Last weekend two different things coincided. Firstly, I finished reading ‘Poetry Is: Jose Garcia Villa’s Philosophy of Poetry’ edited by Robert L King, which by the way is one of the best books on writing poetry that I have read (and I have read a lot), and secondly, moving some old magazines to a new resting place in the house. One of these magazines was an old poetry magazine called ‘Oasis’ (number 14 to be exact) published in the UK in 1976. And boy, did I realize I subscribed to it in those days and to many other magazines to increase my enthusiasm. for all things poetic and in my quest to learn as much as possible about poetry.
In fact, 1976 was the year I graduated with honors (First Class, Magna Cum Laude) in English Literature from a British University, so one could reasonably have concluded that I knew something about literature, and poetry specifically, as many of they. my course choices had been precisely on that topic. However, I continued to subscribe to ‘Oasis’ and a dozen other similar UK magazines for at least two more decades, and now that I look at the content of these magazines I have to wonder why? Why did I punish myself in this way? The magazine does not have a poem, but it does have at least 25 ‘free verse’ efforts, each indistinguishable from the last; and along with some more modernist experimentations with the short story, we have a pretentious article entitled ‘The Literary Scene (#1)’, which spends much of its time attacking Philip Larkin (a true poet who understood form) and the “Establishment”. who published it, while promoting Beat poets and Beat lifestyles (albeit grudgingly admitting that Kerouac’s “last years were kind of sad”), and of course generally promoting that view of free verse (which of course is not has nothing to do with verse or poetry in general). all) which suggests social, political, philosophical, theological freedom (yes, they all tend to be atheists, or more accurately Spirit deniers, so how could they have a Muse?). Freedom, man! Who can argue with that? Yes, there is always that self-satisfied tone of the morally superior freedom fighters who, from their comfortable British armchairs and their pretty bourgeois lives, manage to hint that the chaos of their lines is doing something for the well-being of humanity and the survival of humanity. poetry in our time. The typical adjectives that describe his poetry always go like this: ‘sober’, ‘tense’, ‘precise’, ‘somber’, ‘resolute’, and what this really means is ‘anti-musical’, ‘unstructured’, ‘drab’, ‘depressing’. ‘, ‘Unimaginative’. But delusions are hard to die.
Enough, then, of nonsense, although I could write much more; but you get my point: these writers over the last fifty years have created a consensus that has ousted real poetry, and allowed anyone and their dog the opportunity to stand in the street and howl (yes, the allusion is intended ) and barking and pretending this pile of poop is poetry. And that’s where Villa’s brilliant book comes in; in fact, the addresses at the end of the book, exactly this tragedy. Quoting Jay Parini, we learn: “Most poetry written after the mid-twentieth century is ‘free verse,’ as anyone will know.” But as Villa brilliantly observes, “when you start a poem with a meaning in mind, that meaning, instead of building the poem, undermines it, tears it down, and has a birth defect.” What a superb image of all free verse, which by its nature has to start with meaning, since it cannot, by definition, start with form, since it has none, which has a birth defect. In most cases the birth defect is fatal, though a great poet can produce a living free verse poem: TS Eliot did, but it is not the norm or even normal.
Let us now consider some of the wonders of Villa’s book, which I highly recommend any lover of poetry to buy and read, although I must say that Villa is austere in his thinking and harsh in his criticism, which will not be to everyone’s taste. . But his arguments are so powerful, and his thinking so powerful about the process of writing poetry, that I really think all practitioners of the art should consider his ideas. However, before covering the content, a few words must be said about the genesis and writing of the book. Credit must be given to the author of the book; yes, the book belongs to Villa but he died in 1997 and he never actually wrote it. Instead, his student and disciple, Robert L King, it seems, in a labor of enormous love, pulled together all the ideas from the extant lectures and the surviving lecture notes at Harvard. Writing a book oneself is difficult, but putting together this book from notes is a great achievement and I think generations to come will be extremely grateful to Robert King for what he has so intricately put together here. One gets the feeling that this is Villa’s book and King has kept his ego in check and allowed Villa and Villa to just talk; that is amazing.
The essence of what Villa and his book argue is that poetry is an art form that requires discipline, at least 10 years, for anyone to get anywhere or produce anything worthwhile with it. Furthermore, poetry is about language, music, and form, but its view of form extends far beyond meter, stanza structures, and imagery, although this is not denied. Because this is so, Villa describes much of the poetry of today (that is, of his day, though nothing much has changed) as “self-expression, which is nothing more than romantic childishness and childish talk.” This is because “self-expression always happens” while “good writing doesn’t just happen.” There are three important consequences of this.
First, poetry is irreplaceable for prose; prose tells its meaning, but the meaning of poetry is intrinsic to its form, so it cannot be said otherwise. In other words, all prose is paraphrasable, but to paraphrase poetry is to end its existence as poetry. Second, the discipline of poetry is aesthetic, but also intellectual and ethical. As Villa says, “poetry becomes a civilization of the human spirit.” One can immediately see in this how much Villa is at odds with free verse; the question is not only poetry, but also the lifestyle, values and spirit of humanity. Thirdly, according to Villa, poetry prevents mental disorders! This is an amazing claim, but not without precedent and foundation. He does not quote GK Chesterton, but Chesterton noted that there was only one great English poet who went mad: Cowper. And, more generally, Apollo, the god of poetry, was also the god of healing and sanity. But Villa quotes Wallace Stevens approvingly: “Poetry is not a literary activity, it is a vital activity, a part of life itself.” How good is that? And to top it off, Villa says: “To be art, form is mandatory”; the form is mandatory, which means that the order is mandatory, and the mandatory order means that the mind is ordered, but not like a shopping list or an Excel spreadsheet. The order of poetry comes from the deep mind, so it is not surprising that its practice leads to stability and mental health.
Another brilliant observation Villa makes – and I’ll have to stop because this essay is already too long – is that, quoting Christopher Morley, “Poetry is the perfect expression of something you didn’t know you meant.” In other words, every true poem is a voyage of discovery; and again that is why ready-made meanings, the important topics you want to convey, may produce interesting writing of a kind better called polemics or public relations, but they will not produce poetry. The poetry surprises both the poet and the reader when it finally emerges on the page, written and complete. In fact, there is an insightful chapter near the end of the book on the subject of the last line of a poem and how difficult it is to write it; because the last line has to tie everything together, and yet invariably create meaning that wasn’t obvious at first. In other words, it attacks at the same time it completes! Paradoxical but true.
I think I’ve said enough to hopefully persuade you to go out and buy this brilliant, brilliant book on Villa’s poetry. Once again, Robert King deserves our deepest thanks for the labor of love he has brought to this work and to its master, in ensuring that such important ideas are not lost to the world, but can continue and stay fresh.