The Importance, Power, and Beauty of LANGUAGE

 

Chapter 8

The Importance, Power, and Beauty of LANGUAGE

Hyrum W. Smith
1943-2019

Earlier in my career, a publisher hired me to write a series of case studies for a collegiate textbook on entrepreneurship. One of the entrepreneurs I interviewed for this project was my uncle, Hyrum W. Smith, an originator of the Franklin Day Planner and a cofounder—along with Dr. Stephen R. Covey—of FranklinCovey Company.

An unusually talented and successful salesman and businessman, Smith has left an indelible mark on the fields of time management and personal development. His life and career have also hugely influenced my own.

During Hyrum's heyday around the turn of the 21st century, he was serving as CEO of a publicly traded company (NYSE), writing best-selling books, and commanding five-figure speaking fees. And it all began in his basement in Centerville, Utah, in the early 1980s. Suffice it to say, he was an ideal candidate for a case study on entrepreneurship. 

At the end of our interview together, I asked Hyrum what advice he would give to young college students interested in becoming entrepreneurs. As I awaited his answer, I assumed he would say something about sales, hard work, ambition, or personal responsibility and character. 

To my surprise, his reply had nothing to do with any of those things. In fact, his response had nothing to do with anything that is stereotypically associated with entrepreneurial success. 

Hyrum W. Smith relaxing at his Eagle
Mountain Ranch in southwestern Utah near
the end of his life. His massive library is upstairs.

This is what he told me:

"When I was just a boy, my father had me memorize a statement that said, 'You cannot think any deeper than your vocabulary will allow you to think.' If you really examine anyone who has been authentically successful as an entrepreneur—or in any other field, for that matter—you will discover that they have a large vocabulary. 

"As I reflect back over my career, I attribute much of my success to a love of the English language and my commitment to read deeply and widely, and to study speech and language. Anyone who wants to be successful in this world has got to read books, and lots of them. This requires a willingness to set aside electronic devices, social media, video games, and other distractions, and the discipline to stick to the task of reading—even (and especially) when it might seem boring. In order to learn independently of others and expand your vocabulary, you must pay the price to spend time with good books, including the dictionary. There is no other way! The size of your vocabulary will, to a large extent, determine how much success you enjoy—or don't enjoy—in your life and career."  

I have visited Hyrum's ranch home in the southwestern United States. You should see the size of his personal library; the man practiced what he preached! Over the course of my life and career, I earnestly and enthusiastically embraced this advice; and now, I pass it along to YOU!

Language is potential power. When used properly, relevantly, and in a timely manner, it becomes kinetic (or actual) power in your life and career. Polished communication skills enable and empower you to teach, impress, inspire, model, negotiate, persuade, uplift, and otherwise do much good in your relationships, career, and life. 

Few things will contribute more to—or detract from—your personal and professional credibility and reputation than how you communicate. When you can speak and write clearly, concisely, and cogently, other people are more likely to pay attention, respond positively, and treat you with respect. 

When you fail to do so, your power and influence is diminished, and you may even become a cause of frustration and irritation to those with whom you live and work.  

Three C's of Effective Communication

CLARITY.....................................Is my speech and writing CLEAR?

CONCISION................................Is my speech and writing CONCISE?

COGENCY...................................Is my speech and writing COMPELLING (or persuasive)?

If you are interested in increasing your personal power and influence, you must make a commitment to becoming a better reader, writer, speaker, and critical thinker. In saying this, I am not asking you to become a professional public orator or published author—although some readers will feel an ambition to take it to that higher level. What I am inviting you to do is pay the price to steadily improve your communication skills over time.

Dr. Stephen R. Covey was a master communicator, and he has called COMMUNICATION SKILLS "the most important skill we can be working on as adults." 

"Communication is the most important skill we can be working on as adults."

—Stephen R. Covey

I would wager—and I know Dr. Covey would agree with me—that it is similarly important for children, adolescents, and young adults to master these vital interpersonal relationship skills. No matter what our age, we should all take seriously the sound advice o Jim Rohn, who exhorted us all: Don't be lazy in language. 

"Don't be lazy in language."

—Jim Rohn

Drawing Deeply from the Wells of Wisdom

As you read this textbook, you will notice I have gone to great lengths to include relevant excerpts from the timeless works of great writers, speakers, thinkers, educators, leaders, philosophers, scientists, and theologians. In fact, one of the reasons this work is so substantive (long) is my decision to not merely garnish the text with such priceless additions, but to deluge and marinate it therein. These pervasive and continual inclusions support and enrich the material in this textbook from start to finish. I hope they will inspire and motivate YOU as much as they have me.  

I express my heartfelt gratitude to these enlightened and gifted men and women who worked, struggled, and endured tremendous adversity to achieve extraordinary things and become remarkable human beings. Their achievements and examples of personal change and growth shine forth from the pages of history as a burnished beacon of Self-Action Leadership light and truth. This wisdom can serve as a "lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path."  (1)

John Donne
1571-1631

These great hearts, minds, and souls spent countless hours honing their character and intellect in preparation to compose timeless texts that serve as helpful aides and powerful guides to us today. I hope the excerpts I share from their collective work will inspire you to study their lives and literature in greater detail. Without the teachings of these great men and women, this textbook would be a much shorter and shallower work. In the slightly doctored words of the English poet, John Donne:

"No Literary Work is an Island, entire of itself; every text is a piece of a Collection, a part of the canon. If a sentence be washed away from a paragraph, the Chapter is the less, as well as if a Section were, or an anecdote of thy friends, or of thine own were. Every Author's exclusion diminishes me, because I partake of the Lexicon and Library. Never send therefore to know for whom the titles toll; They toll for thee."  (2)

Learning the Valuable Lessons of Language

From associations with my father—a career secondary English teacher—and other important figures in my life, I gained an appreciation of the power, importance, and beauty of language at a young age. To begin with, my aunts and grandmothers preached the importance of good grammar and were quick to call attention to grammatical gaffes committed by their grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. Over the years I must have heard: "It is not Jessie and I; it is Jessie and me," or "me doesn't do anything" a hundred times. 

