The Art of Reading Poetry

I just finished reading Harold Bloom's The Art of Reading Poetry, which, though also published as a standalone volume, is the introduction to his book, The Best Poems Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer through Frost.

The piece certainly thrusts you into a whole other level of literary criticism. Once you begin reading, you realize that Bloom is a genius without the time or want to go into any more depth than what he thinks is already painfully obvious. However, this is good in that it forces you to think more carefully about what he says, and trust me, his arguments are deserving of your time.

Art is only about 51 pages long, but in that span of time the reader should come out with a basic understanding of the keys to reading (and writing) poetry.

Bloom is very much a believer in recognition and allusion.

"Memory is critical for all thought, but particularly so for poetic thinking...Literary thinking relies upon literary memory, and the drama of recognition, in every writer, contains within it a moment of coming to terms with another writer, or with an earlier version of the self."

This reminds me of C.S. Lewis's thoughts on our role as Sub-Creators. According to Lewis, part of the charge of the cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28, is that we take what our Creator has put us in charge of and create new things from that. According to Bloom, it is impossible to write or read poetry without being reminded of past poetry. Therefore, the next great poem will come as a direct descendant of the last great poem.

What this means for writers, of course, is that the next great thing our pens spill forth should have roots in the creations of the writers before us, which have roots in the creation of God. The only way to write well, is to posses the ability to read even better.



Cheers