Stanley Plumly
Developing An Appreciation of Poetry
Forest Of The Rain Productions interviewed Stanley Plumly, Professor, Director of Creative Writing University of Maryland College Park on the developing an appreciation for poetry.
FOTRP: For some adults poetry is at times difficult to understand or follow in its various forms. Some adults have had little exposure to poetry as children. Is poetry an art form that is better appreciated and understood if exposure to it begins at a young age?
Stanley Plumly: The 'difficulty' of poetry, at any age, is directly related to one's degree of exposure. Like everything, reading--let alone writing--poetry takes practice and--to quote Coleridge--'a willing suspension of disbelief.' You have to be committed to it as an art as well as an experience. The half-hearted need not apply. Poetry is the exercise of language at the highest level and therefore it is demanding. Also: there are some many 'styles' of poetry today that one must choose those poems that speak--as the Quakers say--to one's condition. Not all poems will do that, especially as poems can vary in their inherent interest as their readers vary.
FOTRP: Do children have a natural interest in poems and poetry?
Stanley Plumly: Children love the language of play, particularly the language of playfulness, so long as it has a second life of meaning. So-called 'nonsense' verse can be no less meaningful in its sense.
FOTRP: Are there developmental benefits for children when they are exposed to poetry at an early age?
Stanley Plumly: Show them poems that have something to do with being their age and something that brings the natural world into the room. Children love animals and trees and the moon and the rain and fields in full flower, even though their own attempts at writing may be full of darker themes and problems at home.
FOTRP: How can teachers support an interest and appreciation for poetry in their students?
Stanley Plumly: Make poetry a part of the everyday, every week course of study; don't allow it to become an exotic, fragile plant. Pay attention to the depths and multiples of language--its colors and textures. A good teacher will face his or her limitations and learn with the students.
FOTRP: What can parents do at home to further an appreciation for poetry?
Stanley Plumly: Parents are the ultimate teachers, like it or not. Children remember, which is something every parent should not forget. Use the language well, meaningfully; and read, read, read. Books are bibles.
BIO:
Stanley Plumly, Professor, Director of Creative Writing. Called "the successor to James Wright and John Keats, with a marvelous ear for the music of contemplation" by Rita Dove, Plumly is an honored member of department life. Plumly's volumes of poetry (most recently, Old Heart [2007], Now That My Father Lies Down Beside Me [2001], The Marriage in the Trees [1997]), criticism (Argument and Song [2003]), and biography (Posthumous Keats [2008]) have garnered many awards and wide-ranging praise over a forty-year career in letters. His writing has been called "visionary verse from one of America's most memorable lyricists," "musical, multifaceted," and "deeply personal." In the past two years, however, Plumly's writing has attracted a new level of praise. Old Heart (WW Norton, 2007) won the LA Times Book Review's Poetry Book of the Year prize and was nominated for a National Book Award. Robert Pinskey named Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography as his favorite book of 2008. Pinskey wasn't alone; Plumly's stirring biography appeared on several prestigious top ten books of the year lists. In 2009, the University of Maryland and the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies honored Plumly with a two-day conference in Tawes Hall featuring guest speakers David Baker, Morris Dickstein, Linda Gregerson, Terese Svoboda, Susan Wolfson, Duncan Wu, and David Wyatt. Other honors won by the state poet laureate include a Guggenheim Fellowship, three NEA Fellowships, the Ingram-Merrill Foundation Award, six Pushcart Prizes, and nominations for the National Book Critics Circle Award aand the William Carlos Williams Award.
FOTRP: For some adults poetry is at times difficult to understand or follow in its various forms. Some adults have had little exposure to poetry as children. Is poetry an art form that is better appreciated and understood if exposure to it begins at a young age?
Stanley Plumly: The 'difficulty' of poetry, at any age, is directly related to one's degree of exposure. Like everything, reading--let alone writing--poetry takes practice and--to quote Coleridge--'a willing suspension of disbelief.' You have to be committed to it as an art as well as an experience. The half-hearted need not apply. Poetry is the exercise of language at the highest level and therefore it is demanding. Also: there are some many 'styles' of poetry today that one must choose those poems that speak--as the Quakers say--to one's condition. Not all poems will do that, especially as poems can vary in their inherent interest as their readers vary.
FOTRP: Do children have a natural interest in poems and poetry?
Stanley Plumly: Children love the language of play, particularly the language of playfulness, so long as it has a second life of meaning. So-called 'nonsense' verse can be no less meaningful in its sense.
FOTRP: Are there developmental benefits for children when they are exposed to poetry at an early age?
Stanley Plumly: Show them poems that have something to do with being their age and something that brings the natural world into the room. Children love animals and trees and the moon and the rain and fields in full flower, even though their own attempts at writing may be full of darker themes and problems at home.
FOTRP: How can teachers support an interest and appreciation for poetry in their students?
Stanley Plumly: Make poetry a part of the everyday, every week course of study; don't allow it to become an exotic, fragile plant. Pay attention to the depths and multiples of language--its colors and textures. A good teacher will face his or her limitations and learn with the students.
FOTRP: What can parents do at home to further an appreciation for poetry?
Stanley Plumly: Parents are the ultimate teachers, like it or not. Children remember, which is something every parent should not forget. Use the language well, meaningfully; and read, read, read. Books are bibles.
BIO:
Stanley Plumly, Professor, Director of Creative Writing. Called "the successor to James Wright and John Keats, with a marvelous ear for the music of contemplation" by Rita Dove, Plumly is an honored member of department life. Plumly's volumes of poetry (most recently, Old Heart [2007], Now That My Father Lies Down Beside Me [2001], The Marriage in the Trees [1997]), criticism (Argument and Song [2003]), and biography (Posthumous Keats [2008]) have garnered many awards and wide-ranging praise over a forty-year career in letters. His writing has been called "visionary verse from one of America's most memorable lyricists," "musical, multifaceted," and "deeply personal." In the past two years, however, Plumly's writing has attracted a new level of praise. Old Heart (WW Norton, 2007) won the LA Times Book Review's Poetry Book of the Year prize and was nominated for a National Book Award. Robert Pinskey named Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography as his favorite book of 2008. Pinskey wasn't alone; Plumly's stirring biography appeared on several prestigious top ten books of the year lists. In 2009, the University of Maryland and the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies honored Plumly with a two-day conference in Tawes Hall featuring guest speakers David Baker, Morris Dickstein, Linda Gregerson, Terese Svoboda, Susan Wolfson, Duncan Wu, and David Wyatt. Other honors won by the state poet laureate include a Guggenheim Fellowship, three NEA Fellowships, the Ingram-Merrill Foundation Award, six Pushcart Prizes, and nominations for the National Book Critics Circle Award aand the William Carlos Williams Award.