In addition to this technical drilling at home, my family—both immediate and extended—would often engage each other in extensive conversations on meaningful subjects, sometimes late into the night. When riding in an automobile—and particularly on road trips—my dad and I would sometimes study vocabulary words together and continually converse on all sorts of fascinating topics. These father-son tête-à-têtes and other familial repartee stimulated my intellect and deepened my relationships with family members.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1807-1882

One day, after returning home from school as an elementary student, I found my dad sitting peacefully on the couch in our living room. I don't recall the conversation that prefaced what happened next, but all-of-a-sudden Dad broke forth into a beautiful reading of Alfred Noyes' timeless classic, The Highwayman. I was entranced by the beauty of Noyes' verse, the suspense of the poem's narrative, the obvious passion and skill my father lent to this spontaneous exercise, and his natural inclination to heed Longfellow's counsel:

Then read from the treasured volume
    The poem of thy choice
And lend to the rhyme of the poet
    The beauty of thy voice.  (3)

Click HERE to read more about this poetic experience with Dad.  

JJ's college Vocabulary Journal

In college, the most important notebook I kept was not for any of my classes, but rather an independent "Vocabulary Book" which contained an ever-growing list of new words I came across in my assigned readings, along with their definitions and practice sentences. Whenever I hear or read a word I don't know, I feel frustrated... but in a positive way that impels me to look up the word in the dictionary. 

And I keep looking up and otherwise studying the same word until I own it.

I have invested a lot of independent time and effort over the years in this practice. Doing so requires patience, persistence, discipline, and focus. It also requires that you spend time away from something that may be more urgent (like a homework assignment that is due tomorrow). But the effort and investment have been immensely and immeasurably worth it; the reality of the SAL Textbook and hundreds of accompanying blog articles is proof of this fact. 

Inside page of JJ's Vocabulary Journal

Some people may think there isn't much need for a dictionary after completing one's formal education. At Freedom Focused, we strongly disagree! And I personally disagree vehemently. Despite being a published author with a Doctoral degree, I still use the dictionary on a regular basis. When I am in the thick of a writing project, I sometimes use a dictionary and/or a thesaurus many times in a single day or writing session. A dictionary and thesaurus are, without question, two of my best friends and most valuable tools as a professional writer.  

"But," you may say, "I am not a professional writer, nor do I ever intend to be." While that may be the case for most people who read this work, the fact remains that you still have to write, speak, and otherwise communicate with others no matter what field your job is in. As such, chances are good that you are still expected to communicate in a professional manner with your colleagues and clients, and the success—or lack thereof—of your communication can often make or break your long-term success.  

I know a man of science who has a Ph.D. in chemistry. When he was in college, he didn't think mastering writing was very important aside from passing his required general education courses in English. He was, after all, going to become a chemist, and chemists don't need to be skilled in speaking or writing, right?

That was what he told himself.

Even a chemist has to communicate

But over time, he found himself rising through the ranks of the chemical industry; and the higher he rose in his organization's leadership hierarchy, the more he was required to write and speak and the less he was required to do chemistry. As a man in his mid-fifties, he confessed to me: "Jordan, I am now in upper-level management and about all I do is write." 

Another example of the importance and value of communication skills is the former U.S. President, Barack Obama. Regardless of one's political opinion of Mr. Obama, he was almost universally lauded for his communication skills. As the youngest president in U.S. history who had never served in the military (Theodore Roosevelt and JFK) or been the governor of a state (Bill Clinton), Barack Obama had the thinnest leadership resume in presidential history. Despite this fact, he rose to the very top of his career ladder largely on the wings of his ability to communicate.

Talk about putting word power to productive use!

In front of the White House north lawn in April 2007
when Lina and I were dating.

If you study this former Commander-in-Chief's early life, you will discover that he paid the price over long periods of time to become a polished communicator. This price included being awakened by his mother as early as 4:30 a.m. to spend extra time studying English and other subjects she deemed vital to his future success. Like most other kids, the young Barack didn't particularly like these early morning study sessions, but the results in his life worked their way right up into the history books!

Barack and Michelle Obama are also well known for placing a high priority on the education of their two daughters, Sasha and Malia. During their time in the White House—and beyond—they enforced a highly disciplined schedule that allowed ample time for homework and studying and minimal time for television and other media distractions. 

Such practices represent and exemplify non-partisan standards that any reasonable person can and should admire, applaud, and replicate in their own personal and family life, regardless of one's politics.

Like my Uncle Hyrum, I attribute much of my success personally and professionally to my ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and cogently. I am where I am today in large part because I was willing to pay the price in time and effort to learn how to effectively read, write, think, converse, and orate. Few things make a more positive impression on a person or audience than clear, intelligent, and respectful speech.

Similarly, few things make a more negative impression on an audience or person than speech that is halting, convoluted, ignorant, or disrespectful. It is therefore in the interest of everyone to study language, speech, and vocabulary in a concerted effort to become a skilled communicator. As previously pointed out, you will have to communicate in both school and the labor force—no matter what field you decide to pursue. 

Thus, the extent to which you succeed in both your education and career will hinge—at least in part—on how you communicate with your teachers, supervisors, colleagues, clients, etc. Your communication skills may even make the difference in whether you get hired, fired, promoted, demoted, or given a raise (or not). And the good news is that language is something everyone can work on and improve. It requires discipline, focus, hard work, and persistence, but the results can profoundly affect your life and career in a variety of positive ways.  

George III of England
Even in the 2020s, the King's English
still reigns internationally

In conjunction with striving to master your native language, it is also vital to study English. This is because English is the de facto language of international academics, business, and journalism. Most highly successful people in today's global marketplace speak English proficiently, if not fluently—regardless what their native tongue may be. 

A good example of this is Jack Ma, the wealthy Chinese entrepreneur and cofounder of the Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Capital. Ma is one of the wealthiest people in China and grew up speaking Chinese. But Ma got his entrepreneurial start when he was just a boy riding his bike 45-minutes away from his home to a large international hotel so he could learn English by conversing with foreigners. 

Today, Jack Ma is one of the most successful businessmen in the world, in part because of his determination to learn the most prominent international language—ENGLISH.  

To further empower your language skills, I encourage you to gain access to a good electronic dictionary app. Looking up words electronically is more efficient than flipping through pages the old-fashioned way. I also challenge you to start keeping your own vocabulary notebook in your SAL Journal.

