Earlier this week I bought that great big hulking tomb, The Norton Anthology of Poetry (4th Edition). Around 200 pages. 1800 poems. 355 poets. Rather a hefty price tag, too! But it’s the set text for the English module Poetry that I’ve just begun, and will hopefully stand me in good stead later in the degree as well.
I really enjoy poetry. At the end of secondary school, I won the “A M Rees Prize for Excellence in English” (excuse the slight showing off!), which was the poetry collection Poems on the Underground. I wasn’t really into poetry before that, but I studied a poetry anthology at A-level and found it really interesting. It’s fascinating to look more closely at a poem and discover the intricacies of its beauty and construction, unravel all the meanings packaged so tightly within just a few lines, think through the ideas and feelings suggested by the poem.
I recently reread “Batter my heart” by John Donne (1572-1631), which I find so powerful and moving. It goes like this:
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for You
As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me,’and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, t’another due,
Labor to’admit You, but O, to no end;
Reason, Your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly’I love you,’and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy.
Divorce me,’untie or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you’enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Beautiful, powerful words, and a wonderful prayer. Incidentally, I typed up a poem of my own which I wrote fairly recently. I might share it sometime, but at the moment it feels rather too personal because of what it talks about, and also I’m not sure whether I want to expose my efforts to the big wide world just yet!