Aquest passat divendres es varen trobar alguns dels membres del club de Lectura en anglès. L'Anna Champeney ens ha fet arribat el resum de la sessió:
"In this session we discussed “Falling Awake”, by prize-winning British poet, Alice Oswald. The session started with some questions: What is poetry for? Why and how do we read poetry (if we read poetry at all)? Is reading poetry any different to reading novels or non-fiction? And how does reading poetry in a second language affect the reader´s experience?
Oswald is one of Britain´s most renowned living poets and she is often described as a “nature poet”. The group found her poems to be far more complex and multi-faceted. We spoke at length about Oswald´s innovative and sensorial use of language and how her poetry is intended to be spoken out loud. Oswald´s use of rhythm in her poems is remarkable. Online lectures and inverviews with Oswald show that she is inspired by traditions of oral story-telling and poetry. In fact, she maintains that her “references” go further back in time, proposing universal and timeless parallels between poetry and the essential rythms and sounds of nature itself – the rhythmic natural poetry of natural cycles – of the rain, the winds, of life and death – in time.
Connecting to universal and timeless traditions of poetry does not mean that Oswald does not respond to past poetic traditions, however. She is clearly very erudite, and as an expert on the ancient greek poet, Homer, many of her poems refer to ancient Roman and Greek myths and poetic forms.
The group discussed at length Oswald´s keen observation of nature and the way apparently “simple” observations of nature – from flies to a dried-up river are transformed into profound, multi-layered reflections on universal themes, using surgically-precise descriptions. Several members mentioned how poems like “Swan” have left a lasting impression. The power of Oswald´s poetry emerges drop by drop; perhaps multiple readings are needed in order to understand the poems. We discovered in the session how Oswald´s poetry style conforms, in part, to a “post-modern” poetry tradition that includes unfinished sentences or “snippets” and blurring boundaries of time and space.*
Oswald´s poems have a powerful sense of place – rural England. For native readers it is pleasurable to read of once-familiar landscapes, weather, or references to popular culture but native and non-native group members alike shared in the pleasure of discussing words and terms like “jumble sale”*. However, as there are phrases in Oswald´s poems that defy full understanding by both native and non-native speakers – perhaps all can hover in a state of pleasurable part-understanding, accept a wider personal definition of “interpretation” or poetic “appreciation” – and enjoy the conversations.
Oswald received a classical training at university and is an expert in Homer. This led us to discuss her use of classical myth in her poetry. But the main impression, shared by all members present at the session, was of the acute observation of nature, the Post-modern poetry – use of fragmented images, blurred boundaries of time and space. A very enjoyable session which concluded with a general agreement that it would be good to include poetry in future programming.
The Sant Gregori Book club is a local group run by its members. “We come from different walks of life and different countries, united simply by our love of reading books and discussing them with each other”. New members are always welcome. Contact the Sant Marti i Pol library in Sant Gregori for more details. The next meeting is on 21 November and is 21 Lessons for the 21st century, non-fiction by Yuval Noah Harari."
