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by barry-cotter 1275 days ago
There was a time when lots of people read and wrote poetry that was meant to be enjoyed. With modernism this on ramp of poetry that was accessible disappeared, leaving only poetry enjoyable by wannabe poets. Poets, like literary novelists, write for their own pleasure or that of those who can offer them jobs (teaching MFAs, writers in residence, spiritually similar things). There’s no source of genuinely popular contemporary poetry in English and no reason to believe that there ever will be again.

https://hallofdreams.org/posts/the-death-of-poetry/

1 comments

> no source of genuinely popular contemporary poetry in English

Def Jam, Young Money, and Roc-A-Fella might be laughing all the way to the bank.

Poetry is not accompanied by music. Rap and hip hop are vital, popular art forms but they’re not poetry.
Are we sure that αὐλητής etc. didn't accompany poetic recitals at symposia?

My classics teachers mentioned the possibility of musical accompaniment, and length instead of stress oriented metres would also point in that direction?

[Edit: cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dithyramb ]

(ancients also wrote poetry so the text of the words formed an image, which the Victorians considered Not Real Poetry. compare http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/language-javascript-1948.html )

> Poetry is not accompanied by music.

I could just as easily say: all this modern stuff isn't poetry either. Poetry always rhymes.

Oh wait - some people get to break the rules and others don't?

To hit the final quadrant, here's a sampled portion of a JFK speech, non-rhyming, but set to music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwPnJXXX5Ic