Poetry is inseparable from human thought; it is essential to how we express and understand ourselves, and to how we exercise our creative faculties. It is to be lamented that poetry has become marginalized by today's popular culture, since any improvement in our societies requires new ideas, and new ideas require us to rework our languages, expanding our capacity to express complex concepts not previously possible.
Nevertheless, I do have faith that poetry will eventually regain its rightful place, because as long as there are humans beings on this earth there will be poetry as well. Just as no tyrant or calamity can quench the natural capacity and desire for human beings to love, neither can the spirit of creativity so central to human nature ever be crushed.
As Percy B. Shelley once wrote, the poet is like a nightingale, singing alone in the forest shadows, unaware and unconcerned if anyone is listening. He sings because it is his nature to do so, and if history is changed because of him, he is even more delighted. But most poets will never see the changes their poetry will effect, and so they must have faith and hope that human decency and love will persevere over the course of time.
Meanwhile they will continue to sing.
I think that the contemporary disdain for poetry is part of the larger movement of anti-intellectualism. And, of course, most people think that poetry has nothing to say to them, so they make no effort to read any. Plus, if like me you had a truly awful English teacher, you might be put off reading poetry for life. I still have an aversion to Victorian poets, apart from Hopkins, who I never learned about in school.
ReplyDeleteI agree Dennis. It is the self-fulfilling prophecy at work. They never actually go exploring, so they discover nothing. It is unfortunate because engaging with poetry is one of the most wonderful ways to cultivate a fully developed humanity in which the heart and mind are harmonized.
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