May 8, 2007 8:20 AM

the poetry and the prose; the intellectual and the material

Lately, in my AP Literature and Composition class, we have been reading E.M. Forster's cunningly satiric novel Howards End. At one point, the main heroine Margaret Schlegel proffers the idea, "only connect the poetry and prose," and she is talking about integrating the intellectual aspect of life with the material. She does so as a character of sensibility and culture when she is about to marry a man who is pragmatic and business minded. The novel sets up a constellation of polarities between idealism and pragmatism; intellectualism and materialism; feminine and masculine.

It leads one to think of the relevance of such a book in today's cultural arena, particularly when cultural critics constantly harp on about the extent to which we live amid such hurried materialism, and it is a question that comes out of the book for these students: How to connect the poetry and prose?

If we can borrow the central metaphors of the book to talk about American culture, we can then look at the degree to which the culture is already poetic or prosaic. To talk of the age as one of "information," we immediately become more prosaic, particularly as that information is conveyed by technology. However, technology may make art and music more immediately available as well, urging us toward the poetic. It really depends on how one defines "information" and what that "information" finally is. The arrival and thriving of on-line literary reviews is an example of technology making the culture more poetic, quite literally.

I think it is too easy to call American culture materialistic, and thereby prosaic. We have at the core of our culture an inherent pragmatism, but I suspect that is well-balanced at times by idealism. But, can we learn something about balance from Margaret Schlegel? Are there polarities that are worthy of attention? Is American Culture too prosaic? Can we integrate more poetry?

It is difficult, at times, to talk about the world in terms of polarities, because it may seem reductive. Nevertheless, some value remains in an such an examination of applied terms such as these. I listen to students complain about the degree to which they feel the educational system in our country has become far too prosaic, and a longing for a more poetic approach to learning. I suspect what we do best here at Mercersburg is integrate the poetry and prose.

These, again, are merely metaphors to talk about intellectualism and materialism; idealism and pragmatism; tendencies not absolutes. Books, like Howards End, amaze me again and again with their ability to lend us metaphors to talk about our own world as distant as theirs may be.