One easy way to build word power is to commit to learning ONE new word each day. To help you in this endeavor, you can sign up to receive a free word-of-the-day in your email inbox by visiting the A.Word.A.Day website at www.wordsmith.org/awad.   

There are few better ways to enhance your overall intellect than to build word power. Chances are you will also find words in this textbook with which you are unfamiliar. When that happens, don't just keep reading. Stop and take time to look up the word, jot down its definition in your SAL Journal, and then compose a couple of practice sentences using the new word. 

If you will take the time and exercise the self-discipline to do this, I promise that your study of this textbook will be far more meaningful and fruitful. Plus, your vocabulary will continue to increase and expand, which will translate into authority, power, influence, and opportunities in your life, career, and relationships.  

For anyone reading this book, it is my sincere hope that you will come out on the other side not just motivated to better lead yourself, but to become more culturally, historically, and philosophically literate. Likewise, I hope you will obtain a greater understanding, appreciation, and command of your native language as well as the English language.  

I challenge you to develop your capacity for clear, concise, and cogent communication as both a speaker and a writer. Doing so will endow you with the authority and influence that follows all those who have superior command of language.

Joseph Fielding Smith
1899-1964
Professor of Speech and Drama, Play Director,
Professional oral reader, Dr. JJ's maternal Grandfather,
and a Master of the English Language

More than 80 years ago, two of the world's preeminent authorities of speech—Charles H. Woolbert and Joseph F. Smith  (4)—wrote eloquently of the importance of speech. Their words are as important today as they were in the 1930s. I have taken the liberty to reproduce a quote of theirs with slight variations in order to make it applicable to all mediums of expression.  

"The one ability which grants to [men and women] preeminent superiority over all other animal creation is his [and her] ability to talk and write. ... Communication is desperately fundamental to our civilization. So integral a part of civilization is it, that it has too largely been taken for granted by the people at large. [As human beings] we are strange that way. Things close to us we often neglect. The spoken and written word is so vital a thing that when it fails to convey its message the loss is great enough to cause distress. Consequently, in the presence of the mumbler, the droner, and the mouther of words, men are disappointed and pained. Bankruptcy of speech or script is a solemn affliction because language is the crowning achievement of the human mind and the very cementing principle of civilization. Our value as members of society is judged in large measure according as our language meets with the approval or condemnation of those who hear or read it."  (5)  

Language is important, but it is more than that; because it has the potential to be both powerful and beautiful—even sacred! Moreover, it is never too late to learn, improve upon, or simply brush-up on an art and science that is absolutely indispensable to both your short- and long-term effectiveness and success—no matter what your life station or profession. 

In lauding the incredible merits and power of speech, I do not wish to overstate the point. The ability to communicate effectively is certainly not everything. Just as paper currency must be backed up by the tangible strength of gold, credible governments, and healthy economies, speech must be backed up by character, competence, and courage if it is to create positive results that last. Otherwise, speech alone can create a great deal of mischief and malaise—as the silver-tongued tyrant Adolf Hitler so demonically demonstrated!

Thus, we would do well to take to heart the piercing and poignant reminder of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt—a man who knew a thing or two about the effective use of language:

1858-1919

"It is a sign of marked political weakness in any commonwealth if the people tend to be carried away by mere oratory, if they tend to value words in and for themselves, as divorced from the deeds for which they are supposed to stand. The phrase-maker, the phrase-monger, the ready talker, however great his power, whose speech does not make for courage, sobriety, and right understanding, is simply a noxious element in the body politic, and it speaks ill for the public if he [or she] has power over them. To admire the gift of oratory without regard to the moral quality behind the gift is to do wrong to the republic."  (6)

In this same vein, we would likewise do well to remind ourselves of what the great American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who once said: Words—so innocent and powerless they are as standing in a dictionary—how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them!

"Words—so innocent and powerless they are as standing in a dictionary—how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them!"

—Nathaniel Hawthorne

Sir Winston Churchill
1874-1965

Only a basic understanding of World War II history is necessary to comprehend how prominently this truth was revealed in the epic polarity separating Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill—both masters of their respective tongues. Indeed, as history has amply evinced, the currency of language will only bring about short-term results unless it is backed up by the gold standard of conscience and principle. 

It is no surprise then, that many of the world's noblest figures possessed ample capacities for both communication and conscience, while many of the world's most fearsome fiends were only interested in manipulating others through their expertise in rhetoric and propaganda.  

The Beauty of Language

There is more to language than the import derived from its potential power and influence. When crafted with wisdom and skill, language can also be beautiful, elegant, and melodious. With the right syntax and tone in place, language has the capacity to empower, enliven, ennoble, inspire, and uplift. This is especially true when words promote the development of circumspect character and personal integrity.

Since I was just a little boy, I have always been deeply inspired by words well placed, sentences clearly crafted, and literature that is luminously lettered with enlightened banners of truth. In organizing the material in this textbook, I have gone to great lengths to ensure that you hear from not just my pen, but also the ink of those whose character and compositions I deeply admire and respect, and who have so eloquently considered how we might best lead and live our lives—for our own advantage and the benefit of others.  

To illustrate the beauty of language, I have reprinted excerpts from five passages of English poetry and prose that I find particularly eloquent and instructive. I invite you to read these passages and then use the questions below to reflect on them in your SAL Journal.  

William Shakespeare
1564-1616

Polonius'Advice to Laertes

There—my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Death of Polonius
at the hand of Hamlet

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, nor gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;...
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all,—to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.  (7)

By: William Shakespeare

 

From The Present Crisis

1819-1891

When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's
   aching breast
Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to

   west,
And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within
   him climb
To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime

Of the century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of
   Time. ...

For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears
   along,
Round the earth's electric circle, the swift flash of right
   or wrong;
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's vast

   frame
Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or
   shame;—
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal
   claim. ...

Drafted after the Battle of Antietem in

1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the

Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,

1863, freeing all slaves in Union-held territory.

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is
   great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm

   of fate,
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market's din,
List the ominous stern whispers from the Delphic cave
   within,—
"They enslave their children's children who make com-
   promise with sin." ...

