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'How to Read a Poem … and Start a Poetry Circle' by Molly Peacock

Sharing love of poetry in communal way

Sunday, October 10, 1999

By Rina Ferrarelli

	How to Read a Poem … and Start a Poetry Circle By Molly Peacock Penguin Putnam $22.95

In this small anthology of poems and related essays, the poet Molly Peacock tells us that poetry, usually a solitary act, can also be a communal activity, a shared pleasure.

After giving the three systems of a poem as an aid to reading it, she illustrates her method with 13 poems and accompanying essays. The poems are all short and lyrics rather than narratives.

Each chapter has a title that suggests a theme:

Chapter 3, “A Comfort Poem,” is about Jane Kenyon’s “Let Evening Come”; chapter 6, “Self Portraits,” deals with Marilyn Nelson’s “The Locker Room” and John Clare’s “I Am”; chapter 11, “Taking a Bite,” talks about Margaret Atwood’s “Asparagus.”

Some of the other poets are Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Bishop, Philip Larkin and May Swenson. The last poem is by Peacock. She ends the book with chapters on how to start a poetry circle and with suggestions for further reading.

Her writing is accessible, her tone inclusive. The subject may be dense and mysterious; still, she feels, it’s possible to talk about it in simple terms, and it’s certainly worth the effort. What she calls the three systems of a poem are the line, the sentence and the image.

“Poetry,” she says, “is really the fusion of three arts: music, storytelling, and painting. The line displays the poem’s music, the sentence displays its thoughts, and the image displays the vision of the poet. When we talk about the body of a poem -- its anatomy -- the line is like a skeletal system, the sentence is like a circulatory system, and the image is like a central nervous system. That’s all.”

She goes on to expand on these concepts, concluding confidently: “If the line is a way a child apprehends intuitively, and the sentence is the way an adult apprehends intellectually, then the image functions as a two-way mirror between these states of understanding. It is both instinctive and constructed. When you are at a loss to understand a poem, following the images (which means following the nouns) will often bring you to a clarity you can use to make sense of the rest of the poem.”

Peacock, a former teacher, reaches enthusiastically to a broad audience, people who love poetry and people who may be a little afraid of or mystified by it, adults who may want to start a poetry-reading club, and students and teachers at a public school.

All could enjoy the book and find much to talk about. The insightful essays are never so exhaustive that they cover everything. They, of course, represent only one view, while many others could be generated by the readings and discussions. And in some, “Wulf and Eadwacer,” for instance, the mystery persists; in others your ideas may be diametrically opposed to the author’s.

Rationalizing Bishop’s intention in “The Filling Station” will be one such essay. Some people I know have a hard time getting past Bishop’s condescending tone.

These poems and essays are a place to start, not a place to end, a fruitful talk about poetry. And I imagine that wanting to share your pleasure in poetry -- the impetus for a poetry circle, a gathering of friends who love poetry -- might be very different from getting together to workshop your own work.

With less involvement of yourself, the rewards ought to be aesthetically purer. But if we follow Peacock’s example, not less personal. In some ways, the book also works as a biography. Peacock, who has published several collections of poetry including “Original Love” and “Take Heart” and was the founder of the Poetry in Motion Program, has also published “Paradise Piece by Piece,” a memoir. Still, even in this how-to manual about reading poetry, she enriches the material with references to herself, crediting poetry with helping her to make connections to others and to discover her innermost desires.

She claims that poetry guided her through friendships, to marriage to a long-lost high school boyfriend and to her own vocation.

Rina Ferrarelli is a poet and literary translator of poetry who lives in Pittsburgh.