Helen Smith
I'm Head of the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York, and a Professor of Renaissance Literature. I'm fascinated by all aspects of the study of literature.
Location York, UK
Activity
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A little taste for you here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OKxzSKzJe0&feature=youtu.be
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@EsmenioGalera It's a difficult poem, and a lot of it is specific to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the very difficult history of the 1970s. I'd say it's partly about what it means to belong to a place, even when it's dark and airless (a mushroom growing in a concrete shed), as well as what it means to take ownership, and the vexed history of ownership...
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Really pleased to hear it's working well for you. Enjoy week two! @CarolynMcGrath
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Helen Smith replied to Joyce Tebb
Our work here is done! Really glad this has inspired you, and will shape your reading going forward, @JoyceTebb
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Helen Smith replied to Kay Cross
This is a really lovely comment -- thanks Kay. It's great to hear that you feel it's challenging enough to push you, but also that you're getting such wonderful support from fellow learners.
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Helen Smith replied to Roz Chalk
Yes -- I love Shazia's video and reflections. A definite highlight for me.
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Helen Smith replied to Sandie D
Really pleased to hear how much you've enjoyed it. I hope there's lots more to inspire you in the coming weeks!
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Goodness -- that's high praise indeed!
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Helen Smith replied to Pam Gould
Our pleasure, Pam! Very glad you're enjoying the course so far.
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That's wonderful to hear, Christine -- I'm glad it has inspired you to write as well as read.
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Very well spotted! @JaneRedshaw
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I feel as though Derek may be the David Attenborough of poetry -- I love that video!
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Helen Smith replied to Caron F
It's amazing! You may also have seen that it was briefly banned from being posted through the US mail service, until Roosevelt stepped in, urged on by his wife.
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Helen Smith replied to Joyce Tebb
A hundred 'likes' for this comment! @JoyceTebb
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Helen Smith replied to Nabiha Khan
Gorgeous! And fascinating to see the metaphor of writing as metalwork -- I study images like this in the writing of the English Renaissance.
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Helen Smith replied to Srividya Prakash
What a wonderful selection! Thank you, @SrividyaPrakash
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Helen Smith replied to Elizabeth Herd
What an interesting comment -- if we were all meeting in person, I wonder if people would choose differently. Fascinating to think about how and why our choice of poems feels so revealing (as well as being revealing!).
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Helen Smith replied to June Ramsay
What a wonderful account of the effect a poem can have in the classroom! Thanks for sharing it, @JuneRamsay
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Helen Smith replied to Isabel von Sassen
I promise we know it's an impossible demand! It's lovely to see people struggling with it though (in a good way).
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Helen Smith replied to Sue C
The copyright question is an excellent one. If it's a line or two, or a short quotation, you're in the clear, and poems that are out of copyright are fair game. More recent poems are trickier -- I notice that quite a few people are linking to where they've found them online (or a photograph of a poem in your own, well-thumbed copy would be wholly legitimate!)...
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Helen Smith replied to Alexander Walker
What a wonderful choice -- and a great story behind it! @AlexanderWalker
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Helen Smith replied to Deborah Jefferson
Great choice -- and what a lovely reading of it!
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Helen Smith replied to Paulus J. van Zoest
I am a huge Bradstreet fan -- she's such an original and interesting poet, and deserves to be much more widely known, @PaulusJ.vanZoest
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Helen Smith replied to Catherine Walker
What a great choice -- and a great reason too! I love thinking about the ways poets speak to and with one another. And, as you say, it's possible for them to be irreverent or even angry, and yet you can still love the 'original', while also seeing it differently.
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Helen Smith replied to GM Coatsworth
What a wonderful choice -- thanks for sharing it.
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Helen Smith replied to Jane Redshaw
What a wonderful choice! We'll check in with Cavafy briefly later, when we're talking about poetry and translation!
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Helen Smith replied to David McTigue
Delighted to hear you're enjoying the course, @DavidMcTigue -- and thanks for your own poetic gusto!
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Helen Smith replied to Elisabete Silva
So pleased you're enjoying it -- I am loving the comments, and the wonderful suggestions for so much rewarding poetry reading (and music!) @ElisabeteSilva
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Helen Smith replied to marisa minelle-katis
We'll call in with 'Tulips' briefly later in the course -- a wonderful choice, and one that calls up a fabulous lineage of women poets!
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Helen Smith replied to Michael Mischler
I'm not sure I agree with your take on the differences between the sexes, but what a great and interesting poem! Thanks for sharing it @MichaelMischler
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Helen Smith replied to Diane Mayhead
Gosh, that's a tall order, given how many poems have been chosen! We'll see what we can do.
