Poem The Poetry Lesson example essay topic

In the poem "The Poetry Lesson" by Don Maclennan an ironic mood emerges. The poem is about an English poetry lecturer. He expresses his views and feelings on his lessons, how he might have impacted on the lives, altered the views and the challenges he has given his students. He states what he expects from his students. It is interesting to note that Don Maclennan is in fact a South African English poetry lecturer. I thus assume that this poem is a reflection on how he views himself and his students.

I intend to give a detailed analysis of the poem, by defining the type of irony that occurs in the poem and commenting on the use of irony and the nature of the poems commentary on itself. I will give my interpretation of each stanza of the poem and indicate where the irony of a given situation is. Irony as The New International Webster's Pocket Dictionary describes it is: A paradox between what happens and what does or might be expected to happen; a literary style often used to mock or satirize convention. (NI WPD 2002: 247) The predominant form of irony in the poem is situational irony, which John Dury defined as: A discrepancy between appearance or likelihood and an actual reality. (Dury 1995: 140) M.H. Abrams terms this type as structural irony, which is defined as: The author, instead of using occasional verbal irony, introduces a structural feature that serves to sustain a duplex meaning and evaluation throughout the work. (Abrams 2005: 135) Both these definitions are accurate in describing the type of irony that is present in the poem.

This will be discussed in the subsequent paragraphs. Upon completion of reading the poem The Poetry Lesson, it can be said the title of the poem can be construed to be ironic. As this is a poem about a poetry lesson, I assume the poet will talk about a poetry lesson where he is analyzing a poem instead he leaves this task to the students. The lecturer is supposed to be the one full of information and bring this into class but rather he says, "I bring my emptiness inside" (l. 10).

This shows the irony that the teacher who should know most things about his / her subject knows very little. The reader is made to ponder about whether he is ignorant or just feigning it. In stanza one we are introduced to the teacher. He seems to be an unhappy person as he speaks of sliding "into depression" (l.

1). We hear of him listening to "the redwing starlings in the tree" (l. 3) and the impression that he longs for someone to hear him is given as he says, "I need someone to hear my confessions" (l. 4). The word confessions could imply that he has something bearing down of him that he longs to share with others. At this point in the poem it is not clear that the speaker is a lecturer, I assumed he was a student who would be describing a poetry lecture.

The irony here is the idea that the lecturer was a student. The lecturer stands by and watches his students walking into class. Stanza one has provided the reader with an idea of where the poem is set and a brief introduction to the poet and how he feels. In stanza two the poet describes himself in detail as his students might see him and we see how he sees his students. The poet states that he brings his "emptiness inside" (l. 10) the lecture hall and refers to his students as being the knowledgeable ones.

This is ironic as the lecturer should be the knowledgeable one, the person who educates his students by passing on what he knows to them. He draws a definite contrast between himself and his students in mind and body as he refers to himself as a "sixty-four year amiable old fool / with stained teeth, dewlap, and bald head". (Ll. 15-16) He refers to his students as admiring "their vigour and their skin, / their brilliant teeth, their radiant hair, / the young men's muscles / and the girls' enticing breasts". (Ll. 17-20) He is confounded by duty to teach these students but they are here out of their own free will in "this unnerving time in history". (L. 22) As this poem was published in 1995 it was written at a time when South Africa was undergoing major governmental changes as the ANC became the ruling party and the National Party that had run South Africa for 40 years lost its ruling power when South Africa became a democratic society.

There is so much going on in the country that poetry seems irrelevant but Maclennan admires his students tenacity to continue to study poetry. In stanza 3 the poet mentions a poem by Thomas Hardy and the lines "Upon them stirs in lipping's mere... / We wonder, ever wonder, why we find us here". (L. 28-29). I interpret the inclusion of these lines to reflect the political situation in South Africa and how it got here and to where it might be going, these lines could also refer to how man came to inhabit earth and become the being he is today. After Maclennan asks the learned students "Now tell me what it is", (l.

31) he refers to them as being "struck dumb, like animals / that smell a yawning emptiness". (L. 32). This is ironic as in the previous stanza he referred to their intelligence and his "emptiness" and here the roles have been reversed. It is at this point in the poem that he realise's that they might have picked up on some of his ideas about life such as "evolution has no purpose, / that mind and spirit, even god, / are only words we use / because we do not understand. / Where can you detect the soul in our worm like embryonic state?" (Ll.

38-43) All the ideas that have dominated mans thinking for centuries he sees as irrelevant - the description that these lines hold make me think that he is an atheist. He doesn't believe in evolution, God or a soul as he sees man has just conjured up these words to make himself seem relevant in life, it gives man a purpose. He makes the statement that people are "like poems we are gratuitous" (l. 45) (act without assigned reason) "and ephemeral" (l.

45) (short-lived) "raindrops glistening briefly in the sun". (L. 46). This means he sees each mans existence on earth as being pointless and brief, he compares man to a poem and a raindrop, but this is contradictory as a raindrop existed as long as the earth is here it changes forms (steam, water) but the water that is on the earth today is the water that has been on the earth since time began. Poems are not short-lived either we read poetry today that was written hundreds or thousands of years ago - as long as people can read and enjoy poetry so poetry lives. Thus it can be said an ironic comparison is made between human lives and that of raindrops and poetry as both these objects exist for long periods of time. He has thus used Thomas Hardys' poem to debate the origin of human life, and has throw in the idea of South African life what it was and what it will become. In stanza 4 he gives a picture of his students looking up to him as if " [his] silence was a pedagogical device:" (l.

49). This means his students were looking at him as children look at a schoolmaster who they know knows the answer. However the irony here is the lecturer doesn't know the answer his students expect one but he is unable to provided an answer for them. He is as ignorant as his students. In stanza 5 "They sense an answer / just beyond their grasp". (Ll.

55-56) which indicates that they are going to find an answer to the poem that is plaguing them at this point. I think that these last few lines indicate the extent to which the poem will be discussed by analyzing every aspect of it and maybe even coming to a conclusion about why man is here on earth. Maclennan is able to use his poetry to reflect various aspects of his life while remaining somewhat aloof. He shows the reader his viewpoint in a subtle non-intrusive manner. The various forms of irony throughout the poem encourage the reader to stop and think. This poem shows the power poetry has and what it is able to do in our lives, the extent to which a good poem can make the individual think.

Thus the intention of this poem is to encourage the reader to analyse various aspects of life and to question why and how we are here. He wants his readers to understand the importance of poetry in a modern, changing world and to appreciate it and its ability to get a message across. He does this by drawing on his own life experiences. It would seem that this is what Maclennan wanted the readers of his poem to do. Word Count: 1 301

Bibliography

Macclenan, Don. 1995.
The Poetry Lesson". In: Clarkson, C. Mkhize, J. MacKenzie, C. Mn qadi, S. 2005.
Anthology of Poetry and Short Stories. University of Johannesburg: Content Solutions. pp. 51-53. Abrams, M.H. 1999.
Irony "A Glossary of Literary Terms / Seventh" Boston: Mac Peek, Earl. Dury, John. 1995.
The Poetry Dictionary". United States of America: Story Press. 2002: The New International Webster's Pocket Dictionary: Quebec or World Peru.
Trident Press International. Van Heerd en, J-M. 2005.