The Splash of Words: Believing in poetry

by Mark Oakley

Whether you love poetry or haven't read it since school, The Splash of Words will help you rediscover poetry's power to startle, challenge and reframe your vision.

Like throwing a pebble into water, a poem causes a 'splash of words' whose ripples can transform the way we see the world, ourselves and God. Through thirty selected poems, from the fourteenth century to the present day, Mark Oakley explores poetry's power to stir our settled ways of viewing the world and faith, shift our perceptions and even transform who we are.

Genres: Poetry, Theology

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2013

About the author

Canon Mark Oakley is Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral in London. He is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King's College, London.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really was an unexpected delight. I am very much the target reader as described in the introduction - put off poetry at school by having to learn poems that I hated and which were never properly explained. I love books that expand your knowledge (I now realise how little I knew about famous poets like WH Auden, Dylan Thomas, Emily Dickinson, George Herbert and even Thomas Hardy whose novels I have read, but whom I had never thought of as a poet and whose relationship with his wife as described in the book I found fascinating) and also set you off on to other books to read and this one has not only done that but introduced to me to a whole form of literature (poetry) that I would never have considered reading before.
It was ideal for the beginner as each poem has a chapter covering the poet, his other work and explaining the meaning of the poem. Without the latter, some of the poems meant nothing to me to start with but on a second reading became clear. The collection of about 30 poems, all by different poets, is varied and includes something that will appeal to everyone.
Really a book to read slowly and savour - I read a poem each night - and one that I am very sad to have come to the end of. Written from a Christian perspective but a very liberal one and definitely accessible to all.

[Katedurie50 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was enjoying this so much I'm sorry to have finished it. It's a book to be sipped and savoured, not rushed, so I was mostly reading two chapters a day, but occasionally one if it was more demanding (like the one on Auden - demanding but excellent). Mark Oakley is a gentle guide so the great twin frighteners of poetry and belief are approached with subtlety and a kind of reassurance. He knows what he is doing; when he draws out a poem - and a number of these I knew and loved already though some, like the landay from Afghanistan, were completely new to me - his comments always show me something I hadn't seen before. Most poets represented are not in the church, or at best exist uneasily on its margins; some belong to other faiths. But the wider humanity and sense of wonder they inculcate endorse the book's underlying thesis that is we are to talk about God we need a bigger and braver languse than our liturgies. And that's where poets come in.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this a while ago and after a long break fought my way to the end. Oakley is sensitive to poetic mystery but unafraid to drag out structural and literary meaning from these light-filled poems. He has a fitting priestly gentleness that sees each poem as a penitent at confession.

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A readable exploration of theological themes through short discussions of various poems.

[John Howes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent series of reflections on poems which shine a light on the possible meaning of life.

[Joshua Brandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oakley's introduction, in which he defines poetry as a kind of "soul-language," merits six stars! I'm sure I'll consult it frequently throughout my life. Unfortunately, however, his analyses of more than a few poems within his anthology are worthy of only two; some hover around three, and the best peak at four. Thus, I think a four-star rating for this progressive Anglican bishop's book on poetry quite fair.

I'm with Oakley in that the Church (I'm in a Mennonite tradition, so especially mine) needs more poetry in it.

My main quibble with Oakley's anthology is that he, not all that covertly, rams a "discover-your-own-truth-of-which-God-is-no-doubt-supportive" theology into many of his essays. This paradigm naturally renders sanctification ego-centric instead of theo-centric. I believe the more the self is forgotten, the more cultivated it becomes.

NT Wright, another Anglican, says somewhere, "Unity is easy if you don't care about Holiness." Holiness is, likewise, easy if you don't care about Unity. Ultimately, I think Oakley's anthology pushes the global Church toward the ideal mixture of both, although he is spendthrift when it comes to Unity.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm just not quite sure what to make of this book - and I suppose that comes down to the difficulty of writing about poetry. The poems chosen are varied with a good mixture of familiar and new (and I particularly enjoyed some of the modern poets whom I had not yet encountered). Mark Oakley writes an extended essay/meditation for each poem which is illuminating and yet sometimes just too much. There is a danger at times of his voice and experiences drowning the poem and taking away the freshness of reading it for the first time.

From a Christian point of view he explores the place of faith in reading poetry, although I was often frustrated that faith at times seemed very much in the background, rather than foreground - a personal preference admittedly. For many, more conservative readers, the book will confirm their suspicion that poetry is the exclusive preserve of liberal theology. I don't believe that, but I must still confess that I prefer a little more solidity to the presentation of faith and scripture rather than a coalescence of doubt.