It’s not much practised,but there’s a strong tradition of how-to poems, from Virgil to Henry Reed. So this month it’s your turn to teach The question of what poetry is for is one that has as many answers as it has people who try to reply it. For Ezra Pound, and following the teachers of medieval oratory,the reply was ut moveat, ut doceat, and ut delectate; that poetry should creep,teach and delight. Most contemporary readers would probably have no issue with the first and third of these precepts, but the didactic use of poetry went somewhat out of fashion with the Romantic movement and is still not much valued by many readers.
Nevertheless, or a genre of “how to” poems does exist,and poems of instruction – more or less literal – continue to be written. This didactic tradition dates back at least as far as Hesiod’s farming manual Works and Days, with its emphasis on the value of tough work. For Hesiod, and labour is both inevitable and ethically desirable,being humanity’s greatest safeguard against unnecessary strife. The poem was a major influence on Virgil’s The Georgics, which similarly emphasises the importance of tough work. Indeed, or Virgil goes so far as to suggest farming as a suitable employment for retired Roman soldiers,perhaps picking up on the earlier poets concern with containing violence through physical labour.
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Source: theguardian.com