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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © 2006 Gary Hardaway
650 words

WAKING UP IN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH

By: Gary Hardaway

In this techno-era of instant news, blogs, ezines, and text messaging, the ancient art of poetry seems like a relic from the Stone Age. If we made it through high school, we probably had to read and discuss a poem or two along the way, but most of us wondered what was the point. Some of us simply slept through that topic.

Not so in the past. In the nineteenth century, poems and essays packed considerable intellectual wallop. People took poets and their ideas seriously. Those ideas filtered into education, politics, and general culture, shaping that world and influencing later generations, including ours.

So, when I was recently invited to teach a class at a nearby Christian high school, I decided that a little poetry might convey some insight into the world we now live in. Come with me to our class.

Before us is the poem Dover Beach, by the highly esteemed, nineteenth century literary icon of his day, Matthew Arnold. He presents a couple in love, gazing out to sea, perhaps standing on the splendid white cliffs of Dover. It’s a majestic, inspiring view. But the man, the speaker, is not inspired. He believes the view deceives one into thinking that the world is beautiful and peaceful. He believes the opposite. He is a modern man.

“The Sea of Faith,” he says, is rushing outward, downward, away from the shore – like a reverse tsunami – with “its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.” Faith is dying, It will soon disappear from view.

He then explains to his lover:

“For the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new,

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Where ignorant armies clash by night.”

Here is utter despair, long before it became fashionable: no joy, no love, no certainty, no help. No truth and no good. Beauty “seems” visible, but that’s an illusion.

Why infect high school kids with this soul-killing pessimism and nihilism? Glad you asked. Let’s proceed.  The lines immediately before Arnold’s world view read: “Ah, love, let us be true to one another!” What are we to make of this heartfelt plea?

As a perceptive student, you see that there is an immense contradiction here. In this world which supposedly has no love, the man himself has definitely found love and, indeed, loves the one he has found. The couple experiences real love.

Furthermore, the man – who alleges that no hope or joy or certainty exist – asks his partner to stay TRUE to him and implies that he will stay true to her. Does this make sense? Logically, not at all. Given his beliefs, he should expect no loyalty nor comforting assurances of fidelity. He should expect nothing at all. Remember, no hope, no certitude.

Now let’s get to the point. The modern cynic cannot – absolutely cannot – live by his own philosophy of despair. His view is false. It does not accord with his own nature and being. It does not explain – in fact it contradicts – his own experience.

Another poet of long ago clarified this situation. “He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Our creator endowed us with the ability to love, hope and seek truth and
meaning. He designed a world that provides some satisfaction for our questing spirit.

However, because our heart seeks “eternity” we cannot find ultimate meaning or total fulfillment in this world. We find that in God alone.

Students, please remember the point. “See to it that no one takes you captive to hollow and deceptive philosophy . . .”

Class dismissed.

Gary Hardaway has taught in universities in the USA, Lithuania and Canada. He holds a Ph. D. in foundations of education. "Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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