The Fading Appeal of Poetry

Poetry has lost much of its original kingdom. Many  students seem to have no longer made  poetry   a part of their lives, making it so much less a necessity  now  than it was in the past. This is preliminary to saying that compared with prose, poetry is not widely- read  now.

Various reasons  have been cited as causes of the lack of student interest in  poetry.   These include,  among others, the modern emphasis on science and technology at the expense of the arts, the association of high income with the technological  and money making professions  on one hand , and with   low compensation with the literary endeavors on the other hand.

What makes things worse is that,  many   literature  teachers are ill-prepared to crack the connotative dimensions  that operate in  poetic compositions. This  contributes immensely to the exclusion of poetry in many literature classes. Consequently, when a student turns to poetry, he finds himself timidly stumbling between and beyond the lines of a poem, and thus,  like the proverbial horse sour graping,  he concludes  rather tartly, that poetry is just a leftover of prose.

This coldness to poetry in the school setting has, as  has been generally observed, resulted in prose dominating poetry, with poetry being for the most part played up only in opera and musical comedy.

Poetry used to be a  veritable “encyclopedia of  information” ,  a medium to communicate powerful feelings, emotions, and sentiments, and an an effective inciter of wisdom  aside from being a purveyor of human values. In sum, with the advent of the computer, other  agencies have contrived to  take away so much from poetry: philosophers, scientists, linguists, historians, essayists, dramatists,  teachers, and so on.  

Added to the facts cited above, with the invention of  the radio and television “whose announcers speak in the blandest, least musical cadences possible”,  men turn less to poetry than they did in the past. They no longer take enough time to look for the beauty of words or of rhythm, neither of which is very likely  to be there  anyway,  because they don’t appreciate the cadences  and music of the lines.

However, poetry  does not seem likely to disappear forever. The beauty of verse still seems to live like hunger in many  men and women.  Most of them still turn to poetry  for spiritual help and moral support. Young people especially love to record their love, grief, frustration, success, and joy  in stammering poetry. As a matter of fact, poetry seems to be more exciting  when  taught to, recited,  or read by the young.

It has been my experience as a high school mentor and university professor for thirty-five years that most of the effective storytellers in my classes loved poetry or were poets in their own right.  The fact is that, nothing has as yet been invented to replace poetry, for poetry speaks more fully and briefly of the meaning of life.There ought to be a world that has as much usefulness as ever for the “language of the angels”.  It is a fact that  like  philosophy, science,  fiction and drama , poetry tells what it means to be human  through the sound of human voices. This makes poetry a source of awe and wonder, beauty, fascination, and mystery through the poetic flight– the imagination. ###