Poetry can instruct us in the nature of beauty.

The importance of knowing how we know (6)

We are aesthetic beings, and we learn by way of the arts.

My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre. Psalm 49:3, 4

We’ve been considering various ways that we come to know the things we know. And, while we actually know quite a bit, very little of what we know has been acquired by strict application of the scientific method. This does not invalidate the scientific method as a way of knowing. Rather, I am making the claim that there are other ways of knowing that are equally valid and therefore should be given at least as much attention as the method of science.

The truth of this can be readily understood when we reflect on the limited ability of science to discover beauty. We may, of course, describe certain elements of science as beautiful – an elegant formula, a carefully-executed experiment, an intricate and complex theory, and so forth. We describe these as “beautiful”, but the idea of “beauty” which we (rightly) assign to such matters is not inherent in science. We have to borrow it from the realm of aesthetics. And this suggests that aesthetics – the arts – provides a way of knowing, if only to know about beauty. In fact, the arts can help us to know much more besides beauty, but, for our purposes in this space, we will examine the arts, and specifically, poetry, as a way of coming to know beauty.

Useful art

Elsewhere I have defined poetry as “word art in service of Truth.” As a form of art, poetry serves the cause of Truth – and, hence, of knowing – by enabling those who take the time to study it to become better acquainted with beauty. This would seem to be an important contribution for poetry to make, since human beings, as the image-bearers of God, are made to know the beauty of the Lord and to discern that beauty as it is refracted through the creation around us (Ps. 27:4; Ps. 19:1-4).

If, therefore, poetry can instruct us in the nature of beauty, and engage us with the reality of beautiful things, it, as a form of art, can contribute in a most significant way to what we know and how we come to know it.

But what does it mean to say that poetry, as a work of art, can help us to know beauty? Poetry – and art in general – aids us knowing beauty both objectively and subjectively. That is, poetry can expose us to true beauty. It isolates and “freeze-frames” instances of true beauty and presents them to us, in a form of beauty, in a way that helps us to see what we might otherwise overlook. But it also gives us that experience of beauty which, subjectively, is deeply satisfying and even ennobling.

The objective component of beauty

We have already seen that the Scriptures teach there is beauty to be known in God (Ps. 27:4). He is all beauty, and this may help to explain why being in the presence of God can be such a joyful and pleasurable experience (Ps. 16:11). The beauty of God is expressed throughout creation in the form of His glory, or, His presence (Ps. 19:1-4). Since the glory of God is expressed through aspects of the creation it makes sense to believe that beauty, as a reflection of God’s glory, can be known through created things (cf. Prov. 25:2). Science can help us to “discover” the glory of God concealed in created things, but it need not take on this responsibility alone. Poetry, and all the other forms of art, can help us to know beauty as well.

This, indeed, is a fundamental tenet of the poetry of Czeslaw Milosz. The discovery of beauty begins in the careful observation of created things:

We sustain the existence of the realm of poetry only through daily effort. It is wrested from the world not by negating the things of the world, but by respecting them more than we respect aesthetic values. That is the condition for creating beauty.[i]

Poetry is at its best, Milosz explained, when it is seeking a connection with God, Who is ultimate truth and beauty. Poetry as a form of art can expect to accomplish an encounter with beauty, and, hence, provide a glimpse of the eternal God. But in order to do this the poet must carefully engage the real world of people and things with all the insights of a contemplative and the skills of a determined and accomplished master.

This is precisely what we encounter in the psalms, where the Lord Himself engages the forms of ancient Hebrew poetry, in the hands of skilled poets, to bring readers into an experience of Himself, the self-revealing God Who is beauty.

The subjective component of beauty

But how will the poet, and, more importantly, the reader, know when he or she has encountered beauty? While there is a good deal of subjectivity to the idea of beauty – and rightly so – still, in the presence of beauty, as in the presence of God, we might expect to know a certain measure of delight and pleasure. Or, as William Cowper expressed this idea in his poem, The Task:

            Scenes must be beautiful, which daily view’d

            Please daily, and whose novelty survives

            Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years; –

            Praise justly due to those that I describe.[ii]

Cowper’s observation suggests four components of a subjective experience of beauty: A sensation of delight; an improved experience of delight over time; a constant sense of beauty which survives “the scrutiny of years”; and an inclination to praise, if only the artist or the creator of the beautiful thing we are observing.

So poems can engage us with beautiful things, and are themselves things of beauty, as they bring us into intense and meaningful contact with the real world of people and things in such a way as to afford lasting pleasure, both in ourselves and others, and to lead us to praise both the poem and its creator, as well as the supreme Poet and Creator, even God.

Let’s briefly examine one poem which fulfills the requirements for poetry to be of use in helping us to know beauty.

Pastoral beauty in the psalms

Psalm 23 is perhaps the best-known and best-loved of all the psalms. Drawing on what would have been for ancient Israelites a familiar image, David is able to create a mood of peace, rest, safety, and contentedness – an experience of the presence of God and of His loving kindness which brings the poet and the faithful reader an assurance of knowledge which generations have cherished.

His words bristle with the confidence of one who knows surely: “He restores my soul…”; “I will fear no evil…”; “Surely goodness and mercy…” These are the words of one who has come to know the reality of God and His faithfulness and love, and who is able to communicate that same knowledge through the medium of poetry.

The form of Psalm 23 in the Hebrew language is itself a work of beauty, but I will not consider that aspect of the poem here. When Psalm 23 is recast into other poetic forms – forms more familiar in other cultures, where the Hebrew forms do not carry the same affective power as they did in David’s day – the poem does not lose any of its power to persuade and assure. Here, for example, is a form of Psalm 23 set to a Celtic melody, Taladh Chriosda (“Lullaby to the Christ”):

            The Lord my Shepherd is, and I

            shall not want; He makes me lie

            in green pastures, leads me by

            refreshing waters, still.

            Restore my soul, Lord, day by day;

            lead me in Your righteous way

            for Your Name’s sake, Lord, I pray,

            according to Your will.

            And though through death’s dark vale I go,

            I no fear of death will show,

            for Your rod and staff, I know,

            will guard and comfort still.

            A table You before me spread

            in the midst of those I dread,

            and with oil anoint my head;

            my cup You overfill.

            Thus goodness e’er shall follow me;

            mercy all my path shall see;

            Your house shall my dwelling be

            forever after still.

Psalm 23 is thus both a work of beauty and a window on beauty. It affords us an opportunity of engaging the beauty of God in such a way as to enable us to know peace, joy, hope, and safety – which is why, for thousands of years, faithful readers have loved this psalm more than all the others.

Poetry – and the arts in general – are a sure way of knowing. They may be harder to master as such, but they can add to our knowledge of the world and life and to how we must know, love, and serve God, Whom to know is the object of all knowledge. We do well, in seeking to understand ourselves and our world, to join an appreciation of the arts with a commitment to science.