SWENSDAY STUFF

The Importance of Poetry to Education
Swen Nater

In ninth grade, my journalism and poetry teacher, Rita Rochte, presented a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory. Her enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the poem gave me an appreciation for poetry as extremely artistic and language at its highest, refined, polished, and finished level. 

Poetry can communicate more clearly and precisely than any other form of writing. If that is true, schools are foolish to omit the study of poetry from the curriculum. It was no accident, the school had Rita Rochte teaching both journalism and poetry. When writing a journalistic article, you have to say it all in as few words as possible. That is exactly what poetry teaches. In good poetry, every word is carefully chosen and there is no waste. All words lead the reader to the place of learning where the author is waiting. All words that cause a detour are omitted no matter how beautiful they may be. Clear and precise written communication is one of the most important things a student can learn in school and nothing can accomplish that better than the study and practice of good poetry.

I now present the poem Rita Rochte gave us and what she taught us about it. I can almost hear her in the front of the class next to the blackboard, where she had written the poem with yellow chalk. As you go back in time with me and hear her read the poem to our class, listen for Robinson’s use of words as pictures, the symbols and images, and the wonderful music played by the rhythm and rhyme, all used to drive home a very important life lesson.   

Richard Cory
Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good morning!” and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine – we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked and waited for the light,
And went without the meat and cursed the bread,
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

When Rita Rochte was finished, I sat there with open mouth, awed at how just a few words could move me so much. My mind raced with thoughts that led me to make the conclusion that money and status don’t cause happiness. What an important lesson for a ninth-grader! Then, she told us how Robinson was able to pull it off. 

1. Word Pictures
Robinson used key words to lift Richard Cory up as the perfect person that the commoners wanted to immolate. Words like, crown, favoured, imperially, arrayed, glittered, rich, king, schooled, and grace, are words commonly used when describing royalty.

2. Symbols and Images
Immediately after making Cory seem average in,

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;

He shot him back up to regal status with,  

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good morning!” and he glittered when he walked.

3. The Music
The poem is written in perfect rhythm (iambic pentameter) and perfect rhyme. This is no accident as Robinson, before dropping Richard Cory down, wanted to build him up as the perfect person.

I had heard other poems before Rita Rochte read Richard Cory but, after she explained Robinson’s command of the English language and his artistry with it, I knew I didn’t know poetry at all. She took it apart to show me how it was put together. As a result, I embarked on a life-long enthusiastic adventure of discovering the wonder, beauty, and powerful communication of good poetry. I believe it has helped my ability to communicate. That, my friends, is education.