What are words worth? What does our writing say about who we are? What importance does the great poetry throughout history hold in our world? If it's important, then how do we show today's poets that we value their output?
'The Banking Crisis – A Decade On' is part of Trinity College's 'Behind the Headlines' public discussion series and explores the intersection of art and economics ten years on from the government's controversial banking guarantee. Associate Professor in Trinity College's School of English Dr Philip Coleman joined Sean Rocks on Arena to explain how poetry takes its place amidst politics, power and profit.
"Poetry is, in fact, one of the most important and useful tools we have for deepening our understanding of the context within which we live," explained Philip, who will be speaking alongside others including TD Joan Burton and Ed Sibley of the Central Bank of Ireland on the importance of not polarizing the arts and thereby cutting off some of its most meaningful functions.
"We can think about the history of say Irish poetry in the 20th century and I would argue that every major figure… thinks about contextual concerns at one point or another. A poet like WB Yeats is probably the most obvious example. The poem 'September 1913' is really a poem about the relationship between economy on the one hand and art on the other."
Valuing poetry is more than just a romantic notion says, Philip. Art has deep, intrinsic meaning in our lives and so often, that value isn't recognised in monetary terms. The discussion goes to the heart of who we are as a society and what art means to us.
"I don't think it's romantic and I think that for many of the poets and artists who really care about this issue, it's a real concern. It's about how art is valued. Why make art at all? Very few artists or poets make money out of their work so why do they do it? Is it ego or is it because of some desire perhaps to change the world within which they live and I think that's the reason that they make art actually, to make that contribution."
Philip gives an example of the interplay of money and poetry in the Seamus Heaney exhibition, 'Listen Now Again' in College Green. The government and the Bank of Ireland spent €600,000 on the project – "headline news," said Philip – but interestingly, the poem from which the title was taken, 'The Rainstick', outlines the problems that exist between the artist and the value placed on their work.
"Here you have this really interesting example of the state and the Bank of Ireland putting money into poetry, into promoting poetry, but the poem itself I think problematised the idea of poetry's value and it suggests to us that, you know, sometimes a poem's value or a poet's body of work value isn't necessarily appreciated in the moment when it comes out but it can take time… That's what Heaney means I think when he says 'Listen now again'… The bank, the government says, we believe poetry matters, and one can be cynical about that, absolutely, and ask well why is it not being spread around elsewhere?"
Click here for more information on that public discussion which takes place Wednesday, September 12th at 6.30pm.
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