Poetry is a high art, one that takes plenty of labor to get just right. So says the speaker in "Adam's Curse." Each line needs plenty of editing and re-editing before it's good, and that's a lot of work. What's more, it shouldn't look like work. But therein lies the problem: if writing looks effortless, some folks might think that it actually was effortless. That's why so many folks think writing is an "idle" way to spend time. Ultimately, this depresses the speaker (and us too, honestly), and the end of the poem finds him pretty bummed out in general about the state of things, including the state of writing in a society that no longer treasures beautiful old books. Sad.
Questions About Literature and Writing
- Why is editing so important to the speaker? What imagery does he use when discussing the writing of a line?
- What makes poetry less useless than laboring, at least in the speaker's mind?
- Why is the memorization and quoting of "beautiful books" so important to the speaker? What does he think is happening to this practice? Do you agree with his take?
Chew on This
The speaker thinks that poetry isn't good unless it 1) takes a lot of work to compose and 2) appears effortless. That's just too narrow a view to account for all the good poetry that's floating out there in the world.
Poetry is a not a tool, it's an escape from a world obsessed with effort and profit. Trying to compare it to other avenues of "work" is just plain wrong.