ‘Sonnet 18,’ and Shakespeare makes fun of the way women are usually described in poetry with their beauty being comparable to various elements of nature. He also uses exaggerated terms to convey how pretty they are. He essentially says that his mistress is ugly, but that he loves her for other aspects besides her looks. Here is this humorous sonnet:

“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.”

While Shakespeare may have been able to write sonnets at the drop of a hat, the rest of us, unfortunately, are not so lucky. However, we can still take the time to appreciate him for the talent he was, even if he is the bane of our English class existence. Happy reading!

It may not be spring yet, but love is certainly in the air. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and that means it’s time for the holiday of romance, complete with chocolate, flowers, and appreciation for the ones you love. Naturally, a great many poems have been written on the subject of love, as it is one of the most powerful emotions known to man. So, this week’s edition of Dead Poets Society will be focusing on some of the most well known love poems, as well as some lesser-known gems that I absolutely love. Let’s dive in and let the romance begin!

First up is one of the most quintessential love poems of all time, ‘She Walks In Beauty’ by Lord Byron. I believe I have covered this poem before in my post on Lord Byron. However, it would be criminal to discuss romantic works and not include this one! In the poem, Byron describes a beautiful girl he sees in terms that are over-the-top and absolutely gushing with admiration. He basically puts this girl on a pedestal because she is so gorgeous. Have a look at the poem in its entirety:

“She walks in beauty, like the night
   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
   Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
   Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
   How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
   So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
   But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
   A heart whose love is innocent!”

Of course, not all love poems are quite so traditional. The wacky as ever E. E. Cummings writes a love poem in his own unique way, messing with the punctuation and formatting, but still making something meaningful. His poem ‘[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]’ is beautiful in its simple, yet different way. Here are some lines from the poem that stuck out to me:

“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)”

Last, but certainly not least, we have one of my favorite poems of all time: ‘Love Poem’ by John Frederick Nims. Despite its blunt title, the poem is quite the anti-love poem, and actually draws upon many of the stereotypes of love poems. Yet, it also sends an endearing message about the true nature of love, and what it really means to love someone, even with all their flaws and quirks. The language is so simple and straightforward, but I think that adds to the poem and makes the meaning very clear. Here are the first and last stanzas of the poem, as I feel that they best represent the beauty of it:

“My clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,
At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,
Whose palms are bulls in china, burs in linen,
And have no cunning with any soft thing

Be with me, darling, early and late. Smash glasses—
I will study wry music for your sake.
For should your hands drop white and empty
All the toys of the world would break.”

As you can see, the poem is not particularly effusive when it comes to love, as so many other works are. That’s one of the main reasons I enjoy this poem so much, since I think that overly lovey-dovey language can sometimes be less meaningful than a simple, heartfelt message. And that’s what I’d like everyone to keep in mind as this Valentine’s Day comes up. Sure, a declaration of your love is romantic and exhilarating, but never underestimate the value of a simple gesture to show someone that you care. This Valentine’s Day, make sure to let the people you love know that you’re thinking of them. Hopefully some of these poems will have provided you with inspiration. Happy Valentine’s Day and as always, happy reading!

It’s February 5^th, and you know what that means? No, it’s not another arbitrary date—it’s exactly one week before the birthday of our illustrious sixteenth president Mr. Abraham Lincoln! Now, I know you’re thinking what this has to do with poetry since he was obviously a politician, not a poet (although, the Gettysburg Address is a fine piece of literature.) Allow me to give you a brief history lesson on Lincoln’s connection with poetry.

It all has to do with my favorite poet of all time: Walt Whitman. In 1857, Lincoln supposedly picked up a copy of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (Side note: I own a giant copy of this collection of poetry, and it is amazing) and fell in love with it. In fact, he “was so entranced after half an hour that he started over, reading it aloud to his colleagues.” Thus began a kinship between the poet and the president.

Of course, at the time, Lincoln was not yet the president. In 1856, Walt Whitman wrote in The Eighteenth Presidency! of the political corruption in America and of a man who would be “heroic, shrewd, fully-formed, healthy-bodied, middle-aged, beard-faced American blacksmith or boatman” and would “come down from the West across the Alleghenies, and walk into the Presidency.” So, when Lincoln hit the political scene, he fit all of Whitman’s traits for an ideal presidential candidate.

Throughout his presidency, Whitman held a deep admiration for Lincoln. Lincoln brought with him the promise of keeping the Union together, an ideal that Whitman strongly believed in. When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Whitman was devastated, but believed that remembering his life and grieving for his death could bring the nation together.

Following Lincoln’s death, Whitman wrote a series of poems about President Lincoln. In the deathbed edition of Leaves of Grass, this collection appears under the title “Memories of President Lincoln.” Among these poems is the famous ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ which details the win of the Civil War, followed by Lincoln’s assassination. I love this poem for multiple reasons. It is honoring the memory of a President who did great things for our country, while still being insanely fun to read out loud. The rhyme and pacing of this poem is fantastic. Take a look at the first stanza:

“O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.”

Another poem about Lincoln that stands out to me is the very simple ‘This Dust Was Once the Man,’ where Whitman very simply describes Lincoln and his accomplishments. Sometimes simplicity is best. Here is the poem in its entirety:

“This dust was once the man,

Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,

Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,

Was saved the Union of these States.”

