We've circled back to myth for what, the umpteenth time in our Wednesday journey? This week, we're writing poems that are based on a myth, a classic or classical tale, that our poem attempts to retrieve into the present once again.
What we're not after is a mere summary of or retelling of the tale in our own words. After all, somebody's already written the story, and time and repetition have made it, well, mythical. We repeat it to our children, which really means, we tell it over and over to ourselves. Whatever tale it is, it's there mostly to teach us (and/or remind us) of our humanity in all its strengths and weaknesses.
What we're after this week is an application, of the meaning or theme of the myth, to something more contemporary, or more akin to our dailiness, or personal to ourselves. We want to process the tale into present terms the way W. H. Auden did with Musée des Beaux Arts. He wrote of the Breughel painting of Icarus in 1938, a time when horrible, horrible events had already begun to unfold across Europe as life went on as usual in America and England and everywhere but German ghettos.
Speaking of the Auden poem, I opened yesterday's Sunday New York Times to find this wonderful explication by Elisa Gabbert. I hope you read it and enjoy it.
Then I hope you will try writing a poem that doesn't just retell a myth in your own words, but grabs its essential meaning(s) and brings it (them) into your own dailiness.
Good luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment