Literature

But can they really think that Homer, or Pindar, or Shakespeare, or Dryden, or Walter Scott, were accustomed to aim at diction for its own sake, instead of being inspired with their subject, and pouring forth beautiful words because they had beautiful thoughts? This is surely too great a paradox to be borne. Rather, it is the fire within the author's breast which overflows in the torrent of his burning, irresistible eloquence; it is the poetry of his inner soul, which relieves itself in the Ode or the Elegy; and his mental attitude and bearing, the beauty of his moral countenance, the force and keenness of his logic, are imaged in the tenderness, or energy, or richness of his language.  
- John Henry Cardinal Newman, The Idea of a University

The classics of literature are classics because they have inspired, moved, taught generation after generation of men.  Homer did not compose his works so that they could become an example of epic poetry in dactyllic hexameter for  high school or university students; he aimed to hold spellbound a hall of Greek nobility and leave them clamoring for more.

Summon also the inspired singer Demodokos, for to him the god gave song surpassing in power to please, whenever the spirit moves him to singing. 
- The Odyssey, VIII.43.

John Adams’ generation learned Latin so that they could read Plutarch, Virgil, Tacitus, and Terence.  They read them so carefully and deeply that they really grew to know the minds and hearts of these great men. 

As Catholic educators, we must approach literature with a similar intention.  As in many other areas, standardized tests shy away from meaning and focus on techniques.  But our primary goal must be to introduce our students to authors and works worthy of knowing and help them to be moved as the author intended.  We need not ignore teaching them the compositional techniques that great authors used successfully, but that study should be aid in the fundamental activity of teaching them to read well.

A classic approach begins the process in the early years by developing the taste for stories, by telling the mythical and historical stories that inspired many great authors.  Memorization of passages from the Scriptures, poetry, great speeches, even Shakespeare, develops the sense of the rhythms, cadences and vocabulary that make reading the classics in later years easier.

High school literature courses can make use of seminar discussions to accustom students to thinking about the meaning of what they are reading, and to the close reading that these authors’ mastery of language demands.  As they look more closely to the words of the author, they will be ready to appreciate the deftness of the techniques which each author uses to make his points, his images, his stories more powerful.