by Neal Whitman, Poetry Prof
My friend Joan, aka Feather Woman, responding to last month’s The Short and Long of It, spoke to me of what she finds sublime — poets who create their own music.
“Jammin in the East Room” Â dateline: May 12, 2009. Yes, as reported by The New York Times, “The candles flickered, the bassist strummed, and one by one, the writers and poets seized their moments in front of the microphone.” Among others, Mayda del Valle, a poet from Chicago, read a poem about her grandmother from Puerto Rico. Brandon Bennett, a poet from Yonkers, signed and spoke an ode to his deaf sister.
The President and First Lady hosted a poetry jam  — guests were witness to the spoken word and jazz music. Music and Poetry go hand in hand, ear to ear. American Transcendentalist, Sampson Reed (1800-1880), noted that, “There is the most intimate and almost inseparable connection between poetry and music. Nothing is sung which has not some pretensions to poetry and nothing has any pretensions in poetry, in which there is not something of music.”
Today perhaps the most common type of poetry is lyrical, coming from the word, lyre, the harp like instrument played by ancient Greek poets during their recitals of short poems. Here we could include elegies, odes, and sonnets. In common is expression of the poet’s personal thoughts and feelings. The marriage of music and poetry is as old, as it is new. The harp probably accompanied the 9th century BCE recitals of  the Book of Psalms. Lyric poems were set to music in 9th century Charlemagne’s court. 17th century Haiku master, Basho wrote:
the beginning of poetry;
the song of rice-planters
in the province of Oshu.
Our own Good, Grey Poet intoned, “The strongest and the sweetest songs yet remain to be sung.” (A Backward Glance o’er Travel’d Roads, Walt Whitman) When he chose to add titles to Leaves of Grass, five of twelve sections were found to be musical: Song of Myself, A Song of Occupations, I Sing the Body Electric, Song of the Answerer, and A Boston Ballad.
I profess a love of poetry and music in combination. Case in point: singer-songwriter-poet, Stew, last year created a Tony-nominated performance, Passing Strange, which told the story of a black musician searching for love, inspiration, and himself in American and Europe. So, perhaps inspired by the Obama White House’s poetry jam, lets make June a month of summer, song, and sound. 18th century poet, William Collins (“The Passions: An Ode to Music”) welcomed “Music, heav’nly maid” into our homes and gardens. Hurrah. And, Tra La.