Poetry, as we have discussed in previous parts of this article, depends on the Muses and access to the deepest self or soul within each person; This is not an easy thing to do. In the 18th century, Lord Chesterfield commented on how an individual could be anything he chose to be, except a “great poet”. There has always been a recognition in all societies throughout history that the vocation of the true poet, like the true prophet, is rare and difficult. But it was not always like this; there was a time when all people were naturally poets. At this time, in Christian theology, we call it prelapsarian, that is, before the Fall, the fall of Adam and Eve, and their subsequent expulsion from paradise.

In my opinion, one does not need to be a Christian to accept this statement; is that the Christian myth explains it in a simple way. But the reality is that all people throughout all time have been religious and have been involved in religious practices. Why is this? Because it is evident that the human race at some early point in its history was involved in some calamitous and aboriginal error. Humans were once happy, and then they weren’t. Hindus, ancient Greeks, and many others speak of the Golden Age, an era when humans were happy, lived in peace with the gods, enjoyed extraordinary longevity and health, and possessed extraordinary abilities that far surpassed our own. . Then, according to the Greeks, the Golden Age gave way to the Silver and so on, until finally we end up with the Iron Age of barbarism and humans acting more like animals than animals themselves.

In short, what we have here in these powerful and powerful myths is a total refutation of the modern idea of ​​progress; on the contrary, we are going backwards. It seems difficult to understand this when we have central heating, 3 meals a day in the West, we send rockets to the moon, and we threaten to shatter anyone who bites us; but it’s really not that difficult when we consider that the technology and science that has enabled these ‘advancements’ are precisely the mechanisms by which we are going to be destroyed, as the gods – God – balance the book sometime in the near future . future. The signs are already here. Unfortunately, as Geri Giebel Chavis observed, “the tragedy we bring upon ourselves is worse even than a tragic fortune that is destined for us.”

But to return to the Garden of Eden, the paradise before our expulsion, what about poetry then? Well, it’s clear: poetry was what God gave Adam and Eden – the power of language and naming – and naming to control, the true magic of all language – animals and all things; and by ‘all things’ I mean essentially our own minds and understanding. At this point there was no such thing as prose; those in the garden only spoke poetry, and that it was poetry is certain because the language would be entirely onomatopoeic. In other words, the sense and the sound would correspond perfectly to each other, they would be in balance, or rather, in harmony. And, as we discussed in Part 3, that’s what poetry is: a harmony between inner drive and outer expression, and framed in such a way that it compels by its own obvious beauty. Lying, of course, is impossible. Imagine this: a dialogue with someone whose words induce ecstasy, a simultaneous manifestation of goodness, truth and beauty, so that one does not want to interrupt even if he wants to respond! Except that his poetry would be incomplete without your answer…

Naturally, too, in this state, the right and left hemispheres of the brain were in perfect sync, well-being is endemic, and our own language further hypnotizes us into even deeper levels of joy. Not surprisingly, the Ancients, even after the initial Fall (there was indeed a second Fall, which precipitated the Deluge, an event remembered by all cultures with the possible exception of the Japanese) were recorded as experiencing extraordinary longevity.

And at this point we need to remember that Adam, it is said, was created as a ‘living soul’; also that he was created in the image of God, as was Eve. What was that resemblance? As Dorothy L Sayers pointed out in her book, ‘The Mind of the Creator’: it was that human beings are creative, because that’s all we know about God from chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis. We are inherently creative, and when we are not, our humanity and divinity are diminished. Second, to be like God, the infinite, is, of course, to be infinite ourselves in some mysterious sense; because infinity cannot be diluted; if we are like that which is infinite, then that property is also contained within us. So where is content?

Here we come to the crux of the matter: Adam was created as a ‘living soul’. This is our real and eternal being; it is where true language comes from that cannot lie – and conscience too – and gently prompts, rebukes, corrects the left brain, or ego mind; at least, until the ego cauterizes it. Like our subconscious, it is buried within us, and more specifically, as the ancient Egyptians and others knew, it is located in the heart. Yes, our core is in our hearts and it is from the heart, not from the head, that true poetry speaks.

How does the heart speak? beats The main sound of the living soul is the beat; and the new living soul, the baby, grows under its influence. First, there is nothing – absence – that we could mark with a hyphen -. Second, there is a time, which we could mark with a cross, x. And so the genius of the English language manifests itself; Not all languages ​​are stress driven, but English is. Why is this important? Because what moves us the most, what has the most emotional force in our lives, is not the sight -the image- but the sound, the rhythm, and above all the metric pattern that we call iambic. I don’t need to elaborate on this, but this is why movies have soundtracks, and why we spend so much time listening to music, and why music has healing properties when used correctly. And that is why more than 90% of the greatest poetry in the English language is written in iambic meter.

