Originally published in 2013

My three-year-old loves books. He loves having my husband or me read aloud to him and, of course, we love to read aloud to him. And in doing so we have both been struck at the tenacity of his favorite books. He can happily listen to and request the same book to be read over and over again in a single sitting. Of course he loves variety too, but it is the seemingly natural desire for repetition that is striking. As is so often the case, there is much to learn from the habits of little minds. He does not request that the books be re-read because of poor memory (he can and does recite many of them verbatim to his favorite stuffed animals); rather, he requests them because he loves the stories and delights in the events afresh every time. The first few times through the story he is fixated, completely silent, absorbing and processing the pictures and words together. Then he begins to anticipate and along with this anticipation he begins to notice new things or articulate his observations of smaller details.

The joy and the benefits of re-reading are not something reserved for toddlers, but should be a lifelong component of the love of reading and the process of learning. While there are not often many opportunities in grade school and high school to re-read a specific title over and over again, the cyclical nature of Mother of Divine Grace’s history and thus literature does provide some scope for this. And more importantly, students need to be prepared to re-read in college many works they were introduced to either in part or as a whole in high school. The opportunity to read a good or great work a second or even a third time in an academic setting is a treasure house that should not be overlooked or skimped. This experience is most striking when one reads an exact work over again, but can still be beneficial when one reads an original in high school or college after having read a retelling (such as The Children’s Homer or Lambs’ Tales from Shakespeare) in grade school or middle school.

The first time through a text the student needs to focus on the story itself. Who is this story about? What is happening? The characters and the plot are pre-eminent, as they should be! A good student may even find himself re-reading a page or stanza to ascertain basic facts, the facts on which the story depends. Much like the toddler, the student is absorbing the story. Only when the student holds the story as a whole in his mind can he go back and begin to notice the wealth of smaller details. Certainly one can finish reading The Ballad of the White Horse and know that it was written in a rich rhyme worthy of being recited aloud, but often the nuances, the potent symbolism, the real majesty of the language are only really noticed later when one reads and re-reads.

I have been privileged to teach for Mother of Divine Grace for almost fifteen years and I have had the opportunity to observe the joy of re-reading in students almost every year with Beowulf. Many students read Beowulf in 11th grade in the medieval history courses and then re-read Beowulf in 12th grade in British Literature. The first time through students often struggle with the unfamiliar names, the older style of language, the inevitable clunkiness of a translation, and the terminology of ancient English and Germanic life. It takes all of their energy to focus on what happened and then with reflection and hopefully the benefit of parent, teacher, or class discussion to see the heroism and virtue of Beowulf throughout his life and the many conflicts of the story. But the second time through students read with the framework of the story already fresh in their minds. They know who Beowulf is, they remember that he fought with two demons and a dragon, and they remember the outcomes.

This time through they can begin to see how other smaller details are ordered to those larger crucial events. One might notice that Beowulf purposefully chooses to lay aside his sword and armor and fight Grendal bare-handed, leveling the playing field between them, so to speak. But then when Grendal’s dam slays Aschere, the right or sword arm of the king, Beowulf brings his own sword in pursuit of her, and though his sword proves ineffectual, he does fight and slay Grendal’s dam with a sword found within her lair; he fights with a sword, ultimately her sword, because she has taken the king’s sword. This year I had a student point out the frequency of the word ‘gold’ throughout Beowulf. It appeared not just as a reference to the simple metal in coin, cup, or ornamentation, but it was used as a descriptive adjective for any number of items. The author was subtly drawing the reader’s attention to gold and from this one can begin to reflect on a fresh set of symbols. We see the generosity of ring-givers like Hrothgar and Beowulf who use their ‘gold’, be it in coin, strength, or life blood, for the good of their people, the generosity of men who give continuously even up to their very lives; this is set against the unused wealth of the dragon’s treasure, hoarded first by greedy men, then the dragon, and finally left to crumble away forever unused. One can go on, finding fresh “treasures” with each re-reading, digging up new details to reflect upon, and finding new parallels.

Certainly the heart of the story, the story as a whole, the plot and characters discovered and apprehended on the first reading, always remain essential. This is why a story read through even only once, if read well, is always preferable to intensely unpacking only a few chapters. But there is a beauty and richness in good and great books that may only be found by reading and re-reading them. St. Augustine speaks of scripture being infinitely deep, for no matter how many times one reads scripture the created intellect will never apprehend all that is in scripture; in fact, the created intellect can only scratch at the surface. While the greatest human classics cannot approach the mysteries of divinely inspired scripture, there is a lesson in St. Augustine’s point. One cannot exhaust great works, but can and should approach them humbly each time.