The first discussion we have in the English 12 Poetry Unit is about truth.<\/p>\n
Too many people consider poetry to be something that exists on a continuum between fluff and falsehood. This drives us Humanities types batty. Many hold to the mistaken idea that a thing is true if it is factual. Poetry isn\u2019t usually factual; therefore, we think it isn\u2019t true.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n This is a narrow notion of truth, and I challenge it in my class from the outset.<\/p>\n Perrine\u2019s Literature, a text book we used to use, talks about the difference between encyclopedic facts of eagles with Alfred Lord Tennyson\u2019s poem \u201cThe Eagle\u201d to make the point that poetry offers a different experience that do facts. A lot more can be made of this comparison.<\/p>\n I have my students collect a bunch of facts about bald eagles and we fill a whiteboard with them. Here\u2019s a sample of what they find:<\/p>\n These items gleaned from online encyclopedias are factual and they are true.<\/p>\n Then we look at Tennyson\u2019s poem.<\/p>\n THE EAGLE<\/p>\n He clasps the crag with crooked hands; The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; In this simple, six-line poem, Tennyson attempts to communicate that eagles are, in a word, awesome. But awesome<\/em> doesn’t really capture it, nor does formidable<\/em> or magnificent<\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n When I was 8 or so, I went with my class to a bird sanctuary. After viewing crows, seagulls and owls recovering from various injuries, I came face-to-face with a bald eagle\u2014close up! It looked at me, and then looked away.\u00a0I was awed by his size, his talons, his beak, his eyes\u2014I remember my reaction; I whispered, \u201cWhoa!\u201d<\/p>\n Tennyson attempts to communicate the \u201cwhoa-ness\u201d of eagles.<\/p>\n We fill another whiteboard with notes about of Tennyson’s poem, unpacking the figurative language, sound devices, imagery and allusions.\u00a0In the words and between the lines of this poem, readers experience the power and strength of this majestic bird as it is metaphorically compared to a wise and\u00a0solitary king<\/strong><\/span> whose power is absolute.<\/p>\n I ask my students which is more true\u2014the list of facts on the first whiteboard or the poem written by Tennyson. Many, perhaps most, confidently say the list of facts is \u201ctruer.\u201d Some are uncertain. Eventually, someone calls out, \u201cboth are true.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n There we go!<\/p>\n \u201cThe Eagle\u201d communicates a truth about eagles that go beyond the encyclopedic facts. A truth that is best communicated with poetry. Our culture has been resistant of this broader understanding of truth for a long time, to its detriment.<\/p>\n How much of the Bible becomes inaccessible when we reduce truth to fact?\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Things get even more interesting when I suggest, in line with C. S. Lewis in Abolition of Man<\/em>, that \u201cwhoa-ness\u201d is a quality inherent to the eagle, and not just a description of my subjective reaction to it. I\u2019ll spare you the details.<\/p>\n The next poem we look at is A. E. Houseman\u2019s \u201cIs My Team Ploughing,\u201d a conversation between a dead man and his still-living friend. I ask my class, is this a true poem? This time less than half say \u201cNo.\u201d Some are still uncertain.<\/p>\n But many, reflecting on the central purpose of the poem, declare it to be true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first discussion we have in the English 12 Poetry Unit is about truth. Too many people consider poetry to be something that exists on a continuum between fluff and falsehood. This drives us Humanities types batty. Many hold to the mistaken idea that a thing is true if it is factual. Poetry isn\u2019t usually […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":3855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-3851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-secondary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3851"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abbotsfordchristian.com\/insideout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=3851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Whoa-ness of Eagles<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
\nClose to the sun in lonely lands,
\nRinged with the azure world, he stands.<\/p>\n
\nHe watches from his mountain walls,
\nAnd like a thunderbolt he falls.<\/p>\nBeyond the facts<\/span><\/h2>\n