New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good
   uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep
   abreast of Truth;
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must
   Pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the des-
   perate winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted
  key.  (8)

By: James Russell Lowell

Abraham Lincoln Statue inside the
Lincoln Memorial; Washington, D.C.

Abraham Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bixby

Executive Mansion

Washington, Nov 21, 1864

To Mrs. Bixby,     Boston, Mass.

                    Dear Madam.

                                         I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 

     Yours very sincerely and respectfully.

       A. Lincoln.

"On the walls of Brasenose College, Oxford University, England, this letter of the 'rail-splitter' President hangs as a model of purest English, rarely, if ever, surpassed."  (9)

From An American Bible

I KNOW: ...

Elbert Hubbard
1857-1915
Killed with his wife aboard the
RMS Lusitania during the Great War

That if I would secure reasonable happiness for myself, I must give out good-
       will to others;
That to better my own condition I must practice mutuality;
That bodily health is necessary to continued and effective work;
That I am ruled largely by habit;
That habit is a form of exercise;
That up to a certain point, exercise means increased strength or ease in effort;
That all life is the expression of the spirit;
That my spirit influences my body,
And my body influences my spirit; ...
And that to eliminate fear my life must be dedicated to useful work—work in
       which I forget myself;
That fresh air in abundance, and moderate, systematic exercise in the open air
       are the part of wisdom;
That I can not afford, for my own sake, to be resentful nor quick to take offense;
That happiness is a great power for good,
And that happiness is not possible without moderation and equanimity;
That time turns all discords into harmony if [people] will but be kind and
       patient,
And that the reward which life holds out for work is not idleness nor rest, nor
       immunity from work, but increased capacity, GREATER

       DIFFICULTIES, MORE WORK.  (10)

By: Elbert Hubbard

I Have a Dream

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929-1968

"This is our hope. ... With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together ... to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. ...

"So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. 

"But not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountain side. Let freedom ring. ...

"When we allow freedom to ring—when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, and every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last." 

By: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

MLK delivered this speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., USA, on August 28, 1963. 

In Your Journal

1. What are some of your thoughts, questions, or reflections on the five excerpts shared above?

2. Of the five excerpts shared above, what passage is your favorite?  Why? 

3. What is something you could do beginning today to improve your vocabulary and language skills in your native tongue? 

4. If English is not your first language, what could you do beginning today to become more proficient and/or fluent in English?

 SAL Master Challenge

EXERCISE  #2

Self-action leaders BUILD WORD POWER

Intelligent, culturally literate self-action leaders pay the price to develop large vocabularies. Doing so builds confidence and empowers them in a variety of ways in their lives and careers.

Exercise #2 of the SAL Master Challenge is an opportunity to develop the habit of Building Word Power as you read and study books and other written material or hear new words from teachers or other professionals.     

TASKS to COMPLETE

1).  Select 100 words you do not know from challenging reading material (like this book) and record them in your SAL Journal. 

2).  Record each word's part/s of speech, etymology, and definition/s. 

3).  Practice using the word in your journal by writing a unique sentence for the definitions of each word.

Note: This exercise is not meant to be done all at once or in a few days time; that would be exhausting! Take your time and work on this bit-by-bit over-time while concurrently completing other SAL Master Challenge exercises.  

I have completed the SAL Master Challenge EXERCISE #2

Your initials:__________         AP initials:__________

—Dr. JJ

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

Author's Note: This is the 364th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 177th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.   

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Chapter 8 Notes

1).  Slightly doctored version of Psalms 119:105 (Old Testament)

2).  Donne's actual quote reads:  "No Man is an Island, entire of itself, every. man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod by washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a Promontory were, as well as if a Manor of thy friends, or of thine own were; Any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee." Quoted in Booty, J. (1990). John Donne: Selections From Divine Poems, Sermons, Devotions, and Prayers. New York, NY: Paulist Press. Page 58. 

3).  Longfellow, H.W. (1912). The Poetical Works of Longfellow. London, UK: Henry Frowde (Oxford University Press). Page 131. 

4).  Charles Henry Woolbert was an esteemed professor of speech at the University of Iowa and Joseph F. Smith was an eminent professor of speech at the Universities of Wisconsin, Utah, and Hawaii. Smith is also the father of Hyrum W. Smith—cofounder of FranklinCovey Company—and Dr. JJ's maternal grandfather.

According to Andrew T. Weaver, former Head of the Speech Department at the University of Wisconsin: "Joseph F Smith ... [is] one of the outstanding leaders of our profession. He is an inspiring lecturer and a powerful interpreter of literature." W. Norwood Brigance, former Head of Speech at Wabash College added: "Joseph F. Smith is one of the half dozen top-flight readers in all America. A few may equal him, but none surpass him. In the highest and finest sense of the term, he is an artist."  

5).  Woolbert, C.H. and Smith, J.F. (1934). The Fundamental of Speech: A Textbook of Delivery. New York, NY: Harper and Brothers Publishers. Pages 3-6.

6).  Roosevelt, T. (2004). Citizenship in a Republic, in Auchincloss, L. (Ed.) Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches. The Library of America. Page 787. Speech delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on April 10, 1910, a year-and-a-half after Roosevelt had vacated the U.S. Presidency.  

7).  Shakespeare, W. (2014). The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. San Diego, CA: Canterbury Classics. Page 741. Hamlet: The Prince of Denmark. Act I, Scene III, Lines 62-77, 80-86. 

8).  Cook, R.J. (Editor). (1929). One Hundred and One Famous Poems: With a Prose Supplement. Chicago, IL: The Cable Company. Google Books edition. Pages 33-35, 37.

9).  Cook, R.J. (Editor). (1929). One Hundred and One Famous Poems: With a Prose Supplement. Chicago, IL: The Cable Company. Google Books edition. Page 174.

10).  Hubbard, E. (1946). An American Bible (Alice Hubbard, Ed.) New York, NY: Wm H. Wise & Co., Inc. Pages 7-8. 

