BY ROY BUCHANAN
Poetry is either loved, loathed or treated with indifference. I was once asked to make poetry interesting for a secondary schoolboy, a challenge to say the least. It was easier than expected because the chosen poem was one of Wilfred Owen’s from the First World War.
As an art form poetry suffers from prejudice, evidenced in nefarious comments like “poetry is written by men in chiffon scarves for shallow women who live in a romantic dream world.” An observation made sarcastically and contributing nothing.
Would it be more reasonable to say poets have the ability to be deep thinking, noticing beauty, and finding peace overlooked by others? Their gift is to become a conduit for emotional expression. However, not all passion is sexually orientated. Yes, Robert Burns was in love when he wrote A Red Red Rose and Percy Bysshe Shelly was dreamy when he penned Love’s Philosophy. But contrast Burns mood in No Churchman Am I and the vitriolic words in Shelly’s, Song to the Men of England. Poetry can highlight injustice, social inequality, and in so doing becomes political.
Unfortunately, poetry has class and snobbery as substrata. Most anthologies will include the works of Lord Byron, Lord Tennison and the Earl of Rochester but not necessarily the work of John Clare, the Northamptonshire peasant. His poem, entitled I am, is deeply disturbing. It is a disgrace that Clare was ridiculed by the nobility for “claiming he wrote poetry.” Poetry is not a male enclave either. The poems of Christina Rossetti and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are highly praised as are the poems of the Scottish poet, Dame Carol Ann Duffy, once the Poet Laureate.
So please; put prejudice aside and embrace poetry. Trust me, I am a poet without a chiffon scarf!