Proper Poetical Education
“The metaphor whose manage we are best taught in poetry––
that is all there is of thinking.”
—Robert Frost, “Education by Poetry: A Meditative Monologue”
From the backseat, my three-year-old asks, “What does ‘Take a sad song and make it better’ mean?” We’d been listening to The Beatles, and it seems this line had lodged itself inside him. He does this often––chews on something a few days before asking about it.
When I brought this up to a colleague, he took my son’s question quite literally. “Well, one way is to put it in a major key,” he said, “like that cover of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ from a few years ago.” I see on YouTube there’s a cottage industry of musicians redoing songs in major keys: ’s “Losing My ’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These),” ’s “The Sound of Silence,” ’s “Roar,” the ’ “Californication” too. (And even though my son didn’t ask what it means to take a better song and make it sadder, there are even songs in a major key redone to a minor. Particularly jarring: ’s “YMCA” and ’s “Don’t Stop Believin.’”)
