"I Hate All Poets!" Writing Tutorial Part VII

Welcome to The Scriptorium, Writing Tutorial Part VII, today continuing our sub series on defining poetry and why it is so important to civilization (remember, The Scriptorium saved civilization), which is just shorthand for a world and culture shaped by Christianity and the Bible's view of everything, from politics to art, from economics to music, from commerce to literature, from plumbing to poetry, and beyond. Why is poetry important? Why is it uniquely despised by Postmodernity? I will offer some practical and delightful steps to recovering poetry in your own reading and in your family.

Alexis de Tocqueville, in his Democracy in America, has very perceptive observations about poetry, what it is, and why we Americans have so much trouble appreciating it, and producing it in any enduring fashion.

Winston Churchill and poetry, how it unlocked his imagination, his inner strength, and his tongue, enabling him to inspire a defeated people to fight on, never give in. The most defining feature of his education was discovering the power of poetry and memorizing 1,200 poems, reciting them around the campfire during the Boar War. He scripted his BBC radio speeches in iambic pentameter. 

Where to begin? The Psalms, first and last, are the grandest poetry ever penned. Try Shakespeare sonnets, 62, 116, good places to put in. Let the cadence and images wash over you. Read aloud. Poetry was meant to be heard. Like this...