A few years ago, I told one of my boys he would be taking an introductory poetry course in school. I was not too shocked when he despaired with great lamentations, sackcloth and ashes. He didn't want to read poetry because poems were, according to his mind, about "prissy girls picking flowers in the fields and having tea parties." Poetry was feminine and he wanted none of it. Flashback one week before, I found him in my study with a copy of Beowulf. He devoured it and couldn't stop talking about its awesomeness – heroes, monsters, swords, treasure! After I explained Beowulf was a poem he had a world changing paradigm shift that took him a couple days to process. That couldn’t be poetry, because, well, Beowulf was about battle and fighting. I think that many Americans have similar view of poetry. It has to be dainty and you can only read it while wearing a top hat and monocle simultaneously stroking a honey colored beard and sighing deep, contemplative sighs.
That’s a fair misunderstanding, and the fault of modern poets. But I hope you don’t think all poetry is like that. Did you know the Bible is full of poetry? The book of Psalms is a collection of poetry. The Song of Solomon, Lamentations, and Job are all extended poems. There are poems in the prophets and Paul quotes a poet in Titus. Most of it was written by David, hardly an effete milksop. David grew up “on the farm” a shepherd of his father’s sheep. He was a mighty warrior, and then a king. As a young man, other’s wrote songs about his life. “Saul killed his thousands, David his tens of thousands.” He was the warrior poet who wrote this memorable line, “Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD (Psalm 58:6),” and that stanza, like the man, was anything but dainty.
Another legitimate issue some have with poetry is the time factor. You can’t read poetry quickly and get anything from it. The very nature of the art requires you to read it several times, and think about the words. Poetry uses language to express a meaning. It requires time, slow reading, and meditation to get the meaning. When poetry became an elitist exercise, purposefully written over the heads of the average person who doesn’t read Latin or ancient Greek to be the domain of the literature department, a lot of people quit reading it. But, God gave us poetry. God wanted you to read it and God wants you to love his poetry. And God’s poetry can be understood and enjoyed by all His people. The poetry in the Bible is beautiful. And it’s true. So you can spend time, reading and reading again the word pictures painted through the inspiration of God, and think deeply and repeatedly about the words and about the images and know you’ll profit from them.
That’s a fair misunderstanding, and the fault of modern poets. But I hope you don’t think all poetry is like that. Did you know the Bible is full of poetry? The book of Psalms is a collection of poetry. The Song of Solomon, Lamentations, and Job are all extended poems. There are poems in the prophets and Paul quotes a poet in Titus. Most of it was written by David, hardly an effete milksop. David grew up “on the farm” a shepherd of his father’s sheep. He was a mighty warrior, and then a king. As a young man, other’s wrote songs about his life. “Saul killed his thousands, David his tens of thousands.” He was the warrior poet who wrote this memorable line, “Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD (Psalm 58:6),” and that stanza, like the man, was anything but dainty.
Another legitimate issue some have with poetry is the time factor. You can’t read poetry quickly and get anything from it. The very nature of the art requires you to read it several times, and think about the words. Poetry uses language to express a meaning. It requires time, slow reading, and meditation to get the meaning. When poetry became an elitist exercise, purposefully written over the heads of the average person who doesn’t read Latin or ancient Greek to be the domain of the literature department, a lot of people quit reading it. But, God gave us poetry. God wanted you to read it and God wants you to love his poetry. And God’s poetry can be understood and enjoyed by all His people. The poetry in the Bible is beautiful. And it’s true. So you can spend time, reading and reading again the word pictures painted through the inspiration of God, and think deeply and repeatedly about the words and about the images and know you’ll profit from them.
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