Finding Poetry in the Dewey Decimal System

I'm not going to suggest that any non-poetry-reader start buying random poetry books to try and get a handle on the whole thing (but if you were, this would be a great place to start); that's why the Romans invented local libraries. (Collections of scrolls were sometimes kept at Roman spas, leading to that great discovery - reading in the bath.*)

And although it would be easier if Poetry had it's own section adjacent to Fiction in a corner with some cosy beanbags and perhaps a window for some natural light, it doesn't, so here's where to start looking on the shelves.

Poetry in general is found at 811 with English (and Australian and American) Poetry at 821. If you can read them, there's German Poetry at 831, French at 841, Italian at 851, Spanish at 861, Latin at 871, Classical Greek at 881 and all the other languages smooshed into the 890's. My local also has a section of Rhymes next to the Junior books, which is the place to go for Nursery Rhymes and poetry by Judith Viorst.

For advice on writing poetry you could look around 808 (or go back along the shelves to 152 'Self-help').

There is a good overview of the Dewey Decimal Classification system on Wikipedia. (There's an official page, but it's pretty inpenetrable to non-librarians.)

If you want to have a go at cataloging your own collection, this page has a listing of the 1000 top-level call number subdivisions.

In the unlikely event that your library uses some cataloguing system other than that invented by Melvil Dewey I'm afraid I can't help you, but that's why the ancient Greeks invented librarians.

*An expensive habit if carried out with library books.

Why read poetry?

So why read poetry at all?

In addition to the myriad reasons for reading anything for pleasure, poetry has one obvious trait in it's favour. It's short.*

You can get the same emotional punch — a sudden recognition of yourself or the world, a loud laugh, an insight into the human condition — in a fraction of the time it takes to trek across Middle-earth or discover Darcy's a pretty nice guy after all. If you don't like the poem, you've hardly wasted any time. If you did like it, you can read it again straight away. Poetry is good for your emotional health.

Poetry slows you down. I've never heard of anyone advocating the speed reading of poetry, although that technique can work well for non-fiction and even some fiction. You have to sit still and breathe (cup of tea optional) or you'll miss it. Poetry is good for your physical health.

Because of the positioning of the words on the page, less common words and creative grammar, you are forced to pay attention to their meaning. You might come across terminology, ideas and eventually you'll start to notice new beats and rhythms you haven't come across before. Poetry is good for your mental health.

See, it's a cure-all; you'll be more relaxed, centered and intelligent if you read poetry. How can you afford not to?


*I reserve the right to make gross assumptions. Most poems are shorter than most novels. Unless you decide to start with something epic.

It's a what-now experience?

I promise to never ever link to any site which can be described like this:

A Unicorn uses poetry to describe 16 nature stations on a make believe trail that is designed to evoke a fantasy-mystical experience.

Google it if you must. Don't blame me for any scarring that occurs.

Tuesday Video: Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman reading "Instructions" from his collection Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders.

The Plan is to blog a video each Tuesday of an author reading his or her own work. The Plan is to also get Neil Gaiman out of the way early on so we can discover other new (or old) poets that are currently hidden by the mighty short-story-lyric-script-poem-novel-comic-writing shadow of Gaiman.

So what do you think of "Instructions"? Do we really need a set of guidelines for fairy-tale lands? Don't we know all this intuitively? Personally, I think it could be funnier, but I think that of most things.

What does "euphonically" mean?

Euphony is the opposite of cacophony. It is the way things sound when they sound good. Like music. Or poetry.

There isn't enough euphony in the world, especially in the English language. P.F. Cates is an attempt to draw attention to it by way of entertaining poetry. But not in a scary way.

This is a euphonium, which can also be pleasing to the ear.

Image courtesy hmwhite.com