An Afternoon With English Poetry > IDEAS & IDEALS

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At around three o’clock in the afternoon in the merry month of May every year, and in a nook of Chung-Ang University campus in Seoul, there takes place a particular event called "An Afternoon with English Poetry." It is held by the English Education Department students who attend my English poetry class every other semester. Students read or recite some of the English poems they have studied in the classroom before a small but good audience - mainly their fellow students. This year marks the 24th anniversary of its birth.

     Between 10 and 15 English poems are usually chosen to be read. Two students stand on the podium as a pair. One reads an English poem and the other reads the translated version of it in Korean. For this special occasion boys wear formal dress with white shirt and tie, while the girls tidy themselves up as much pretty as they can. Some melodious music is employed to enhance the mood and atmosphere of the event. It lasts about two hours with a short break for toilet and for some other sorts of entertainments included in between, such as piano and violin playing.  

     Sounds very romantic and interesting, doesn’t it? But, in fact, It isn’t. Although I encouraged and initiated the first event 24 years ago with a simple and humble objective - to help my students better understand and appreciate the beauty and power of English language through poetry by reading them properly and aloud - however, I should say it is rather a monotonous diversion, even a boring one, compared to students’ activities and pastimes these days. As time passed, the content and the quality of the event have been diversified and refined, but fundamentally it remains more of a work or a duty to be in it, if you are not "in the know," like listening to Beethoven or Bach in a classic concert.  

     But for those who prepare and participate in this function it is more than a work or duty. There are those who enjoy the event. Of course, they are required to do some extra work in addition to their regular schoolwork, but they do it with love and passion. Readers of the poems spend time in practicing the allotted poems to the point of learning them by heart. Others prepare a big banner to advertise the event and make posters and program pamphlets. In sum, it costs them extra time, effort and money. But they observe the event very solemnly every year without being told each May, as the cherries blossom on the boughs. For me to see this happen every year is just a wonder always, just as the return of spring is.

     As I said, it got started as none other than a continuation of a classroom activity at a different place and under a different situation. But for those who participate in the event, and who know what it is like, and what it is about, it has become more than that. It has become a unique culture and tradition for the department, and a sweet memory and remembrance for graduates. I wonder at the invisible power of poetry that captures us in a time when poetry seems to have no place anywhere. During "An Afternoon with English Poetry," at least, they forget about getting higher scores on the TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE, or TEMP. It is a rare opportunity for all of the English students to ponder on the ultimate purpose and benefit of learning a foreign language well  and deeply, English included, from quite a different angle and perspective. It is a strange occasion in which idealism prevails over realism.

     Now I realize that it is not a fortuitous phenomenon that this "An Afternoon with English Poetry," once started, has fared so well and so long without a single ommission or interruption. Equipped with the inadequate knowledge of English language, I and my students of English poetry confront a lot of difficulty in handling the linguistic objects most exquisitely made of words, but we do not fail to catch the glimpse of beauty, truth and good embedded in the poems we read, analyse and appreciatein the classroom. Unless we are able to find something truly valuable and enjoyable in the musics and pictures of the English language composed and drawn by the literary geniuses, the event should have ended long ago after several tryouts. It is the enduring value and life of poetry itself that has enabled the longevity of this festival so far.

     Seeing the banner announcing this year’s event fluttering in May’s breeze this morning, I could not be so gay and jocund as before. I am to retire by the end of this year, and this is the last one I am entitled to take part in officially. I felt new and strange emotions in the depths of my heart. Realizing anew that I have not missed this annual happy ceremony even once ever since it started, I thought I was very lucky and happy man. I found, to my great happiness, my years at Chung-Ang University happened to coincide and overlap with the age of "An Afternoon with English Poetry.’’ In fact, I have grown old with it. The time has come for me to part with all of the things I have loved and cherished on the campus, including this event. Fighting the happy tears welling up in my eyes, I bade a silent but an affectionate farewell to it.
                                                                                                          (June 2, 2005)