José García Villa and what poetry is

Last weekend two different things coincided. First, I finished reading ‘Poetry is: Philosophy of Poetry by José García Villa’ edited by Robert L King, which by the way is one of, if not, the best book 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 wow, I found that I subscribed to it in those days and to many other magazines to boot. my enthusiasm. for all things poetic and in my eagerness to learn as much as possible about poetry.

1976, in fact, was the year I graduated with honors (First Class, Magna Cum Laude) in English Literature from a British University, so one could have reasonably concluded that I knew something about literature, and poetry specifically, as many from them. my course options had been on that topic. However, I continued to subscribe to ‘Oasis’ and a dozen other UK magazines for at least two more decades, and when I look at the content of these magazines now I have to wonder why? Why did I punish myself this way? The magazine does not have a poem, but it does have at least 25 “free verse” works, each indistinguishable from the last; And alongside some more modernist experimentation with the tale, 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 (although he grudgingly admitted that the “last years of Kerouac were somewhat sad”) and, of course, generally promoting that vision of free verse (which, for of course, it has nothing to do with verse or poetry at 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 that? Yes, there is always that self-indulgent tone of the morally superior freedom fighters who from their comfortable armchairs in the UK and their rather bourgeois lives manage to hint that the chaos of their lines is contributing something to the well-being of humanity and the survival of humanity. poetry in our time. The typical adjectives that describe his poetry are always executed like this: ‘sober’, ‘tense’, ‘precise’, ‘gloomy’, ‘unwavering’, and what this really means is’ little musical ‘,’ unstructured ‘,’ monotonous ‘,’ depressing ‘,’ unimaginative ‘. But delusions take time to die.

Enough, then, of this nonsense, although I could write many more; But you get my idea: these writers of the last fifty years have created a consensus that has driven out real poetry and allowed anyone and their dog the opportunity to stand on the street and howl (yes, intentional allusion) and bark and fake this. . pile of poop is poetry. And that’s where Villa’s brilliant book comes in; in fact, he addresses at the end of the book, exactly this tragedy. Quoting Jay Parini, we learn, “Most poetry written after the mid-20th 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 constructing the poem, undermines it, tears it down, and has a birth defect.” What a magnificent image of every free verse, which by its nature has to begin with the meaning, since it is not possible, by definition, to start with the form, since it does not have it, that it has a birth defect. In most cases, the birth defect is fatal, although a great poet can produce a living free verse poem. TS Eliot did it, but it’s not the norm or even normal.

So let us now consider some of the wonders of Villa’s book, which I highly recommend to every lover of poetry to buy and read, although I must say that Villa is austere in his thinking and severe in his restrictions, which will not be to everyone’s taste. . But his arguments are so powerful, and his thinking so powerful regarding the process of writing poetry, that I truly believe that all thinking practitioners of the art should consider his ideas. However, before covering the contents, a word must be said about the genesis and writing of the book. Credit must be given to the author of the book; yes, the book is by Villa, but he died in 1997 and never wrote it. Instead, his student and disciple, Robert L. King, as it seems, in a labor of massive love, brought together all the ideas from the existing lectures and lecture notes that survive at Harvard. Writing a book on your own is difficult, but rebuilding this book from notes is a huge achievement and I think generations for a long time will be extremely grateful to Robert King for what he has so intricately put together here. You get 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 somewhere or produce something worthwhile with it. Furthermore, poetry deals with language, music, and form, but his vision of form extends far beyond meter, stráceous structures, and images, although they are not denied. Because that’s the way it is, Villa describes much of today’s poetry (which is his day, although nothing much has changed) as “self-expression, which is nothing more than romantic infantilism and baby talk.” This is because “self-expression always just 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 see immediately from this how much at odds with the free versers Villa is; it is not only poetry that is the issue, it is also the lifestyle, values ​​and spirit of humanity. Third, according to Villa, poetry prevents mental disorders! This is an astonishing claim, but not without precedent and foundation. He does not quote GK Chesterton, but Chesterton observed that there was only one major 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 all, Villa says: “To be art, the form is mandatory”; the form is required, which means the order is required, and the order is required means 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.

A more brilliant observation that Villa makes, and I’ll have to stop because this essay is already too long, is that, to quote Christopher Morley, “poetry is the perfect expression of something you didn’t know you wanted to say.” In other words, every true poem is a voyage of discovery; And again that is why ready-made meanings, important topics you want to convey, can produce interesting writing of the kind better called polemic or public relations, but will not produce poetry. Poetry surprises both the poet and the reader when it finally emerges on the page, written and complete. In fact, there is a revealing chapter near the end of the book on the subject of the last line of a poem and how difficult it is to write; because the last line has to tie everything together and yet invariably create a meaning that was not obvious at first. In other words, it is crossed out at the same time as it is completed. Paradoxical but true.

I think I’ve said enough then to persuade you, hopefully, to go out and buy this brilliant, brilliant book of Villa’s poetry. Once again, Robert King deserves our deepest thanks for the labor of love he has given this work, and his teacher, to ensure that such important ideas are not lost to the world, but can continue and stay fresh.