Of course, these two poems were not the only ones written about Lincoln’s life. Whitman wrote a few other pieces that truly capture his admiration for the deceased President. So, as you go through your busy life, try to take some time to remember Lincoln, the great deeds he did for our country, and the wonderful poetry his life inspired.

It’s that time of year again—the birds are not chirping, the sun is not shining, and the grass is certainly not growing. That’s right, it’s another cold, cold winter! But although all of our favorite flowers are dead during this occasionally dismal season, there is still much beauty to be found in winter. There’s a certain appeal to the look of freshly fallen snow or to the feel of warm fire.

However, what poets seem to find most interesting about winter is its metaphorical meanings. Winter in poetry is often associated with a certain kind of stillness, a death of the surroundings. It can also have connotations of darkness and emptiness. In one of Shakespeare’s many famous sonnets, number 97 to be exact, he compares his absence from his love to the coldness of winter as such:

“How like a winter hath my absence been

From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!

What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!

What old December’s bareness everywhere!”

Shakespeare’s sonnet is perhaps the quintessential view of winter for most people. The wintertime can seem bitter and long, just like many of life’s hardships. With his trademark style, Shakespeare expertly depicts the emptiness of winter and highlights its classic connotations. Many other poets seem to share the same view of the season as cold and empty.

Other writers have taken more literal approaches to the harshness of winter, using imagery that relates to the physical aspects of winter. Some comment on the snow, while others focus on the darkness, while still others focus on the low temperatures. John Updike, in his poem ‘January,’ writes of the depressing surroundings that winter offers, particularly the lack of heat and sunshine.

“The days are short,

The sun a spark,

Hung thin between

The dark and dark.”

Although this is a rather bleak interpretation of winter, many other poets take a different approach. While the frigid weather may drive people inside, some writers insist that trying to survive the winter together results in people becoming closer to one another. A poet from the late 1500s, Thomas Campion, writes about this phenomenon in his poem ‘Now Winter Nights Enlarge.’ In it, he tells the tale of lovers who stay inside during the cold winter months and grow closer together. Take a look at some of lines:

“Let now the chimneys blaze

     And cups o’erflow with wine,

Let well-tuned words amaze

     With harmony divine…”

Very romantic! In fact, other writers take a romantic approach to winter too. Although spring is often the go to season in matters of the heart, winter has plenty of romantic potential as well—there’s just something sweet about the idea of walking through the snow, then warming up together inside with hot chocolate. Kenneth Patchen perfectly captures this feeling in his winter love poem ‘The Snow Is Deep On the Ground.’

“The snow is beautiful on the ground.   

And always the lights of heaven glow   

Softly down on the hair of my beloved.”

While the winter months may seem long and dreadfully cold, it’s always important to remember that it also holds beauty that cannot be found in any other season. The poets certainly knew this and made some great art out of it! When you’re trudging through the snow to class this semester, it will still probably be just as terrible as you’re thinking, but do not despair! Perhaps the words of the poets will warm your heart just enough to get through this winter. Happy reading!

Welcome back to the Dead Poets Society! As I mentioned in my previous post, this semester’s setup will be somewhat different in that I will be mixing it up every week instead of sticking to one poet per week. To start this new tradition, I thought I’d start with a bit of a history lesson on poetry, seeing as I’ve never actually backed up and delved into how poetry came to be. This week, I’ll be focusing on the ancient traditions of bards, who were some of the original poets.

The word “bard” comes from Celtic traditions. In medieval times, bards were professional poets and singers who passed stories from person to person through word of mouth. This oral tradition was significant in maintaining the traditions of the culture at the time and was used to keep the stories passing down the generations. At the time, there was no written tradition for poetry and prose, so the bards were essentially spoken word poets. By telling stories that had poetic devices, such as rhyme schemes, it was much easier to remember without having to write it down.

The job of the bards was typically to tell heroic stories. These often detailed the exploits of important men, such as warriors and princes, using sheer bravery and might to defeat their opposition. Although the men the bards sang about were very powerful, the bards themselves also held a position of high status in society. Bards were regarded as people to be respected and had special privileges, such as exemption from taxes and military service.

Of course, the bards certainly had to earn this respect. Bards were expected to go through training at bard’s colleges. This training was often quite rigorous and took many years of studying to complete. In Ireland, it was said that the training lasted twelve years. Can you imagine if all our Bachelor’s degrees took that long to complete? Not only that, but each year, the bards-in-training had to memorize an innumerable about of poems and stories.

While bards were eventually replaced with other types of entertainers and later on the written word, the term experienced resurgence during the Renaissance. It became a term for writers like William Shakespeare, who were gifted in the poetic arts, and was considered an honor to be called. However, the oral traditions of the past were not longer applicable, or necessary, to society, as the written tradition had completely taken over.

And that concludes our history lesson for the week! While the oral traditions of the bards may not seem so significant in today’s written world, the fact is that it helped shape many of the poetic devices we use when writing modern poetry. It also highlights the importance of storytelling in various cultures and why telling stories is so important. From this point, now that we have established background on poetry, I hope to look more closely at poetry throughout history and the different movements that have emerged as the art has evolved.