Poetry: Who Needs It?
Poetry: Who Needs It?
This is an interesting read that resurfaces the issue that critics and poets alike can't stop talking about: poetry’s alleged decline and failure to attract popular audience. As poet William Logan points out in his piece, “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 is, indeed, more of a highbrow art than some fiction, mainstream movies, but if this is true, why do we constantly rehash the old debate regarding poetry and accessibility?
My main struggle with this conversation is that blame is typically placed on audience when it comes to accessibility. At times, it feels as though poetry exists as an elite medium of art due to its ties with the academy, which functions as a barrier in the process of accessing today’s poetry. In this case, poetry lies on a hierarchical axis, which is not entirely a fault of the genre. Blame may rather reside in the realm of economy, publishing, and popular presses.
In order to gain access to popular presses, I’m not insisting that poets across the board “dumb” their works down to garner an audience; rather, I’m suggesting that poetry, more specifically contemporary poetry, is typically made more available in and after schooling, which is associated with a host of corresponding barriers and impediments to access. I remember my experience with poetry in high school mostly consisted of Donne, Shakespeare and Blake. To be sure, these are all essential poets, but a number of gaps existed between “classic” to contemporary poetry, which were not filled in until I arrived in college. For many, these gaps are never filled. Learning how to read contemporary poetry and understand its progression is tied, instead, indelibly to higher education.
Placing more poetry in public schools won’t by any means skyrocket popularity, but it may tap interests in students who may not have discovered poetry on their own.
If this sparked your interest, click to read Stephen Chiger’s response article.
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Kristen Brida is a forth-year undergraduate at Susquehanna University studying poetry and creative nonfiction. She serves as the Senior Poetry Editor for RiverCraft and her work has been featured in Mangrove, Essay, Belleville Park Pages and Prairie Margins.