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Shocking Statistics: The Average American Reads 1 Book or Less a Year and 50% of those are Romance Novels and Picture Books of Cats…
“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.” – Sue Monk Kidd, author
In this collection, you’ll find stories conveyed through poetry and song. Some of them will no doubt be familiar to you – like Francis Scott Key’s “Star Spangled Banner” and Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (although many people are only familiar with the first verse). Other poems will be entirely new to you. My hope is that you’ll embrace both the familiar and the unfamiliar as pieces of the American story that deserve to be remembered. In a digital age largely driven by images and sound bytes, we’ve become accustomed to skimming or speed-reading, focusing long enough on the bullet points and bolded text to get the gist of what’s being said. Many people are finding less time to read slowly and carefully, less motivation to digest every word of a text. And yet, this is precisely how poetry is meant to be read.
My hope is that you’ll approach this book with the intention to read slowly and carefully. I believe these works are among those Francis Bacon was referring to when he said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested . . . to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”
I hope you’ll read these works with diligence and attention. Read not merely for elegant prose and sublime poetry (although you’ll certainly find the sublime here). Rather, read each of these poems as fragments that, when pieced together, reveal a part of the American story. Be aware that not every piece of a story is elegantly written. Some of these songs and poems were written by people who were largely uneducated but who found themselves on the frontlines of history and felt compelled to document it. They felt what they were witnessing was significant enough to pass on to us.
As Sue Monk Kidd states in the epitaph above, “Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.” I encourage you to view this collection of poetry as a way to remember who we are and why we’re here. As you read Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain,” I hope you remember the grief and shock that followed the death of Abraham Lincoln. As you read “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” I hope you remember the mark left by Julia Ward Howe on the storytelling surrounding the Civil War, and how she transformed the tune to “John Brown’s Body” into the version of the song we know today. As you read Philip Freneau’s “To the Memory of the Americans who Fell at Eutaw,” I hope you remember the ordinary men and women who defended ordinary towns and shaped the course of American history with their stalwart heroism. Most of all, I hope you walk away from this volume with gratitude for those who have come before us and the values and sacrifices that have shaped America’s story.
My sincerest thanks, Christopher
