Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education

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Third, in an important passage that he delivered at his lecture in Haiti, but removed from the published version in Tropiques—but which figured in at least one published version—Aimé Césaire refers his readers to the « Traité de la co-naissance au monde et de soi-même » of Paul Claudel (a figure whom Césaire and others would later distance themselves from because of his extreme catholicism). This concept of « co-naissance » is a play on words that relates the notion of knowledge ( connaissance) to the idea of birth ( naissance) together ( co-)—and thus references Nietzsche’s idea of the genealogy of knowledge, of the birth of knowledge. It is actually precisely in the context of alluding to the ancestry of poetic knowledge that Césaire offers this reference, delivering orally and retaining in at least one published version the following: « Aux temps où la connaissance était co-naissance, au sens claudélien du mot. Je veux dire aux temps où tout naissait ensemble. »

Airs” are “Influence”; it is “to teach.” By influence it stirs them; by teaching it transforms them. The poem is that to which what is intently on the mind goes. In the mind it is “being intent”; coming out in language, it is a poem. The affections are stirred within and take on form in words. If words alone are inadequate, we speak them out in sighs. If sighing is inadequate, we sing them. If singing them is inadequate, unconsciously our hands dance them and our feet tap them. [11] The problem, Césaire suggests, is that scientific knowledge isolates phenomena and, in the process, fails to comprehend the social and spatial relations and collectivities within which these phenomena exist. Science cannot get to the essence of things, it cannot achieve the richness of reality because, methodologically, it fails to grasp objects in their complex relation to others, in their collective setting.These clear, detailed and visually-appealing knowledge organisers offer complete reference points for students learning or revising the following poems from the OCR ‘Power and Conflict’ anthology: What poetry gives us, Césaire writes, is « l’être rendu au devenir » : being turned over to becoming—the ultimate Nietzschean transformation. Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy would play a formative role for Césaire. As Souleymane Bachir Diagne notes, “Césaire himself has indicated in many interviews that, at the time of writing And the Dogs Kept Quiet [published in his collection of poetry, Les armes miraculeuse, in 1946], Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Origin of Tragedy was his ‘breviary’”. [9] One of the most important skills for learners is their ability to speak aloud, and reading poetry can be vital for their oral development. Césaire gives voice to the radical potential in Nietzsche’s writings on tragedy and poetics, a radical potential that would ultimately nourish an entire artistic and political movement, Négritude, and motivate decolonization. With Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001), it would produce a unique combination of self-determination without nationalism or state sovereignty—a distinctive view of decolonization and democratic federation that Gary Wilder analyzes brilliantly under the rubric “Freedom Time.” [4]

Does poetry impart a special knowledge to its audience, a form of knowledge with its own intrinsic values and not to be measured by any external criteria? Is there any part of reality to which access can be gained only in poetry? Questions formulated as such are typically Greek ones that have had reverberations throughout the history of Western thought on poetry. To come to grips with these questions it seems to me necessary to explore the origins of the notion of “poetic knowledge” in early Greek poetics. Why did Greek philosophy construct such a notion as “poetic knowledge” in the first place? In what cultural process and historical context was the notion constructed? While examining Greek origins, it is advisable to expand our horizon into other traditions, for example early Chinese poetics, to inquire whether there was a comparable notion of poetry as a form of knowledge. It is believed that when we stand in another culture in an alternative setting, we may better reflect on what is self-evident in one’s own culture. We seek therefore to contextualize the earliest articulation of explicit poetics in these two cultures and to compare how each tradition conceptualized poetry in its relation to philosophy by measuring out a “poetic knowledge”. As learners read a poem aloud, they begin to pay more attention to the sounds of words and how meaning can change depending on how a line is spoken. Unlike some other reading exercises, the rhythm and rhyme of poetry are fun for children to say, and this encourages them to enjoy speaking in front of a class. For Césaire, the highest ambition, the ambition of poetry itself, is to find unity in difference. To get beyond the traditional oppositions—but not by overcoming them. Césaire rehearses this passage from Breton: It has been said that no non-seer can be deservingly called a poet, and one is a seer only by virtue of his vision. Vision is the power of disclosing intuitively the reality underlying the manifold materials in the world and their aspects. To be termed a “poet” in the authoritative texts it is enough to be possessed of this vision of reality. But in everyday speech the world accords that title to him alone who possesses vision as well as expression. Thus, though the first poet (Vālmīki) was highly gifted with enduring and clear vision, he was not hailed as a poet by people until he embodied it in a descriptive work. 59 Imagery: describing what the narrator is seeing, hearing, or experiencing. Imagery intends to paint a picture in the mind of the reader through specific and vibrant language, to ensure they see exactly what the author wants them to see. Imagery is not simply about sight either: it can be used to appeal to any of the senses, such as smell or taste. An example of imagery is William Wordsworth’s description of “a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils” on a hill.

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The first has to do with the character of poetic knowledge. Césaire begins Poésie et connaissance with an ode to poetics and diatribe against science. Scientific knowledge, for Césaire, is one-dimensional and impoverished. The sciences classify things, but do not comprehend them. They offer at best surface knowledge. Physics does not get to the essence; mathematics is too abstract and unreal. The sciences are thin: they measure and classify, but give us nothing more. Many of these devices can be illustrated simply, and this allows you to bring in examples from popular poems, as well as create your own. You could also encourage learners to come to the front of the class and provide their own examples, and explain their similes, metaphors, or hyperboles to the rest of the class. This gives them a chance to be both creative and confident when standing in front of their peers.