|low graphics version | feedback | help|
|You are in: Talking Point|
Wednesday, 11 October, 2000, 11:31 GMT 12:31 UK
Does poetry matter?
It is national poetry day in the UK on Thursday. Scores of poets from around the world will be in London for a week of readings and events. But will anyone be listening?
Everyone can name a handful of best-selling novelists, cinema mega-stars or opera divas. But can you think of more than one famous living poet?
Is verse just not the thing for the 21st century? Can poetry compete with all the entertainment on offer these days? Do you read any poetry?
Unfortunately we will not be able to discuss poetry on Sunday's Talking Point but we hope to return the topic another time. So please keep e-mailing us with your favourite poems. And don't forget to include your phone number if you want to take part in any future programme.
This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.
Poets are basically failed novelists.
They write complete rubbish because they know literary snobs are foolish enough to take it seriously.
What they do for written text is the same as what Tracy Emin does for art, NOTHING!! But as long as there are pretentious arty types around who think criticism is an attribute of only ignorant people, then the majority will still be suffering.
If you're an ugly guy, poetry is your one great hope of impressing a woman.
L. Loukopoulos, Detroit, USA
I do not know who will leave their job
to hear our poetry in one huge mob,
of people claiming to hear with care,
the poetic strains in a writer's fair,
but, let us all hope and pray,
that it will happen this special day!
Happy National Poetry Day!
I'm not really a big poetry fan. However you can have a giggle at limericks.
I am 21 years of age and considered by many to be more interested in pop music than poetry. However, whilst I do not claim to enjoy or understand all poems, I would much rather spend my time reading than listening to the latest chart music rubbish. Poetry has as much place these days as idiotic pop tunes. Perhaps if more modern music artists enjoyed poetry, it may give them a better chance of writing a decent pop song, rather than covering old classics.
Poetry occupies a unique place in literature. It is capable of being the most beautiful and significant form of the written word.
At the same time it often occupies the lowest rung, occupying a place that is arguably outside the true definition of "literature" or "art".
It is regrettable that the modern era all too often panders to the latter.
Alister McClure, GB
As someone who has written poetry as a form of catharsis and had some printed, I am going to say yes, it does matter. It matters to me and that is all there is to say.
Everyone is touched by poetry, whether it be sentimental or funny, thoughtful or startling. We may be intimidated by poetry, thinking there's "something else there" we don't understand, but the enjoyment of poetry is visceral.
Poetry moves the soul, transcending class, time and the idiosyncrasies of language. Lament for those too blinded by the light of our great mammon, the almighty pound, to see past our situations and through the lines to something higher and indefinable, something that strives nobly towards the great unanswerable questions that have been man's legacy for this brief eternity.
Appreciation of poetry, and the arts in general, is a very personal thing. Some people, like myself, quite simply could not live without the emotions and sensitivities that the arts bring to our lives. For others it does nothing and they couldn't care less. There is room in this world for both sorts, so let's just keep it that way.
Walt O'Brien, USA
William Blake's Tiger, Tiger turned me on, I love Robert Burns, Oscar Wilde, Maya Angelou, and I write dark Gothic poetry and lyrics myself. Life is a drag without poetry.
I was lucky enough to be taught
by a famous poet some years ago. He
suggested that we have moved
from spoken poetry to music in
the past number of decades,
and I think he had a point.
Could it be argued that the best
modern poets are those in pop
groups? Could we not say that The
Beatles produced fine poetry,
which also had mass appeal? Many
of us can recite plenty of verse,
it's just that we've learned it from
the radio instead of reading it.
The sound bite of the heart
The distilled and heady essence
That keeps man and beast apart
Much poetry is garbage
I am not a poet (as can be seen) but I much appreciate good poetry and wish success to every poet who drags, from soul and experience, truths which are then set down in a succinct poetic form for all to enjoy.
What are heavy?
Can I make a quick correction to Roger Sayer, Seattle, USA's contribution? Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter (such as Shakespeare often uses) and not much modern poetry at all is written in this idiom.
A poem is no use at all,
F. William Weaver, Lubbock, TX USA
Poetry has the unique ability to transcend gender, place, and time to allow one human mind to speak to another and share what it is to struggle and live. Poetry is the concentrated essence of language and is as valuable today as 100 years ago. Poets such as Margaret Atwood, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni continue to provide us with beautiful poems that, I am certain, will stand the test of time.
Faris Kasim, Pakistan
The arts are presided over by a bunch of talentless leftists whose idea of creativity is simply to push the boundaries of perversion. It has nothing to do with real life anymore and oddly enough the rest of us proles aren't interested. Hopefully the intellectuals are happy in their self-congratulatory little circle. I just hope the average Briton isn't funding it.
A favourite poem for the celebration of poetry would be a sonnet by William Shakespeare. Reading the sonnets for the celebration of life and beauty is a joy. If one reads the sonnets there is news of humanity. Read what is best, joy of the beauty of the Bard.
Albert P'Rayan, Kigali, Rwanda
Poetry can be as bland and disengaging as some pop music. We should not think of poetry as higher or greater simply because it is poetry. It has to be powerful and reach people to have any lasting impact. That is why Rudyard Kipling's "If" and Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night" are so well known and well loved. They speak to people about the values and experiences they have.
Modern poetry (i.e. blank verse) is like modern art; one can never tell if its really worth anything. It seems to me that anybody who writes his or her thoughts down with broken lines and weird spaces can claim to be a Poet.
Gavin Pearson, Detroit, USA
Poetry is dying! Thank God, I hated reading that stuff in my literature classes. It's a useless boring form of entertainment.
Poetry's for girls.
I'm ashamed to say that I cannot think of the name of one living poet. That does not mean that I do not like poetry, per se, but my tastes are somewhat more traditional: I actually like my poetry to rhyme at least once (or is it twice!) per stanza, have a discernible meter, and doesn't try to be so clever that it isn't. I'm sure they'll all enjoy listening to each other, and that's just fine!
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Other Talking Points:
Links to other Talking Point stories
|^^ Back to top
News Front Page | World | UK | UK Politics | Business | Sci/Tech | Health | Education | Entertainment | Talking Point | In Depth | AudioVideo
To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>>
© MMIII | News Sources | Privacy