Poetry

This post is for my C1.2. As you know, we have already ventured into what I deem to be uncharted territory for most of you: poetry. Indeed, your textbook offers a high-minded approach to its C2 part. However, I fear that poetry is not many people’s cup of tea and yet it is part of every language. Lots of expressions you use now had a lyrical taste to them centuries ago. Not only that. We happen to be surrounded by different kinds of lyrical expression. Whether you like it or not the truth is that present day rap is actually a form of poetry and, just last year, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for the texts he wrote for his songs.

Anyway, let’s be as objective as possible. According to my trusty Merriam Webster Dictionary "poetry" is any kind of writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound and rhythm. In other words, a poetic text should make use of imagination, have some rhythm, and convey an interesting meaning in order to elicit an emotional response in the reader/listener. Do you think all that has little to do with you? Think twice.

Firstly, many everyday mainstream expressions came into existence out of the verses. The poetry in the King James Bible or the works written by William Shakespeare are two obvious cases. Secondly, the poetic germ exists even in extremely modest utterances. Needless to say, appreciation of poetry requires a certain degree of sensitivity. In terms of language, if it’s the meaning that you care about you can obviously forget about poetry. Poetry is most certainly about meaning, yes, but always expressed in a specific non-standard fashion. I feel good, as free as a bird is clearly NOT poetic at all.

In a way it’s not unlike appreciating a good car. Some people may just need a vehicle that takes them from A to B. They don’t really care if they drive a secondhand clunker or a sleek high-performance car but then again, some people don’t care for elaborate dishes because, well, a cheeseburger is enough for them.

For those of you that aspire to something beyond cheeseburgers let’s start from the bottom. Before we write/enjoy a poem we should consider a poem or even a verse we should probably consider the evocative power a simple collocation. Just check out the differences between these three phrases:

a) the grim truth     b) the naked truth    c) the unvarnished truth

Strictly speaking, no adjectives are exactly necessary to convey the idea. You can, for instance, “go B2” and just say “the truth is…”. People will get the message, right? But, of course, you can already say that. Let’s now try and take it up a notch, then.

Suppose you feel the need to emphasize the fact you’re about to reveal the truth of the matter without any kind of flourishes or euphemisms the most elegant option might well be the unvarnished truth. It alludes to a metaphoric varnish. It is evocative. The same is true of “a sugar-coated version”. There’s another metaphor right there: another type of coating. See the difference?

Anyhow, at this point in your learning process nobody expects you to come up with poetic language, but it is not a bad idea for you to try and learn to admire. That’s why I recommend that you take a listen to The Slowdown, the podcast published daily by U.S. Poet Laurate Tracy K. Smith. In her podcasts (which you can download) she shares other writers’ interesting poetic texts and includes an insightful introduction. That's the part you may find endlessly useful. Make the most of it. It's worth it.

Topicalization and objectivity

Sheldon Cooper: Evolution is not opinion. It's a fact.

Mary Cooper: And that's your opinion.

The electric can opener fluctuation

One of the most frustrating obstacles you can encounter in a conversation is the moment in which someone tries to counter a cold fact with an opinion. In the excerpt above, taken from an episode of The Big Bang Theory, we have an exchange between Sheldon Cooper (a scientist) and his mother (a fundamentalist Christian). If no respect is shown for facts then a conversation is quite unlikely to be successful. How can we express a certain degree of objectivity? For starters we can use formulas such as according to a UN report or a recent study conducted by the London School of Economics shows that... Of course sometimes we don't have that kind of reference readily available. No problem. That's when we play it safe, act cautiously and simply go with I may be wrong but I think that... or I am under the impression that...

A little bit of objectivity doesn't hurt anyone and goes a long way.

Another lexical strategy we should also master is the one linguists call topicalization. Whenever we discuss a subject, it is important to set some boundaries and establish the scope of your references. After all, there is precious little one can say about serious issues like unemployment, domestic violence or education without ever mentioning facts. Just imagine you say "according to the IMF, the rate of unemployment in Spain was 17.2 % in October of 2017" and your friend's reply is a terse "I don't agree".

I understand that a friendly chat in a bar may consist in a simple exchange of general opinions but the truth is that a productive conversation might demand a certain degree of "verbal signposting". Let's say we want to talk about life in general: is it better now than it used to be fifty years ago?

Saying something like "In my view life is much worse now" is quite an empty statement, isn't it? Does it refer to life in Spain? In Europe? On the whole planet? And does that opinion consider medical advances and pollution at the same time? It doesn't take an expert to realize that now we can benefit from scientific breakthroughs that just did not exist 50 years ago but, of course, the world was probably a lot less polluted half a century ago. So, how do we talk about it? Well... a safe approach may include a couple of topicalizing phrases like these:

In terms of healthcare...
Regarding civil rights...
If we consider the state of the oceans...
As far as biodiversity goes...
With respect to human rights...