There was a piece in the NY Times a while back by William Logan asking who needs poetry. We shared it on our fb page with glee, but as for sharing it on the blog … well, we have to do more than just link to it and woot that people are talking about poetry.
Now, don’t get us wrong … really, Woot! Yay! People are talking about poetry! We really love to see that … it’s sorta what we’re all about … Always having Poetry On Everyone’s Mind … and why we built the site … for the proliferation and celebration of poetry in all its forms and really all creative endeavors for that matter … because … well … just because for now. We’ll do more on that later, but back to the NY Times piece …
Thank you for writing this, William Logan. We certainly enjoyed the work. Besides being overjoyed with the topic, we thought it well reasoned, well written, and well presented. For the most part, we wish to applaud everything you had to say. So, I hope you don’t mind if we also use your piece for a demonstration.
Over the past half century, as American poetry’s specialist audience has steadily expanded, its general readership has declined. Even if great poetry continues to be written, it has retreated from the center of literary life. Though supported by a loyal coterie, poetry has lost the confidence that it speaks to and for the general culture.
You see, essentially … poetry is considered “high-brow,” which is odd considering Dr. Seuss and rap lyrics are also considered poetry. We’re making a strange Venn diagram here, but it’s true. Outside of academia, poetry is not really a popular thing. Sure, everyone has a verse or two they know from some significant time or event, a funeral or graduation, or some inspirational maxim maybe from a movie, but for the most part, poetry isn’t popular. William Logan says as much in his piece as well:
We have all these ways of throwing poetry at the crowd, but the crowd is not composed of people who particularly want to read poetry — or who, having read a little poetry, are likely to buy the latest edition of “Paradise Lost.”
We agree wholeheartedly. But it’s directly after this where the assumption about poetry as something high-brow can be seen. William Logan follows with this attempt to assuage his reader:
This is not a disaster. Most people are also unlikely to attend the ballet, or an evening with a chamber-music quartet, or the latest exhibition of Georges de La Tour. Poetry has long been a major art with a minor audience.
Why is poetry being lumped together with the ballet, or chamber music, and a French Baroque painter? Did Robert Frost practice ballet or listen to chamber music? What of Homer? Just the first to poets that popped into our heads, both of whom practiced a major art with a major audience. What has changed? Should we blame academia as Gioia does? Should we listen to personal experience and our friends who say they never got into poetry because their high school teacher made them feel dumb if they “didn’t get it”?
Poetry is older than paper. As Frost says, “it is a way of remembering what it would impoverish us to forget.” Are only academics qualified now to tell us what is worth remembering and what is not? What happened to the grandmother who used to reveal bits of wisdom in verse and rhyme? Surely we have not run out of things worth remembering …
Poetry On Everyone's Mind 