A Poetic Autoethnography

 

Chapter 2

A Poetic Autoethnography

My Father
Rex Buckley Jensen
Circa 1979

As a young boy, one of my cherished pastimes was perusing the books in my maternal grandmother's home library as well as the bookshelves of my father's home office and schoolroom. My maternal grandfather, a professor of speech and drama, had compiled a library of many thousands of books throughout his life. Although he died in 1964 (fifteen years prior to my birth in 1979), his impressive collection remained in my grandmother's possession until her own passing in 1992. 

As a lad, I spent many hours in her voluminous home library and continually borrowed books to take home and read. After Grandmother's death, I annexed a few dozen or so of my favorites, a few of which remain on my shelves to this day. A similar pattern of annexation played out with my dad's smaller, but still well-endowed library (although now it is even bigger than Grandma Smith's).  

My father is a Renaissance Man.

A land owner/developer and certified general contractor before I was even born, he was responsible for the construction and/or oversight of 57 homes, including the one where I lived for the first seven years of my life and then four additional years in high school. He also built an apartment complex with dozens of units; a project he oversaw and managed for over two decades. Despite his many achievements as a builder, construction work was just a slice of his eclectic career.

Dr. JJ before he was a Doc—circa 2003

I, myself, spent several part-time years

building shelves with my older brothers,

although their skills far outshined my own.

Dad was perhaps first and foremost an entrepreneur, dabbling in a variety of different ventures over the years. These undertakings included such diverse activities as: professional photography, teaching time management seminars, selling trampolines, and constructing custom-built shelves in customer's garages and storage areas.

My brothers and I helped Dad with his trampoline and then later his shelving business. The legacy of this latter venture would extend to his sons and grandkids, who continued the tradition of shelf-building in their college years and beyond. One son (Wayne) still builds shelves to this very day as the owner of "JB Shelving" in northern Utah. The "JB" stands for Jensen Brothers, and Wayne is assisted by several of Dad's grandsons and granddaughters in what has become a very successful business over the years and decades since Dad first introduced us to the opportunity.  

Click HERE to visit the JB Shelving online website and see Dad's legacy alive and well in the 2020s. 

While Dad dabbled—and sometimes immersed himself—in many different avocations over the course of his career, he was first and foremost a middle and high school English teacher, a career that spanned some 20 years when he wasn't anxiously engaged in one of the many other endeavors noted above.

After retiring from teaching, Dad—an eternal optimist—spent many years writing a weekly column entitled "Life is Good," which was published in The San Juan Record—a weekly newspaper based in his hometown of Monticello, Utah. In his 60s and 70s, Dad and his second wife, Marcia, spent many years building a spacious dream home on their own land and mostly with their own two hands.

I know few individuals who are more visionary, ambitious, or hard-working than my father, and I'm grateful for the vision, ambition, work ethic, and communication skills he instilled in me through his remarkable example of personifying these attributes and skills himself.  

Dad's Christmas present
to me in 1989.

Because of Dad's background as an English major (bachelor's degree), communications expert (master's degree) and two decades teaching English in the classroom, his bookshelves (at home and at school) laid bare his passion for great literature—a love he would pass on to me at a tender age.

For example, on Christmas day 1989, I unwrapped an especially memorable gift from Dad. It was a 2,300 page single-volume copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

I was only 10 years old!

In the front cover, he inscribed a beautifully hand-written (cursive) note that read:

"To my precious Jordan in hopes that this will be the beginning of a quality library for a "quality" mind. I love and admire you so much. 

"I hope you will discover as I have, that some of life's best experiences can be found in great books. Mr. Shakespeare will mean more to you as you grow older, and age gives you the wisdom to appreciate the great truths contained herein.

Love,
Dad
Dec 25, 1989
Mesa, Arizona"

 

While my personal library had already begun to grow at this point in my life, this volume of Shakespeare served as a cornerstone in a collection that would expand to over 500 volumes by the time I had graduated from college. This hefty tome filled with the genius works of the Immortal Bard continues to play a prominent role in my home and office library today, which has now grown to over 1,000 books.

My 1912 Longfellow and 1888 Wordsworth
Poetical Anthologies 

Despite the growth and maturation of my own library, I continue to eye certain gems in Dad's collection. Aware of my covetous glances over the years, Dad has already lovingly gifted me a 1912 copy of Longfellow and an 1888 edition of Wordsworth—both of which he purchased in England while serving as a young missionary in the mid-1960s.

I have further placed dibs on his leather-bound, 3-volume Shakespeare collection and other antique poetry anthologies—all of which he procured in England as a young missionary. When the day comes that Dad travels on to that "far better land of promise," I intend to add these priceless volumes to my library, which will be a nice, albeit minor, consolation prize in comparison to his much greater opportunity of finally getting to meet Henry, William, and William in person!

I'm not gonna lie... I'm a little jealous knowing he'll likely beat me to those special meet-and-greets and conversations in another realm. Meanwhile, Dad's books bought in Britain more than half-a-century ago will be a fine reminder of my wonderful father—for the rest of my own days in this world.    

Main section of my home
library of over 1,000 books.

A voracious reader, talented writer, and prolific diarist, I also know of few conversationalists more enthusiastic and engaging than Dad. Some of our finest tête-à-têtes have occurred on road trips together. In addition to literature and language, we both have a passionate love affair with the open road and have logged perhaps a hundred thousand miles (or more) together in our lives.

Twice I have accompanied Dad on multi-week cross-country automobile jaunts (in 1991 and 2003). On a more recent trip (in 2010) to the Redwood Forests in Northern California, we took to studying vocabulary words together, and even collaborated on a poem that is included in this collection. 

Alfred Noyes
British Poet
1880-1958

Of all the memories I have of Dad during my childhood years, one of my most cherished directly involves poetry. I was an elementary student at the time (perhaps 4th grade) and had just come home from school at the end of my day. When I arrived home, I found Dad sitting relaxedly on the couch. This was unusual because Dad was a school teacher at the time and almost always got home from work several hours after my own school day had ended.

I don't remember why he happened to be home early that day, but I'll never forget what happened next. I don't recall the conversation that prefaced Dad's spontaneous decision to break forth into an oral reading performance, but before I knew what was happening, "English teacher dad" had picked up a book of poems and began to memorably "lend to the rhyme of the poet, the beauty of [his] voice" (1) as he animatedly brought to life Alfred Noyes' epic narrative poem, The Highwayman.

