Past vs. Paaaaaast

As we've progressed through the semester, this question has surfaced many times; What is the Poetic Tradition? One part of the poetic tradition is to construct poetry that points to the past and pay tribute to the poets and poetry from centuries before, but then another question arises; How far back in history must you go to pay proper tribute? I don't think the answer to that question is quite as easy. Robert Lowell and Adam Kirsch point back to history, but they point back to multiple different time periods, which creates a much more diverse effect.

In Robert Lowell's "Children of Light", Robert refers back to the past by telling a tale about how the Pilgrims came over to America, specifically those that came from Holland, as shown in these lines:

Our fathers wrung their bread from stocks and stones

And fenced their gardens with the Redmen's bones;

Embarking from the Nether Land of Holland,

Pilgrims unhouseled by Geneva's night

But Lowell doesn't stop there and only point toward the Pilgrims. Lowell also points all the way back to Genesis, as shown in these lines:

And light is where the landless blood of Cain

Is burning, burning the unburied grain

Lowell takes the part of the poetic tradition, where a poet is supposed to dedicate their poetry to the past glory of poets and poetry, and mixes it with a more recent history of the audience he's writing to. Personally, I find this poetic style very...delightful, if I may, to read. I love reading poems that look back to history, and the mix of histories in this poem by Lowell is very refreshing for me.

As a comparison, Adam Kirsch writes a poem called "Farming Family, 1912" that resembles this very same style of looking to the past. Kirsch writes this poem based off a picture taken by August Sander of a farming family in 1912. Crazy, right? Anyway, Kirsch uses this poem to not only point back to the year 1912, but he uses some lines to describe the history of that family also. Kirsch also uses the picture to comment on human nature throughout history, through lines such as:

The cruelty of men when they're alone,

The women's tiredness and resignation,

Do not get multiplied as you'd expect,

When the extended families collect.

Kirsch comments on the history of the family by writing;

Proves that his father's beard is obsolete;

Denying one another, they complete

Their likeness to the contradictory

God who commanded us to multiply

So He could manifest, in every birth,

Another of His attributes on earth.

Part of keeping the poetic tradition is to use your poetry to point to the past glory of former poets, epics and poetry. Lowell and Kirsch approach this tradition in a style all their own, by not only pointing back to Biblical times, but also by pointing to a more recent history that matters more to their readers. Both Lowell and Kirsch point back to Genesis, and both point to a time in the past few centuries of American life. I personally like poetry that looks at the dichotomy between the past and the paaaaaaaaaast.


Helpful poetry reference of the week: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/239104