The Poetry Course

I was stumbling through the college grounds

On a day, eight months ago,

It was wintertime, in a fading light

And the ground was covered with snow,

I was there for a course of literature

Set up by Professor Burke,

They said that he had all the answers, then,

To the Poets, and all of their work!

 

I’d never read too much poetry

What I had went over my head,

I thought there was too much imagery

To understand what they said,

The class was small, I sat by the wall

And tried to avoid his frown,

Whenever he asked a question

I was afraid that he’d put me down.

 

I didn’t know anyone else in there

I was feeling bereft, alone,

But one of the students that sat by me

Had a face that was set in stone,

He was shrunk right down in his overcoat,

And he sat there, stroking his mo,

So after the class, I followed him

And he gave me a brief: ‘Hello!’

 

I can’t ever say that we were chums,

He was far too quiet for that,

We’d wander together, lost in thought

And I was the one to chat,

He’d answer me with a short ‘Hurrumph’,

Occasionally answer: ‘Hah!’

And often he’d sound almost profound

With a short and considered: ‘Bah!’

 

The only time that he came to life

Was when Burke was discussing Rhyme,

Burke curled his lip at the thought of it,

And said: ‘It’s a waste of time!’

My friend sank down in his overcoat

And he gave out a funny sigh,

With Burke extolling the free-form art

Of the moderns, and told us why.

 

He tore up Coleridge: ‘Christabel,

Is just an unfinished dream,

And Wordsworth, him and his leeches - Well!

It seems to me quite obscene!’

He massacred Noyes and his ‘Highwayman’,

And Kipling he threw in the bin;

‘‘The Raven’ is boring, it’s much too long

And the rest of his stuff, just spin!’

 

Exams were held on a frosty night

With a hell of a fog outside,

My friend was down and dispirited,

But he wrote with a quiet pride,

The final question on rhyme was set

On ‘The Raven’ - give a critique!’

I think he would still have been writing there

If we’d had ‘til the end of the week!

 

The marks came back in a day or two,

I’d scrambled through with a pass,

My friend walked off on his own that night

His shoulders were hunched at the last,

I never ran into him after that,

He’d said, ‘I’d better just go!’

The marks for ‘The Raven’ had let him down,

They’d flunked Edgar Allan Poe!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[poeticpiers]

What annoys me is the experts who claim to know what the poet really meant.
Poets write about life as they see it in their environment in their time.
Experts are invariably totally wrong in their opinions but merely pass on what some other expert has said. What you or I write into a poem will not be read in the same way by two readers. Readers relate to their own life experiences and some times astonish the writer with their interpretations

[Erin Thomas]

Exactly. That is why there is no science or math to poetry. It is not exact or precise, it is whatever the write makes it which will be different to the reader!

[Dinesh Sairam]

The problem is, they should start teaching children prosody and meter at a young age, and not only rhyme. In fact, meter is the music of the poem and is very important to them than rhyme.

Kids who grow up with reading just rhymes seem to think that free verse or non-rhyming verse is more 'mature'. Bullshit, I say.

[Tate Morgan]

Ill second that.More mature could easily equate to lazy.To create a rhyming metered verse Is extremely hard .If it were easy everyone would do it.It is exactly that tribulation that makes it special ,that makes a verse sentient.

[BlackRose]

I so agree with these others here. It's your poetry and how you write it. How you want it to read and be read by others. It's your style, being you and not someone else. I have had some critique mine to the hilt, I still knowing it's just as good as anyone elses. And we don't expect everyone to like our works or everyone one of them or anyone else to expect it either for that matter but it's the many many others that like them that will that will count and keep us going strong. I have read many and your poetry so far is one of the very few that I can rave about. LOVE LOVE your work.

[Dinesh Sairam]

Rhyme is certainly not necessary.. but it should be used very carefully, especially at a time like this when cliches are being created at an alarming rate. Same goes to imagery, sadly.

Tough times these are for a poet. And once again, I love the story-telling voice of the narrator.

Keep writing.

[Dayran]

Knock! Knock!

The poems that rhyme don't knock at the door before they enter. Rhyme doesn't wait for an ' excuse me. ' It pulls the carpet you are sitting on and sails away into its own mind map of activity. There was a time for it when we must have thought it made the pill easier to swallow.

But if poetry communicates, it must aspire to communicate to the mind as well, which I think, is what the moderns do. Bereft of frills. As I recall, Poe was weary as well of it.

[Michael G.]

Wonderful story, sir.

Ah, college classes. I once gave my English professor one of my first poems to read and review.
After he read it, I asked if he thought I should continue writing? He laughed and said, "Why, it doesn't even rhyme! And, the wind that blew her hair saw, too?"
Ah well, to each his own.

And I would have flunked Poe, also! But I passed Faulkner!

[MOON]

Witty and smart , love the way you weave the story almost a short story in verse. Love the last two lines.

[Kimberly "Melody" Carne..]

This was amazing to read and inspirational as well. I absolutely love the flow of your writings As if I dare not take a breath till the reading is done. It’s always deep but fun. In each of your poems a lesion is precisely tucked away in everyone. As always a masterpiece painted with the stock of a key.

[Clayton Bardwell]

This seems so familiar. Are you reading my thoughts?

[Lena M. P.]

Perfect ending David. We are always trying to mold others to our ways of writing and thinking. We strive to follow all the rules so that our writing will be accepted. I truly wonder how many of the spectacular writers of old would have quit discouraged by the opinions and instructions of others if they were writing in this day and time.

[michael.c.m]

clever and well told story, once again, put to verse. nice work.

[Cole Hayley]

Very well written! A great read. I am very impressed. It was funny, and so very true. I love the personal element and the ending!

[Marie]

Well! I can't say I think much of Professor Burke. What did he know of poets? And to flunk one of the greatest.

I don't know if Poe wasbetter than Longfellow...or if either was better than Wordsworth, as far as American poets go. Kipling I hold to be greater than any. But that's a personal preference, and he could have made mincemeat out of Professor Burke.