Dad started out quiet and low, almost in a whisper...

"The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,

               And the highwayman came riding,

               Riding, riding,

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door." 

Then, like a master musician or professional orchestra, Dad began to build into a gradual crescendo as he narrated this classic, nineteenth century, British version of Romeo and Juliet. As he approached the end of PART TWO, he passionately belted out the climactic pre-penultimate stanza...

"Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,

With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!

Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden moon; wine-red was his velvet coat,

                When they shot him down on the highway,

                Down like a dog on the highway,

And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat." (2)

It was enough to put goosebumps on the back of your neck!

Like Romeo and Juliet,
the unnamed Highwayman and his
lover, Bess the Landlord's daughter,
meet a grisly end.

This was followed by the concluding two paragraphs (in italics) which Dad pulled back to once again read quietly and low—the same way he had begun. 

It was a masterful and magical performance by someone who obviously appreciated great verse. 

          I was transfixed!

Poetry was never the same for me afterwards. 

One day, while searching through Dad's office library as a boy, I came upon a little volume that would further change my life. It was a simple, nondescript paperback copy of 101 Famous Poems, edited by Roy J. Cook.

For me, this book fully animated the maxim: Don't judge a book by its cover. Despite its insipid and unimpressive outer appearance, I found its inner contents to contain riches that only scripture could eclipse. More than any other poetic anthology, this relatively brief and diminutive collection of popular English and American works captured my young heart, thus fully engaging my love affair with verse. 

Years later, as a freshman in college, I received $20 from my paternal grandmother (Dad's mom) for my 22nd birthday. I opted to spend my money at a local university bookstore where I purchased a nicer hardback version—my own copy—of 101 Famous Poems. This more robust and visually attractive copy of Cook's classic anthology, purchased in 2001, has gone with me everywhere I've moved the past 22 years and remains one of my prized earthly possessions. Only the Holy Scriptures sit on a higher pedestal in my library—and my estimation.   

My personal copy of 101 Famous Poems

Originally published in the mid-1920s, 101 Famous Poems went through several editions and publications over the decades. My copy (and presumably Dad's) was a 1958 edition. This placed it after modernism had ended and postmodernism had begun to take its place. Cook was cognizant of contemporary culture and the ways in which the world had changed since the book's original publication in the 1920s—near the beginning of the modernist era. 

Cook further recognized that the collective passion for classical poetry that had marked the Romantic Period and Victorian Age had subsided in the modern age of industry and technology, and that educational drifts toward increasing secularization had begun to stymie the use of traditional didactic poetry in public schools.

Facing increased pressure and competition from all sides, poetry's popularity, prestige, and prominence began to fade over time. While the Great War Poets and other modernist bards left a considerable legacy of their own, it was hard to compete with Romantics who were beneficiaries of the era in which they resided. The absence of radio, cinema, and television in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave Georgian and Victorian Age writers an unfair edge over their literary successors who would have to compete with new-fangled, popular diversions derived from society's technological and industrial advancement. Without sports, movie, and rock-and-roll legends to compete with, pre-twentieth century poets, along with their fellow writers, painters, stage performers, civic leaders, and statesmen were the celebrities of their age. 

Robert Frost
1874-1963

Aside from rare exceptions in the twentieth century (e.g. Edgar Guest and Robert Frost), poets like Longfellow—enormously popular in his own day—represent a breed of bards that died long ago, perhaps never to rise again in this world. The technology of the twentieth century, and even more prominently in the twenty-first century, has changed poetry and live, stage entertainment in the same way that the Internet has changed broadcast journalism. 

Just as contemporary political giants will never again enjoy the near-ubiquitous audiences that Churchill and Roosevelt enjoyed in the early days of radio, so metamodernist (post-postmodernist) poet-stars must figure out which niche "channel" fits them best, not to mention finding one that will actually air their work.

The age of Wordsworth and Longfellow is gone, perhaps forever.

While the collective demand for traditional poetry has obviously atrophied in the past century-or-so, the fundamental need for poetry and what it offers has not changed since Homer—or Adam, for that matter. Cook eloquently captured this need in his preface to the 1958 edition of 101 Famous Poems.

Said he:

"This is the age of science, of steel—of speed and the cement road. The age of hard faces and hard highways. Science and steel demand the medium of prose. Speed requires only the look—the gesture. What need then, for poetry? 

"Great need!

"There are souls, in these noise-tired times, that turn aside into unfrequented lanes, where the deep woods have harbored the fragrances of many a blossoming season. Here the light, filtering through perfect forms, arranges itself in lovely patterns for those who perceive beauty."

The concision and cogency of Cook's apology of poetry as a "needed" art hooked me when I first read it back in the early 1990s and I've been a disciple of his philosophy of our "need" for poetry ever since. Yet, finding myself ensconced in the third decade of the twenty-first century, I have been tempted to shout back across the decades and query Cook what all the fuss was about. After all, to a GenXer like me, the 1950s were a simpler, quieter time—not the booming and bustling industrial leviathan Cook alluded to in his preface. Most things are, of course, relative to other times and things, and that is precisely what makes Cook's words so perpetually prescient and relevant to our own age. The genius of traditional poets, "whose distant footsteps echo through the corridors of Time," (3) is found in their rich timelessness—as well as the ongoing relevance and universal applicability of their messages.  

The Great WORDSWORTH
A Poet for All Seasons

A great truism states that: the more things change, the more things stay the same. While a great desire for traditional poetry may have diminished over the preceding century-plus, the "great need" for poetry that Cook wrote about in 1958 has not changed, nor will it ever change—as indicated by the bustling popularity and booming sales of a myriad genres of musical lyrics, which do, after all, share a kinship with age-old patterns of rhythm and rhyme (poetry) albeit set to new and creative melodies, harmonies, and percussion beats.

This is one reason why hip-hop is so popular.    

Psalms of Life invites those in the rising generations to reconsider erstwhile greats in conjunction with contemporary traditionalists who take "the road less traveled" (4) in providing poetic offerings that are best absorbed in solitude and perhaps best enjoyed without the aid of any modern accoutrements.

