poetry and counterintelligence

At first glance catching spies and studying English poetry do not seem closely related – both, when competently done, are based on recognizing patterns. It is no accident that some of the most effective British and American counterintelligence officers in World War II were drafted into that war from positions as critics of English literature. They had been trained to look for multiple meanings, to examine the assumptions hidden in words and phrases, and to grasp the whole structure of a poem or a play, not just the superficial plot or statement. So the multiple meanings, the hidden assumptions and the larger patterns of a CI (counterintelligence) case were grist for their mill. I do not require my young CI officers to be able to discuss the complexities of a Shakespeare play, but if I catch them studying Brooks and Warren’s Understanding Poetry, I do not send them off to the firing range. I tell them to go and read Cleanth Brooks on “The Language of Paradox, because counterintelligence is the act of paradox.