On Reading Poetry

A good piece of advice for anyone who wants to read poetry but has no idea where to start, finds the idea a bit daunting, or has this vague sense that they simply won't "get it" or like it, is to start with anthologies. There is no need to commit to one poet, or a single period, although some anthologies might focus on specific periods, or a style of poetry. You dip in from time to time and see what you like (or don't). Read one poem a week. Sit with it, go back to it; if you like it, try and memorize it. This last one is hard and takes effort. Long term memory is trickier. An Edna St. Vincent Millay poem that I memorized a year ago, now seems to be falling apart in my head. 

One of my favourite anthologies is Good Poems, by Garrison Keillor, a collection of nearly 300 poems that were at one time or another, read out by him on The Writer's Almanac, a delightful and perfectly compact 5-minute radio show (that was also a podcast) that alas, is no longer on the air. Good Poems mixes eras and themes and is a perfect source for anyone who wishes to try this form that as Keillor says "offers a truer account than what we are used to getting."

Some of us at the bookshop want to re-engage with poetry as well, and as we try and make this a more lasting habit, we will share, here on the blog, the poems we are reading. 

We start today with a poem by Philip Larkin (1922-1985). Generally acknowledged as his best poem, The Whitsun Weddings is Larkin's account of a train journey to London on a hot Saturday when he notices (eventually) wedding parties at every stop. Whitsun or Whit Sunday is the seventh Sunday after Easter, which is wedding season. His dour sensibility on this not-too-comfortable journey serves as a sobering counterpoint to the celebratory sights and sounds of these wedding parties and the hopeful countenance of the newly wed couples.

You can read the poem here at the Poetry Foundation.