Sunday, February 26, 2012

English Major

Ars Poetica 
(by Archibald MacLeish)

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown-

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
*

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind-

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
*

A poem should be equal to:
Not true.

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea-

A poem should not mean
But be.



I decided to be an English major because of this poem.  It was my senior year in high school, within the first couple of weeks of the school year.  I was in A.P. English and there were only a handful of us, so our very cool teacher, Mrs. M., let us put our desks in a circle and eat our snacks as we discussed poem after poem.  It may very well be the best class I ever took in my life.  As we discussed this poem's imagery, and the concept of poetry in general, I just knew this is what I wanted to do.  I wanted to spend my life reading and thinking about literature and talking to others about it.

There are very few things in my life that I've just known in my being.  And there are few such experiences that stick out so vividly in my memory.  My wedding day?  Mmm, it's a bit fuzzy around the edges.  But the day I met G?  In a crummy cafeteria across from my dorm?  Crystal clear.  Also, the day sitting in class, rolling this poem across my tongue like a marble - or probably more accurately - a jolly rancher.  Leaning over to my great friend Matt, the two of us hunched over the book, reading it together.

I was right - I'm still that same girl with her nose in a book.  And life is all the better for it.




2 comments:

  1. I think that understanding poetry - especially after feeling it is beyond understanding - is an inspiring thing. I ended up an English major mostly because of a great grammar teacher (and serious math deficiencies), but that poetry class we took together opened up that part of it to me.

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