As foreign a concept as this may be to many in our metamodernist world so deluged by technological devices and flashy sensory stimuli, the value of approaching poetry and literature the old fashioned way remains as effervescent as it is ever-present. Indeed, there are times when radios, televisions, I-pods, I-pads, laptops, and smart phones ought to be turned off. The same holds true for social media platforms. 

Such occasions provide us with glorious opportunities to engage in old-fashioned—but never fully out of style—activities such as thinking, reading, taking a technology-free walk, filling one's lungs with fresh air on that walk, stooping down to smell a flower, tip-toeing up to sniff a spring blossom on a tree limb, conversing with present human beings, and even—as strange as it may sound to some—to simply enjoy being quiet and alone with oneself at regular (and healthy) intervals of time.

One might add to such self-renewing activities the occasional cracking open of a book of traditional poetry—just like Dad did with his memorable reading of Alfred Noyes' The Highwayman that unforgettable afternoon back in the early 1990s when I was just a lad. Such acts provide us with golden opportunities to read, ponder, and reflect upon the classics as well as some more obscure works. You may find that doing so is pleasurable and relaxing—even therapeutic!

As Longfellow invitingly suggests and persuasively implores: 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Come, read to me some poem,

   Some simple and heartfelt lay,

That shall soothe this restless feeling,

   And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
   Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
   Through the corridors of Time.

For, like strains of martial music,

   Their mighty thoughts suggest

Life's endless toil and endeavor;

   And tonight I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,

   Whose songs gushed from his heart,

As showers from the clouds of summer,

   Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor,

   And nights devoid of ease,

Still heard in his soul the music

   Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet

   The restless pulse of care,

And come like the benediction

   That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume,

   The poem of thy choice,

And lend to the rhyme of the poet,

   The beauty of thy voice" (5).

More ambitious souls may even try their hand at the memorization and recitation of their favorites—a mind-enhancing exercise for your brain that I personally love and highly recommend. I am confident such activities will increase your mental acuity, expand your cognitive clarity, and extend your cerebral longevity—and perhaps even your life!  

Aside from extracting pleasure from the experience, such wading (or immersion) into the pathways of poetry can also prove instructive. Indeed, the pedagogical value of poetry often trumps prose in the same way that Jesus' parables transcend more prosaic, pharisaic, and didactic deliveries of doctrine. Poetic lessons are not only more memorable than prosaic ones, but couplets, quatrains, and other versified reverberations of memory are more likely to spontaneously remind and inspire than the less-likely recall of non-rhyming maxims and facts.  

"The British are Coming!"
Longfellow's famous poem made Paul Revere's 
memorable ride even more famous than it already was.

I was just in grade school when I first heard Longfellow's famous narrative poem, Paul Revere's Ride. At that age, the pedagogical focus of such a work was historical, not literary, and I did not associate the poem with its author at the time. But then I was reintroduced to Longfellow in 101 Famous Poems where I discovered some of my all-time favorites, such as: The Builders, A Psalm of Life, and The Day is Done.

I was hooked!

101 Famous Poems further introduced me to other classics of the English language dating back to the Immortal Bard. Mesmerized and enchanted by the vivid language and delightful prosody of such poetical works, I all but worshipped their authors. Moreover, I learned many life lessons, had other principles powerfully reinforced, and derived much pleasure from my repeated consumption, memorization, and recitation of their work.  

Recent contemporary literary criticism of Longfellow—and others like him—has often been unflattering, diminishing his genius and castigating him as being overly simplistic and didactic. While his work's antiquity has not (nor will it ever) lead to its extinction, it has led to its reevaluation, and almost by default, its devaluation and undervaluation (5a).

Bereft of adequate training and erudition as a poetic scholar, I am unqualified to add my two cents to the canon of scholarly critique; I am a doctor of education, not of letters. As such, my poetical aims are primarily pedagogic, although I will not apologize for my own layman's critique presented in this chapter. I think it is well deserved by those whom I seek to defend, uphold, and champion (i.e. Longfellow, Wordsworth, and Company).   

In my view, poetry should exist for three main purposes. First, it should instruct. Second, it should inspire noble thoughts, speech, and actions. Third, to borrow a phrase from scripture, it should please the eye (and ear) and gladden the heart (6).   

While pleasure is purposely prioritized beneath instruction and inspiration, its importance and value should not be underestimated. As Emerson so eloquently and cogently declared in his famous poem, The Rhodora: On Being Asked Whence Is the Flower

"... if eyes were meant for seeing ...  

Then Beauty is its own excuse for being." (7).

I'm confident Emerson would echo this sentiment as it relates to aural, olfactory, and other sentient experiences as well. 

Second, the more perfect the prosody, the more illuminating the language, and the more eloquent the elocution, the more incisively and effectively the poem will instruct and inspire. Thus, all three purposes may work harmoniously together to maximize the synergy and overall impact of a poem on readers, hearers, and most importantly—students. 

Historically, poetry has been utilized as an important, even an essential pedagogical power tool. From the New England Primer, McGuffy Readers, and Nursery Rhymes of centuries past to School House Rock, Dora the Explorer, and The Wiggles in more recent decades, rhyme is perennially summoned to instruct young—and not so young—students in a variety of subject matters, including personal development and character education.

Poetry belongs in the classroom...
and outside of the classroom.
Poetry belongs everywhere!

My aim is to encourage contemporary educators to reconsider age-old rhymes in conjunction with newly penned verse (perhaps of their own making) to both acquaint students with the beauty of language as well as to equip them with mnemonic devices that bolster curricular recall. 

Simply stated, poetry belongs in the classroom, and not just in English class. I am confident that creative pedagogues of all subjects can find myriad uses for this versatile vehicle of classroom instruction and edification—if only they will. 

From an instrument of basic mnemonics and rote learning in all subjects (including the hard sciences) to a compelling medium for storytelling, narrative history, and critical thinking in theology and the liberal arts—including philosophy and history—poetry can and ought to be tapped by educators everywhere, every chance they get.  

The real magic of poetry in the classroom is found in its capacity for being memorable. To wit: I have long since forgotten many, if not most, of the relatively unimportant factual details I temporarily retained over the course of my eighth, ninth, and tenth-grade English classes. Yet I can still recite Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken verbatim after memorizing it nearly 20 years ago in my 8th grade English class. Or was it 9th or 10th grade English? I can't even remember exactly when I memorized it, but I still have all 16 lines of that 4-stanza masterpiece burned into my long-term memory and can recall (recite) it at a moment's notice.

