Episode 3: Prof. Parker from Literature Department
Recently, the Gould Center’s “Focus on Faculty” project team held an interesting and insightful interview with Professor Blanford Parker, who is currently a visiting professor of literature at CMC. Professor Parker’s area of expertise is 18th-century British poetry and literature, and he enjoys teaching courses about major British writers and literary theory. Through exciting conversations about a plethora of topics, from poetry’s societal importance to Taylor Swift’s emphasis on poetic styles, “Focus on Faculty” project team hopes to provide CMC students with greater insight into Professor Parker’s thoughts about and personal connection to poetry.
The interview began with a discussion about Professor Parker’s personal connection to poetry, during which he said that since he was a child, he has always been fascinated by the complexities of poetry. This interest is rooted in his interactions with his father, who would read poetry to his children after dinners. Professor Parker recalled that unlike his siblings, he could remember these poems without much effort, eventually memorizing 150 poems by the time he attended college.
Professor Parker described poetry as one of the “most valuable cognitive exercises,” explaining that most complex verbal structures are poetic in nature; thus, a deep understanding of poetry can prove invaluable in developing reading, writing, and speaking skills. Professor Parker’s goal as a professor of poetry is to try to “give students an entree” of poetry to allow for greater appreciation of the art in the future. He believes that understanding poetry of any language can increase one’s capacity to learn anything. This can be seen through not only the most successful lawyers, who often study poetry and have extensive literary backgrounds, but also the musical greats who have the “metrical ingenuity” of poets.
This comment shifted the focus of the conversation to the parallels between poetry and popular music, which Professor Parker believes are responsible for “picking up the slack in regards to the decline in traditional poetry.” Professor Parker explained that while traditional poetry seems to be in a “precipitous decline,” poetry as a general art form has translated into popular mediums, including rap music, and thus, remained relevant and powerful. He wonderfully stated that rap songs and other popular music show the “instinct to preserve poetic conventions.”
The “Focus on Faculty” project team wanted to learn more about Professor Parker’s thoughts on poetry’s influential role in the popular music, so the team engaged Professor Parker in a fun activity: to analyze, to the best of his ability and on the spot, a few poetic lyrics from Taylor Swift’s newest album Midnight. Professor Parker began with his analysis of Swift’s lyrics in her “this is me trying”: “I was so ahead of the curve. The curve became a sphere. Fall behind all of my classmates, and I ended up here.” Professor Parker ingeniously explained that these lyrics show the direction of Swift’s career and her desire to be perceived as someone who has developed, especially in the midst of her romantic relationships. Professor Parker added that this theme can be observed in most of Swift’s songs, providing grounds for consistency and poetic messaging. If you would like to listen in on Professor Parker’s analyses of other lyrics from Swift, be sure to check out the entire recorded interview!
After this entertaining activity through which Professor Parker truly demonstrated his passion for poetry, he concluded the interview with advice for students interested in poetry: “Find poems and poets you feel an attachment to, and learn about them thoroughly. Internalize the poems.”