To feel Poetry has died a death in modern society?

[Marmitemother]

Out of curiosity I searched MN expecting to find a topic page on poetry and literature....have I missed it somewhere?

Semi retired, children flown the nest, hubbie and I always busy with projects yet still find time to read poetry most days.

I'm wondering if others, particularly younger folk (we're in our 60's) didn't learn to appreciate poetry at school or just don't have time or the inclination to read, share and discuss compared to all else available these days (TV, phones, cinema, social media etc)

I read The Journey by Mary Oliver this morning and thought about how it spoke to many posting on the Relationship page.

“One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.”

I've always fairly unashamedly liked poetry, reading it, writing it (badly no doubt), despite GCSE English's attempt to murder any desire for poetry with dull repetitions of Browning and Tennyson, and a mere snippet of Seamus Heaney but not enough to really get going with before back to the same old same old.

It really infuriated me that there is so much to explore, and yet, GCSE does not do that (or it certainly didnt in the mid 90s anyway), so many useful avenues to go down with song lyrics, and rap/grime etc.

For many people I think poetry now is the dire crap the likes of Keith J Furnival get published in their local paper and then shared on Angry People In Local Newspapers... and by default, poetry must be for the sorts of twonk that writes that kind of drivel.

Hurrah for Bilston, he is the first book of poetry I have bought in over a decade and I am so glad his work is easy to find all around social media, like CPR for poetry, I think he might just save its life!

@emptythelitterbox I’m not sure what you’re trying to prove. Yes, there are some shitty rap lyrics. There are also a lot of shitty poems. The existence of these does not mean that one form is valid and the other isn’t. No one’s asking you to like it.

I love poetry, it’s in all the rap music I’ve loved my whole life.

Rappers uses onomatopoeia, similes, metaphors, word play, comedy, references their own culture, pop culture, politics, etc. in very clever ways.

I did have books of old traditional poetry that I loved as a child but have never been able to enjoy modern written poetry without a beat. They seem pretentious on the page and overly flowery.

This. Maybe I just had terrible teachers but wow, what a boring waste of everyone's time.

And I got an A.

To be fair, luckily DD is a big reader already as most GCSE or even KS3 literacy offerings would have put her off reading.

I only discovered various literacy topics after leaving school as I think teaching is more about murdering any interest by disecting books to death and ensuring love of reading.

^ This. Rap is poetry.
I have always loved poetry (English degree) and during lockdown discovered I liked Rap too. It is just another form of poetry, complete with rhyme, rhythm, imagery, emotion, and verses.

Music is more commercial and accessible.

I think syllabi of the 70s and 80s may have killed off poetry for many of my generation. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard anyone? Yea verily, the youth of the late 70s needed all 157 verses of that like they needed a hole in ye head.

I think it's always been a niche interest but I think there are poets out there who really speak to people. John O'Donoghue, Seamus Heaney, and other Irish poets are worth checking out. Thanks for the Mary Oliver piece.

My local high school (US) does a Spoken Word poetry class and students participate in local poetry slams. It's all very teenage angsty but the kids are super enthusiastic and the teachers are considered very cool. I live in a community where the arts and inclusiveness are valued though. Its a pity it's something I consider a privilege.

So does he think Homer didn't write poetry?

There is loads of poetry not written any differently from prose (in earlier periods, when the materials for writing were more expensive and harder to produce, people often assume you're bright enough to figure out where the lines should end, even if it's written as prose).

Urgh. Most poetry is self indulgent boring twaddle so good riddance.

Children study more poetry at school now than I did at secondary school in the 1980s. I haven't read twt but just wanted to say that.

Thank you so much for the Republic of Motherhood.

I love that phrase 'I soaked my spindled bones' from that poem, @Janbohonut.

sarahandquack same, i think that's my favourite line. I can feel that chilly water! And the hair strands....

mathanxiety Liz Berry absolutely nailed it. So so beautiful.

Yes! And it reminds me of Charles Causley's drowned sailor: 'Now he spindles/ In seas deeper than death'. Not that the two poems are alike, but it echoes for me.

That's true.

There are still regular poetry programs on radio 4 ...and right now they're discussing Under Milk Wood

17th century romantic poems are never going to resonate with a bored teenager.

OMG, I fell in love with John Donne in my teens! I doubt if I would have discovered him if he hadn't been on the syllabus. Still love him. And Andrew Marvell. And Milton, for the love story in Paradise Lost Adam refusing to be pardoned without Eve though Satan was more the sort of Bad Boy I dreamed of meeting ...

OP - I’m an English teacher and also teach Creative Writing to 6th formers. Poetry is alive and well. One of our students won the Christopher Tower award a few years ago and many of them produce excellent stuff in their portfolios. I don’t think this golden age really existed. I’m in my mid 50s and I would say poetry has been a pretty niche interest since the 1800s. Mary Oliver’s poetry is poetry for people who don’t really like poetry though. Verse rather than poetry.

I cant stand poetry, just hate hate hate it
All of it? You can't possibly have read every poem ever, in every one of its formats.

Hamilton is a great example of rap is poetry.

My 7 year old adores poetry. I have no idea how to support this love. What books do you recommend

Adam refusing to be pardoned without Eve
Grrrr, why can't you put a phrase between dashes on Mumsnet any more?

Marmitemother, I'm with you on poetry. And Marmite.

I have shelves of poetry at home: ancient, classical, modern, in crumbling old volumes and on bits of paper sold by street poets.

And always at least one spare Marmite in the larder.

We get poetry in song form now.

listen to evermore and folklore by Taylor swift.

I really hope she releases some poetry some day

I was a voracious reader from a young age into adulthood (though not so much in recent years - I have been sucked in by screens and social media ). I enjoy fiction, non-fiction, plays, short stories, but poetry is something I have always struggled with.

I dislike the rhythm of lots of poems; the sentences are often short and spiky and it makes me feel anxious. It has also transpired since my late diagnosis of autism that many autistic people struggle with metaphors, which makes so much sense. My poor English teacher was pushed to breaking point trying to explain metaphor and symbolism to me back in 2005

There's a set of good anthologies edited by Anne Fine - 3 books, covering different age ranges.

School made me despise poetry. It was boring to read but easy to do well analysing it which made it laughable in my mind. A sort of emperors new clothes phenomenon where everyone agrees how meaningful and important these words are when clearly it's all a load of self-important drivel.

I don't think that any more and have since been very surprised to find poetry that I found profoundly moving. But the school experience was dreadful!