“Poppy Pleasure” by Minaz Jantz |
I’ve argued before in this space that pleasure is the primary value when it comes to reading, and especially reading poetry. It’s a pleasure, then, to find W. S. Merwin making the same point in response to a request for reading advice by interviewer Ed Rampell in the November 2010 issue of The Progressive:
Yes, one important thing: Read for pleasure. Read junk. Read every kind of book. But read for pleasure. The reason the Puritans wanted to stamp out poetry was because it gave pleasure. It’s about things you love, things that you care about. Sir Philip Sidney, in the generation before Shakespeare, said, “Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom.” And it will never end in wisdom if it doesn’t begin in delight and continue in delight. When you read a poem and you think, “God, that is so beautiful, I don’t want to forget that,” and you go on saying it to yourself because you love it, that’s pleasure. That is real pleasure.
More here.
I've really enjoy the Samperi blog, too, Conrad. He was a poet whose work was inseparable from his daily thought and experience; it didn't occur in a bubble of Theory or careerism.<br /><br />I think the first wave of the professionalization of poetry began with Pound, who viewed readers as students. Last year, I think it was, I read an interview with Pound's daughter, and she still
Joe,<br /><br />Perhaps the absence of delight in so much poetry being written nowadays is the preponderance of so many sourpusses<br />prowling the poetry premises!
Joseph,<br /><br />I recently seem to have had that "I don't want to forget that" feeling in the case of Frank Samperi's poetry. In fact, Claudia's "Frank Samperi" blog is turning out to be one of my favourites for precisely the sense of delight I experience when I'm there.<br /><br />I couldn't agree more with Merwin and you: if it isn't enjoyable and