‘Beowulf’ by Bonfire: The Power of Poetry
This fall, students and faculty at Oxford College gathered to read Seamus Heaney’s translation of “Beowulf” for the second time in three years. In the past five years, we have also twice read all of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” as well as Homer’s complete “Odyssey.”
Collectively reading an epic poem out loud is neither a course requirement nor academically incentivized. And yet, this year, we had 42 students huddle together for hours, each taking turns to read every word of an epic poem, all in one sitting.
As someone who teaches and writes about literature, I wonder what we gain by reading together every year. Statistically, most Oxford students are majoring in pre-law, pre-med and business administration. Students know that “Beowulf” will not be on the bar exam. Homer’s “Odyssey” will neither be covered on the MCAT nor the medical boards. Spending 13 hours reading “Paradise Lost” with students will not materially advance my case for tenure or promotion.
And yet, based on the events’ popularity and the students’ responses, reading together contributes to our human flourishing. Students say they love the deep listening, the transhistorical connection to other cultures, the sense that we are contributing to something vaster than ourselves and the shared encounter with art. We laugh together at Odysseus’ outrageous lies. We grieve at Eve and Adam’s exile. We revel in the sound of the language. We feel awe. And within Emory’s system of high achievement expectations, perhaps we are anchoring the ideals that undergird that system.
After all, I want the attorneys who enact justice to have wrestled with the morally complex ideas that Milton explores in “Paradise Lost.” I want physicians to have pondered Odysseus’ long journey of suffering. I want the people who found and lead corporations to understand not only the technical commerce of buying and selling products, but also the emotional lives of the people who invent, build, purchase and sell those products.
Poetry does that.
