We don’t teach poetry very well. Students used to memorize poems starting in elementary school. That was a big part of early education- memorizing poems. Lots

We don’t teach poetry very well. Students used to memorize poems starting in elementary school. That was a big part of early education- memorizing poems. Lots of older folks still remember them. How many older Americans can still recite “Ride of Paul Revere?” Lots. Many modern poems assume familiarity with the poetic “canon.” Poetry is getting more and more estranged from “common people.” Think of the role poetry played in the counterculture of the 1960s and 70s: Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Amiri Baracka, etc. Hard to find any recent poets with the same effect.