NEITHER RHYME NOR REASON
Several years ago I wrote an article titled
“Why is Modern Poetry So Bad?” In it I
contended that the nation’s schools of the humanities have become profitable
because thousands of functional illiterates are now being enrolled in and
graduated with literary degrees. I
suggested this was possible only because the once majestic highland of poetry
devolved into a swampland of mediocrity, such that “. . . verse produced by any
high school sophomore is indistinguishable from that of a poet laureate.” As you might have predicted, I received my
fair share of castigation.
On 12/23/15 we had the chance to consider my
claim, when Juan Felipe Herrera, the United States Poet Laureate memorialized
in poem the terrorist attack which befell San Bernardino, California, earlier
that month. The following is a portion
of that verse.
I’ll take a bullet for you
Detective Jorge Lozano said
from the chasm of sprinklers spilling and
leaving
he walked the living wounded
he did not utter words it was his heart that
moved
the innocent followed
Reflecting on these words, I cannot help but
recollect the memorializing of an earlier tragedy by the Nineteenth Century
Poet Laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Half a league, half a
league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of
Death
Rode the six hundred
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!”
he said
Into the valley of
Death
Rode the six hundred.
Tennyson’s lines remain revered 160 years
since their composition. I can only ask,
will Herrera’s lines be remembered by anyone the day after tomorrow?
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If you enjoy this weekly Straight Talk by Al Jacobs, you’re invited to check out my monthly Financial Newsletter, as well as my new book, The Road to Prosperity
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