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Reader question: Please explain “game of poetry” in this sentence: I am a student of the game of poetry, and my mentors are all those poets I read about in school and still read today. My comments: Great question. The phrase to examine here is “student of the game”, meaning someone who has a keen interest in something (and is always eager to learn and to improve). In the example above, see the speaker as treating poetry as a game. He calls himself a student of the game. And he is right – he still reads and studies – as does a student in school – poetry long after school, not because he has to in order to past a test or get a promotion but because he likes it. “Student of the game” is a sporting term, referring to players and coaches who never tire of analyzing and studying each and every facet of the game. Arsene Wenger, a French football coach who has managed English Premier League club Arsenal since 1996, is, for example, a perpetual student of the beautiful game. The guy is so consumed with his sport that he spends sleepless weekend nights watching tape, including the night right after his team plays earlier in the evening. Anyways, the biggest trait or characteristic of a student is that he keeps learning. And we should all be a “student of the game” and be a good student well after school, I mean after graduation. This is particularly important in a country like ours, where youngsters often cease to learn after high school or college. Historically, we treat education as a sort of knocker on the door – the door to officialdom, that is. And after achieving officialdom, i.e. securing a job in the government, we abandon the knocker (the books) altogether. | 