If you don't believe me, just ask me sometime and I'll be happy to provide you with a spontaneous performance!

How many of us have forgotten a host of scientific and mathematical knowledge learned over the years, yet remember how many days are in each month of the year because of a widely recognizable little ditty, or one of its many derivatives, such as:

"Thirty days hath September

April, June, and November;

February has twenty-eight (28)—alone but fun

While all the rest have thirty-one (31).

Then every fourth (leap) year's extra fine

Cuz February has twenty-nine" (8).  

The Brilliant Benjamin Franklin

Finally, all the instruction I ever received in school on personal development or self-leadership can't compete with the scores of classic one-liners deeply ingrained in my mind from reading Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack. Consider, for example, the following lines called up from my own memory, without the use of any external source material. 

Whether the lesson is on gossip and vitriol...

"A man's tongue is soft, and bone doth lack,

Yet a stroke therewith may break a man's back."

Contentment and simplicity... 

"If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles."

The Wise Dr. Franklin

Or the art of leaving a legacy behind you when you die...

"If you would not be forgotten,

As soon as you are dead and rotten,

Either write something worth the reading,

Or do something worth the writing."

Ask me if that little quatrain has inspired me in my own quest to leave a legacy as a writer and entrepreneur...

YES, it has... on many occasions.  

          THANK YOU, Dr. Franklin!

Yes, poetry makes learning easier—and certainly more memorable, and our most memorable lessons have a way of translating into the most meaningful ones as well. 

In previous generations, poetry in general—and Longfellow's poetry in particular—was once "widely taught in schools" (9). As such, poetry has been—and I would argue, can be again—perennial power in the hands of educators and well-invested pedagogical profit in the minds and hands of pupils. My appeal, therefore, is not only for educators to better investigate how they might utilize poetry in their classrooms, but an even more specific call for a return to the poetic genre that a successful contemporary poet and prolific modern anthologist—Dana Gioia—calls "inspirational didactic verse" (10). 

Regardless of any and all critical disdain scholars have explicitly or implicitly heaped upon traditional schoolhouse classics like Longfellow's A Psalm of Life or The Builders, it is sufficiently obvious as to be self-evident that such poems can provide students with moral education that contribute to the development of upright character and good citizenship. 

Regardless where they may stack up against other poems in the judgment of the critical literati, why not utilize them nonetheless to teach and inspire the development of desirable character traits such as: vision, hard work, patience, persistence, honesty, integrity, enthusiasm, and a positive outlook?

Of course educators, including teachers, coaches, and mentors everywhere can do this—if only they will!

It's hard to see how anyone, regardless of their political or social ideology, could be at serious odds with promoting such values and virtues. Indeed, I can't think of any group—regardless of their platform or pet political projects—that would say they don't value courage, honesty, hard work, determination, fairness, and integrity. Such virtues and characteristics are universally admired and sought-after.

They always have been, and they always will be.

Thus it is that I seek to promote the work of Longfellow—and others like him—who penned verse intentionally in the inspirational didactic genre. And thus it is that I seek to further resurrect this sleeping pedagogical giant by diligently adding my own two cents to the fire (11). 

My own poetry is written for pedagogy and pleasure, and in that order. I also read poetry and other literary genres for the same reasons—and also in the same order and priority. To literary critics who may view my own verse as little more than second-rate parroting of other, better, and erstwhile poets, you will hear little push-back from me. I'm not here to promote myself as a great poet or to try and best Longfellow in a literary sense. My objective is rather to join him—and others like him—by adding my own inspirational-didactic poetical voice to the choir, and then to direct the combined music in the direction of students of all ages. 

Click HERE to buy this BOOK

I am a teacher first and a poet second—not the other way around. My poetry is therefore penned primarily in promotion of a pedagogy of personal leadership in an explicit effort to inspire readers to noble actions and virtuous living as self-action leaders.

The purpose of this pedagogy is to influence citizens of the United States—and beyond—to become better individuals in the promotion of happier families, healthier communities, and more perfect unions around the globe. I write only secondarily to please the senses with the beautiful sights and sounds of well-crafted language. Although I confess I will be gratified if I, in the eyes of any reader, happen to succeed in any way on this item of secondary importance and value (12).  

Tune in next Wednesday to read, Chapter 3: Mentoring Psalmists...    

 

—Dr. JJ

May 24, 2023

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

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Chapter 2 Notes:

1).  From Longfellow's poem, The Day is Done. 

2).  Noyes, A. (1926) in Cook, R.J.'s 101 Famous Poems. Chicago, Illinois: The Cable Company. Google Books revised edition. Pages 119-122.

3).  From Longfellow's poem, The Day is Done. 

4).  From Frost's The Road Not Taken.

5).  From Longfellow's poem, The Day is Done in Cook, R.J. (1926) 101 Famous Poems. Chicago, IL: The Cable Company. Good Books version. Pages 109-110. 

5a). See Dana Gioia's article, Longfellow in the Aftermath of Modernism in Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture. (2004). St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press.  See also Footnote 12.  

6).  See Doctrine & Covenants 59:18.

7).  From Emerson's poem, The Rhodora.

8).  There are many different versions of this same little ditty. The one printed here is of my own composition.

9).  From Dana Gioia's article, Longfellow in the Aftermath of Modernism in Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture. (2004). St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press. Page 56.

10.  Ibid. Page 68.  

11.  "Add my two cents to the fire" is a saying borrowed from one of my best friends, France Nielson, a dentist in Las Vegas, NV.  

12.  The ideas I share in this article were influenced by several essays written by contemporary poet, Dana Gioia, including Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture, Longfellow in the Aftermath of Modernism, Can Poetry Matter? Notes on the New Formalism, and The Poet in the Age of Prose. I express my gratitude to Gioia and acknowledge his tremendous contributions to contemporary poetry as well as the resurrection of poetic interest in bards of the past. One of Gioia's own poems, Pity the Beautiful, ranks among my all-time favorites.