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Helen Smith replied to Jacqueline Noble
What an interesting course that sounds like! Flora has a piece on bibliotherapy a bit later in this course, @JacquelineNoble
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Helen Smith replied to Anne Tennock
What a fabulous comment, Anne. It's lovely to see you engaging with what it means to have a 'favourite' -- a really important question about how and why poems resonate, and when and why they possess meaning for us.
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Helen Smith replied to Carolyn McGrath
What a wonderful choice, and an extraordinary story behind your love for it, @CarolynMcGrath
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Helen Smith replied to Joyce Tebb
I'm a huge fan of Olds: she was revelatory for me as a woman writing in really direct, embodied, immediate ways. As you say, she manages to convey the complexities and intricacies of relationships (with each other and with ourselves) so vividly.
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Helen Smith replied to Arundhathi Anil
I studied Plath at school -- such a vivid awakening to what poetry can do and the difficulty of that line between the 'confessional' and poetic control.
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Helen Smith replied to Sarah Charnaud
This is a really interesting choice! It will speak nicely to our section on ekphrasis a bit later in the course as well -- fascinating to think about pictures being given a voice.
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Helen Smith replied to Rebecca Townson
Really glad you're enjoying it, Rebecca -- and I hope we're giving you a wealth of possibilities to choose from!
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Helen Smith replied to Gordon Gibson
One of the poems I know by heart! And one of the few poems I think is really good for a wedding...
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Helen Smith replied to Warwick Turnbull
So pleased to hear that you are enjoying the course so far. And it's lovely to see another translated poem as your choice -- we'll be talking about translation a little further into the course! @WarwickTurnbull
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Helen Smith replied to Sheila Kozmin
What a wonderful choice, and for such an incredible reason. I hope you absolutely love your degree -- best of luck with it! @SheilaKozmin
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Helen Smith replied to Jocelyn Phillips
What a wonderful choice, @JocelynPhillips. It has put something in my mind for my current book project, as well!
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Helen Smith replied to Caron F
I believe Meeropol's poem also gave Lillian Smith the title for her incredible 1944 novel *Strange Fruit*, @CaronF. Another incredible and rich meeting of literature and politics.
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Good luck with your quest! I hope the course gives you some strong contenders.
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Helen Smith replied to Jennifer O'Neill
It's lovely to see it's such a tough question! Definitely hard to choose...
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Helen Smith replied to Jane Mattley
Aha! You will get the chance to spend a bit of time with Auden a little later in the course...
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Helen Smith replied to Lesley Roberts
What a wonderful choice. Thanks @LesleyRoberts
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Helen Smith replied to joan nixon
There's certainly a great deal of reading for you in the comments! A veritable anthology!
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Helen Smith replied to Moira Vangrove
Especially in lockdown, this one kept coming in to my head! The longing for the sea, and for the freedom (imagined perhaps) of travel and being under sail.
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Helen Smith replied to Richard Stableford
I love The Lion and Albert. My parents had an LP of Stanley Holloway when I was little -- he read it brilliantly! @RichardStableford
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Helen Smith replied to Pat Heery
I hope you find the course is some help in building up your knowledge. But I also like the idea that someone expressed earlier: that you can return again and again to poems, and that new things can strike you and help to deepen your response and understanding.
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Helen Smith replied to Teresa Holmes
It's very hard to choose a favourite (I always hate it when people ask what my favourite book is)! But I hope you're enjoying some of the wonderful choices shared in the comments -- it's a treasure trove!
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Helen Smith replied to Sue Green
You're not the only Innisfree fan, I see! It's a wonderful poem: a complete lesson in mood and tone.
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Thank you so much for translating this for us! Who is the poet?
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Helen Smith replied to Diane Schofield
How lovely! Both the poem, and your relationship with it. @DianeSchofield
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Helen Smith replied to Diane Bucko
We have a few Frost fans in the comments! And it's really interesting to hear which poems people have learned by heart, and which stay with them. Thanks for sharing this.
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Helen Smith replied to Nigel Edwards
Really interesting choices. I think Alice Oswald is also wonderful at capturing the idea of the fleeting moment: how it feels, and that it has already disappeared.
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Helen Smith replied to Marie Gordon
Still one I love to recite -- hugely evocative. What a lovely choice.
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Helen Smith replied to Samiran Haldar
Thanks so much for sharing this with us -- a lovely new discovery for me.
