West Point Professor Seeks Paths to a ‘Soldier’s Heart’

JIM LEHRER:

And finally tonight, a story of soldiers and sonnets at West Point. Jeffrey Brown has the latest in our ongoing poetry series.

JEFFREY BROWN:

At the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, classes begin with a salute.

ELIZABETH SAMET, Author, "Soldier's Heart": I know Mr. Cooke [ph] and Ms. Lizari [ph] did the Rich and Dunne connection [ph].

JEFFREY BROWN:

But apart from that and the uniforms, Professor Elizabeth Samet's upper-level poetry seminar would fit in at any university filled with very bright young men and women.

ELIZABETH SAMET:

And I think Stevens is really getting at similar themes…

JEFFREY BROWN:

The discussion ranged widely, from Wallace Stevens' poem "The Snow Man"…

ELIZABETH SAMET:

To put "nothing that is not there" into the mix, he's not talking directly about the nature scene.

JEFFREY BROWN:

… to the eighth-century Chinese poet Du Fu.

ELIZABETH SAMET:

… 98 in the Chinese poetry.

WEST POINT CADET:

Snow scurries in the coiling wind. The wine glass is spilled. The bottle is empty. The fire has gone out on the stove.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Cadets were unafraid to question the professor's thesis.

WEST POINT CADET:

I'm just having a hard time understanding any notion of poetry devoid of any emotion. It doesn't strike me as, I mean, maybe there's a spectrum, where, I mean, certainly some poetry is more divested than others, but could you elaborate on that?