I like to read. Quite a bit. Our house has books in every room, including the stacks that sit in the bathrooms. Growing up, reading was always the perfect escape when life got to be a little too much to deal with. Because of this, I’m always amazed when I hear people complaining about having to read or making fun of someone because they want to read. Maybe I’m just getting crotchety in my old age, but I still believe pretty heavily in the whole “knowledge is power” theory that Schoolhouse Rocky was always going on about.

Even though I read fiction and non-fiction (and, as the website suggests, poetry) I tend to fixate in the genres of history, science, and science fiction/fantasy and neglect “the classics”.  It was easier back in school - I was the oddball who would read the books assigned in my Literature class and borrow the books from my friends classes so I could read them as well. But school was a long time ago, so I’ve been trying to slot in a classic every month or so be it a re-read or a new read for me.

This ties right in to this school year, as the youngest recently read To Kill a Mockingbird for his freshman English class. When I read it, I loved it. When my wife read it, she loved it. My son read it and hated it. Because of this I decided that I was going to make sure I read any new assignments right along with him so I could talk to him about the book and help him understand what makes it special. That and I could avoid a few dozen conversations along the lines of “I hate ! Why do I have to read it!”

So what does this all have to do with Poetry Monday? Well, in the course of thinking about this the other day I started to go through my books and guess what they would most likely be teaching over the next four years. Rumble Fish? The Outsiders? Slaughterhouse Five? The Wanting Seed? Personally I hope - and this is a bit of a stretch, given the nature of our school district and their desire to be as bland and unoffensive as possible - that they would teach The Catcher in the Rye. I know that there will be a whole group of parents who are offended by this (and cynically I would note that most of them probably have not read the book), but I think that the themes in this book resonate with teenagers. I know that it did with me.

So for today’s poem, I’m going to go with the Robert Burns poem that Holden Caulfield misheard, *Comin’ Tho’ the Rye. *The first poem of his that I read was *To a Mouse…, *and from that point I’ve always loved the sound and feel of his poems. One thing I always wondered is what Burns would think of how his poem has become so intertwined with the Salinger’s book that it’s impossible to talk about one without talking about the other.

*Comin Thro’ The Rye. *

*O, Jenny’s a’ weet, poor body, Jenny’s seldom dry: She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie, Comin thro’ the rye!

Chorus: Comin thro’ the rye, poor body, Comin thro’ the rye, She draigl’t a’ her petticoatie, Comin thro’ the rye!

Gin a body meet a body Comin thro’ the rye, Gin a body kiss a body, Need a body cry?

(chorus)

Gin a body meet a body Comin thro’ the glen, Gin a body kiss a body, Need the warl’ ken?

(chorus)

Gin a body meet a body Comin thro’ the grain; Gin a body kiss a body, The thing’s a body’s ain.

(chorus)

Ev’ry Lassie has her laddie, Nane, they say, have I, Yet all the lads they smile on me, When comin’ thro’ the rye. *