And here’s the really incredible thing: so much is written in this meter not because the poets are deliberately trying to reproduce the heartbeat and design the emotion in a formulaic way; but because the English language is naturally iambic in the way it is structured. Writing iambic verse goes with the grain of language; writing in other meters is much more complicated, and there aren’t that many long poems one can name that aren’t in iambic; at least they are still readable. Of course, writing free verse is invariably – with honorable exceptions – a complete abdication of the task of poetry.

So where do we see this structure in language? At the most basic levels, and therefore most common. First, in the requirement of our language to precede most nouns with the definite or indefinite article, together with the fact that we have a great wealth of monosyllabic nouns. Thus we have ‘the pen’, ‘a book’, ‘some cheese’, etc.; the iambic pattern is there. Also, and secondly, we have the requirement that our verbs be preceded by pronouns. Again, ‘I walk’, ‘you run, ‘they talk’ and so on; hundreds and thousands of strong and common word combinations (in fact, many of the monosyllabic verbs are what we call ‘strong’ verbs). Finally, with the plethora of monosyllabic prepositions and conjunctions, we create iambic patterns all the time without even thinking about it: ‘of love’, ‘on top’, ‘but not’, ‘oh well’, etc.

What all this means is that the English language, perhaps pre-eminently (since its poetry, throughout the world, may be considered its crowning artistic glory, as, for example, music might be considered the crowning artistic achievement of German), it is expressive of the heart, of emotion, of the soul – and the eternal soul is beautiful. And this is important, because as Alan Watts said, “Wonder, and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important things that seem to distinguish men from other animals, and intelligent and sensitive people from animals.” morons.”

Therefore, by the end of this article, it should be clear that poetry writing is a primary concern for each and every one of us, and our civilization as a whole, due to its divine origin, healing power, and because, as Norman O. Brown said, “Art and poetry have always been altering our ways of perceiving and feeling, that is, altering the human body and the human mind”, and this leads Derek Steinberg to observe that “Even elaborate psychodynamic forms of theories have their limitations; many would agree that literature and poetry rise far beyond them.” Wow, what a claim! All that money, effort and time spent on ‘research’ and the ‘science of psychodynamic theories’ and poetry and Muses and myths can fly over them, which means going into a deeper level, if the metaphor can be reversed. ; because the journey of the soul -where poetry resides- is always downwards, which is why Orpheus -and then Dante- had to go down first.

And we are reminded that originally the invocation of the Muse was an indication that the speaker was working within the poetic tradition, according to established formulas. The importance of this is shown in Christopher Bryant’s comment when he said: “The most powerful ally in resisting the discrediting spirit of modern reductionism is poetry.” Poetry is of and of the Muses, and for all the reasons I have given and explored when we leave that tradition – the Muses – we are not writing poetry at all, but the spirit of self-delusion is in us, and the spirit of pride as we insist the pantheon of poets gives way to our petty ego and its will-driven works.

In our world today, this is largely something we recognize as postmodernist, totally overrun by secularism and a deep atheism that seeks to remove wonder, mystery, truth, goodness, and beauty from our world. In form, it is invariably, but not always, in free verse; that absence of structure that proudly struts around proclaiming a false freedom – from the shackles – the forms – of those greater than us. But whether they give up the form (as they normally do) or accept it (usually to corrupt it), we can always detect their work. We need only return to Edgar Alan Poe’s famous and true definition of poetry: “Poetry is the rhythmic creation of beauty in words.” Yes, not necessarily metrically, but rhythmically and critically the creation of beauty. The beauty that is balm for our souls; that enlightens us, spiritually, emotionally, mentally; and thus casts a healing glow over our lives. This is what we want, what we must insist on. No one says it’s easy to create; in fact, this article, I think, has hinted at how difficult is the business of poetry, of invoking the Muse. But the difficulty is not a reason not to do it; on the contrary, it is the spur. As Yeats said, ‘The fascination of the difficult’.

If we can’t be exactly like Orpheus, then I suggest we must be like Odysseus: each sets out on his journey from the ruins of Troy and tries to find his way home to his true love, Penelope. Penelope, for women, of course it will be a man, since in the subconscious we are the other way around. But here is the important thing to understand: the journey home to find our true love is a symbol, because our true love is our own soul, which as we said before is essential, eternal and… beautiful.