Summary: Brooks, The Well Wrought Urn, “The Heresy of a Paraphrase”
Editor’s Note: For this assignment, I needed to read and summarize the published piece or content listed below, and then provide a response or assessment of the writing.
Summary
Brooks focuses on his belief that reducing a poem to a simple paraphrase is disastrous to the interpretation of the poem because “…the paraphrase is not the real core meaning which constitutes the essence of the poem.” Brooks’ example of a line from one of Brownings’ poems, “So wore the night; the East was gray” explains that replacing the line “So wore the night” with a simple paraphrase as “Thus night passed”—which has the same rational, or defined, meaning—evokes an entirely new connotation to the reader and diminishes the poem’s potency. Splitting a poem into form and content neutralizes the message of the poem because that message isn’t simply in the form or the content, it is in the form and the content. Brooks admonishes critics for paraphrasing poetry, stating their paraphrasing leads readers to look for logical coherences when there are none, to misconceive metaphors and meter, and ultimately, reduce a poem to saying nothing when, in fact, it says so much. Brooks then focuses on the elements of poetry that provide meaning to poems and make poetry such a unique genre of literature. From unity (“In the unified poem, the poet has “come to terms” with his experience. The poem does not merely eventuate in a logical conclusion.”) and metaphor and meter (“they function in a good poem to modify, qualify, and develop the total attitude”), to irony (“the recognition of incongruities—which, again, pervades all poetry”) and paradox (an element that “demands dramatization”), Brooks details how content and form work together to produce a distinctive message that cannot survive a paraphrase.
Response
For me, the most striking aspect of this chapter of Brooks’ book was his example of how diminishing, devaluing, and, in a way, demoralizing paraphrasing can be to an author. When an author works to produce a line of poetry filled with such imagery and feeling, such as “So wore the night; the East was gray,” I completely agree that paraphrasing such talent is an utter disservice to the poem’s message—and diminishes the author’s work and talent. Frankly, I had never before considered the effect of paraphrasing poetry, but I can now see how a simple paraphrase can quickly turn a work of poetry (or other literature) into something that can be interpreted as saying nothing when, in fact, there may be multiple messages.
Additionally, as a student learning how to produce coherent criticism of literary works, I think the idea of not paraphrasing or reading in paraphrases is paramount to a successful criticism of a piece of work. Taking a more tedious, yet thorough, look at the exact content and analyzing the details and why the author included those details in the content where the author specifically chose to include them, along with the form in which the author chose for those details, would exemplify New Criticism’s close reading. Brooks’ paraphrasing heresy was a wonderful way to explain, illustrate, and really drive home the value of close reading and what it can add to a critic’s work.