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> Why do most people seem to hold poetry and poets in high esteem yet have approximately zero interest in reading any poetry ever? I've wondered this for years
by TotoHorner 4y ago
> Why do most people seem to hold poetry and poets in high esteem yet have approximately zero interest in reading any poetry ever?
I've wondered this for years.
Like seriously, is there anyone who seriously reads poetry for fun nowadays?
I understand if it's the 1800s and there's literally nothing else to do.
- snowpid 4y agoThe German poet Jan Wagner earns money in writing poems. Poems are good if you are in public transport. They are shortly to any story and they give you to think.
- quickthrower2 4y agoHaikus are fun though
- 082349872349872 4y agoBack into my TECO going, with my pounding heart now slowing, Soon again I heard a feeping, somewhat louder than before. "Surely," said I, "surely this is some strange bug of RMS's Which an interrupt professes, though I have no other job; Let me then ask DDT if it thinks there's another job -- 'Tis a bug, and nothing more!" Reclaimer, spare that tree! Take not a single bit! It used to point to me, Now I'm protecting it. It was the reader's CONS That made it, paired by dot; Now, GC, for the nonce, Thou shalt reclaim it not. Quaxity quuxity, Backus's BNF Drives a preprocessor, Generates code. Parsing is specified Metasyntactically; Writing it's easy, but reading, I'm snowed. (if any of these snippets struck your fancy, look up that Fortress dude; there's much more)
- Gare 4y agoThere are currently at least two (or maybe the same with separate accounts) very popular poets on Reddit who make poetic comments to posts.
- nordsieck 4y agohttps://www.reddit.com/user/Poem_for_your_sprog/ https://www.reddit.com/user/Poem_for_your_sprog/ This is the one I'm familiar with, for anyone with a penchant for exploration.
- Gare 4y agoAnd the other is https://www.reddit.com/user/SchnoodleDoodleDo/ https://www.reddit.com/user/SchnoodleDoodleDo/
- defrost 4y agoBritish poet John Cooper Clarke [1] is still actively reading poetry aloud for fun and profit these days. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYs7Gf3DoEc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYs7Gf3DoEc
- 1attice 4y agoThere are tons of people who read poetry for fun -- they leave their physical homes (!) and travel to this café down the street from me, where, on the night of the Tuesday, they do indeed bring their works and with one another "slam". There is also hip hop, of course -- which saved my life, probably others as well -- halfway between music and verse
- mejutoco 4y agoLots of people listen to hip hop and, while the quality varies a lot, it is remarkable that a very popular musical genre is poetry.
- Gigachad 4y ago[flagged]
- barry-cotter 4y agoThe Iliad and Odyssey and the Icelandic Sagas are in large part about killing people and Persian classical poetry is about the joys of wine so why not?
- 082349872349872 4y ago...and post-muslim persian poetry is about the love of allah, cleverly disguised inside a metaphor of the joys of wine, so Ms Ciccone was neither as novel nor as blasphemous as she was portrayed in the late twentieth century. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myFIRdlMuGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myFIRdlMuGY
- 082349872349872 4y ago(a) there's much more to hip-hop than one of its more commercial subgenres. (b) if Sinatra were alive today, "My Way" would be gangsta braggadocio. bonus tracks: - the OG (with a very different lyric!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjpRSREHX1Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjpRSREHX1Y - NWA meet RP: "witness the extent of my cricket knowledge" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSflRlHPay4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSflRlHPay4
- tristor 4y agoWhy is it not poetry? Poetry is about format, it isn’t really subjective to the same degree as other types of art. You could argue it’s bad poetry, but it’s definitely poetry.
- deathgripsss 4y ago
- VoodooJuJu 4y agoI read it and recite it. Not modern poetry, but ancient, in the language the poems were crafted in. I think reading modern poetry is a great way to learn to dislike it in general. If I had to guess, you've never been exposed to classical poetry. I used to be dismissive of it, until I encountered the good old stuff.
- defrost 4y agoIt's oft surprising how much olde becomes new again. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcKqhDFhNHI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcKqhDFhNHI
- 082349872349872 4y agoPrithee, consider thou yon past future tense "a man of whom Chaucer will write", in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx-x_1lIXh4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx-x_1lIXh4
- 082349872349872 4y agoClassical, like Μα Τον Δια? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5fA6dTnyrE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5fA6dTnyrE
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nordsieck 4y ago> is there anyone who seriously reads poetry for fun nowadays? 1. IMO, there is some really great poetry out there. But the ratio is terrible. It's honestly worse than Youtube comments. 2. Poetry 1.0 mostly died for... reasons. But it's replacement - Poetry 2.0 - people absolutely love. You'd know it better by its common name "rap". If you want some encouragement to wade through sewage to discover gems, here's one that really speaks to me: Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven ------------------------------------ W. B. Yeats Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. Among other things, it really captures some of the melancholy of being a parent who isn't particularly wealthy.
- barry-cotter 4y agoThere 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/ https://hallofdreams.org/posts/the-death-of-poetry/
- 082349872349872 4y ago> 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.
- barry-cotter 4y agoPoetry is not accompanied by music. Rap and hip hop are vital, popular art forms but they’re not poetry.
- 082349872349872 4y agoAre 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 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 http://99-bottles-of-beer.net/language-javascript-1948.html )
- nordsieck 4y ago> 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?
- Tomis02 4y agoIn English, poetry is underwhelming. But there are languages where poetry sounds like music and is very pleasing to hear.