The Redress of poetry: Seames Heaney

The redress of Poetry :

Professors of poetry ,apologist for it,practitioners of it ,from Sir Philip Sydney to Wallace Stevens,have benn trying since centuries to show us how poetry relates to our existence as citizens of society.The chief obstacle all these advocates feel is Plato's stand against poetry.As a moralist,Plato disapproved poetry,because it is immoral. As a philosopher he disapproves it because it is based on falsehood.Plato wants to persue truth at every cost but an art deals with illusion.In Plato's world of ideal,ther is no place for poetry and for the formation of an ideal state he wants that everything which is wrong must be removed and only useful and practical things should be introduced.

Sidney defended poetry by declaring that all imaginative literature falls under the head of poetry.He called Plato,among all the philosopher the most poetical.He further asserted that Plato was not against poetry but he was against the abuse of poetry.Similarly Seamus Heaney is of the view that poetic imagination seeks to redress what is wrong.Moreover 'useful' and 'practical' can be derived from the imaginary world provided by the  poets. It is just as that Government and revolutionaries take the society into their imaginary ideal world. In this context Seamus Heaney quotes Wallace Steven who says that,

" The nobility of poetry is violence from within that protects us from violence without.It is imagination pressing back against the pressure of reality."

Wallace Steven also declares the  poet a potent figure because he creates the world to which we turn incessantly and he gives life to the supreme fictions without which we are unable to concieve of that world.In this way,poetry through its own world gives solutions to the problems of our daily life.A political activist cannot present such solutions.He even wants poetry to serve his political agenda.He would demand the poet,either he is American or Irish or an English,to dehumanize the face of the enemy.While the poet ,as Sydney mentioned,idealizes humanity.

 TO illustrate this point further, Seames Heaney quotes Simon Weil who in her book,"Gravity and Grace" says,

"If we know in what way society is unbalanced we must do what we can to add weight to the tigher scale".

Infact Weil wants to say that in this real world, injustice and tyranny are the order of the day.TO create balance in this world ,poetry can perform a redressing effect.Clearly this idea, she derives from Christian teaching and from Christ's paradoxical identification with the plight. 

Heaney also quotes other defenders of poetry.For example Havel thinks that the redress of poetry is like an excersice of the virtue of hope as he says ,

"It is an orientation of spirit,an orientation of heart."

W.H Auden has given the famous principle of trinity--making,judging and knowing for understanding the poetic faculties of a poet; making means creation of a new world,judging means to judge in the light of poetic realities and knowing simply means grip on social and political realities.

So Seames Heaney thinks that poetry focuses on from delight to wisdom.Moreover its cadence(rise and fall) ,etymology  and rhymes carry readers in the realm of wonder.Poetry is also inventive in spirit and principle.In the post colonial period of late twentieth century poetry has given voice to denied expression in the ethnic,social and political life.But it is not possible for poetry to promote cultural and political change and yet maintain its integrity .Yeates for example tried to write short lyrics and poetic drama where every speech would be short and concentrated but his personal stylistic ambition was overcome by his national irish spirit and a reaction to English style is found in his works.

Poetry ,Seames Heaney,asserts whether it belongs to old political system or new one it has to be a working model of inclusive conciousness.It should not simplyfy.Its projections and invention should be match for the complex reality which surrounds it and out of which it is generated .As long as the co-ordinates of the imagined things corrospond to those of the world that we live in and endure,poetry is fulfilling its counterweighting function.Jorge Luis expresses similar views when he says,

"Poetry lies in the meeting of poem and reader,nor in the lines of symbols printed on pages of a book.What is essential is aesthetic act, the thrill, the almost physical emotion that comes with each reading."

In this regard,Seamus Heaney considers the poetry of George Herbert,an excellent example of it.He also analysis a poem "Pulley" of George Herbert and illustrates his point that poetry brings balance in the world of hard realities.