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Helen Smith replied to A M
I'm loving sharing Lewis Carroll with my little girl (she's four, about to turn five). They're fabulous -- rhythmic, inventive and full of wonder.
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Helen Smith replied to Fouzi Labadla
What a beautiful choice! Thank you for sharing it with us.
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Helen Smith replied to Alice Wright
These are wonderful choices. And I hope we will introduce you to a few more contemporary poets over the coming weeks!
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Helen Smith replied to Devika M
Yes -- I'm afraid lines from 'The Second Coming' have been running through my head a bit too often this year!
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Helen Smith replied to Elizabeth Chapman
Walter de la Mare seems to be cropping up a few times! I loved his short stories when I was a child.
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Helen Smith replied to Ella R
I absolutely love 'Warming her Pearls'! I haven't read it for ages -- your comment will send me back to it.
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Yes -- we're so lucky to have Vahni at York! If you want to immerse yourself in Vahni's readings now and then, take a look at the wonderful recordings they made as an 'active silence' project: https://www.york.ac.uk/english/writing-at-york/active-silence/
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In the past, poetry and song have often had a very close relationship. Some of the great English Renaissance poems, for instance, were probably sung as frequently as they were spoken -- a way of experiencing poetry that we have lost. As you point out, though, there's a wonderful tradition of complex and interesting lyric in contemporary music.
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This is a great point, Bethany-May. There's an essay I love by Jeannette Winterson, where she talks about our reluctance to allow art to be difficult, or to enjoy difficulty in art. No-one expects Maths or Physics to be easy, so why do we want paintings or poems to ask less of us? I really like the essay too because she asks us to slow down and allow ourselves...
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Helen Smith replied to David McTigue
This is a great point, David -- one of the things I love most about poetry (and literature more generally) is how you can always find new things in it. Someone else's perspective can open up entirely novel ways of thinking and reading.
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Helen Smith replied to Aitch Heaton
These are great questions, Aitch. I'll be interested to hear if you feel your answers to them change over the course.
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Helen Smith replied to Sue Green
Look forward to seeing if we inspire you to put pen to paper (or cursor to screen) Sue!
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Helen Smith replied to John Easton
I hope you find lots of wonderful perspective, John!
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Helen Smith replied to Helen Arundel
I don't think we're *too* scary, Helen. You can let us know at the end!
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Helen Smith replied to M. CLEMENT HALL
Contemporary is a moving target!
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Welcome Shyne! It's wonderful to have you with us -- we look forward to enjoying some fabulous poetry with you.
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Welcome, Robert. Delighted that you're starting your FutureLearn journey with us -- I hope it's a good first step!
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Welcome, Ann. I really hope you find the course both helpful and inspiring. Flora has a wonderful piece on bibliotherapy coming up towards the end of the course -- it will be very interesting to hear your views!
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Helen Smith replied to Ineke Fioole
Lovely to have you with us, Ineke! I hope you enjoy the course, and are able to add a few new tools to help you enjoy poems.
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Helen Smith replied to Srividya Prakash
Welcome @SrividyaPrakash! Great to have you on the course. We've got poetry from across the ages coming up...
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Helen Smith replied to Amina Nasrin M
Welcome Nasrin! Lovely to have you with us.
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Helen Smith replied to Dennis G
It's a win either way for us! Either we've helped you understand it, or we've intensified its mysteries! :)
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Helen Smith replied to Emma Hepburn
This sounds wonderful, Emma! Look out for the exercise and prompts from our Writer in Residence, Vahni Capildeo, especially as we move into week four. I hope the course inspires you, and gives you the confidence to write and share your poems.
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Helen Smith replied to Bheemaray K Janagond
Welcome Bheemaray! It's so lovely to have you with us.
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Helen Smith replied to Victoria Sturdy
How you're taught poetry at school can make such a difference! I hope we're able to help you really enjoy some fantastic verse.
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Helen Smith replied to RALPH W.
Really pleased you're looking forward to it! We want everyone to feel they're welcome on this course -- enjoying poetry is a crucial part of what we do.
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Helen Smith replied to Rosalie Schultz
Thanks for making this point, @RosalieSchultz. We'll be really interested to hear your feedback at the end of the course. Our focus is centrally English language work, but you'll definitely be hearing from, and reading, speakers and poets from a variety of traditions and backgrounds.
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Helen Smith replied to Carolyn McGrath
Hope you manage to stick with it, @CarolynMcGrath! It's lovely to have you with us, and I hope you really enjoy what you find here, and the community in the comments and conversation.
