By Nate Portney
Poetry is as serious a form of literature as any other. Yet for some reason it is not as widely accepted. It does not even garner the same level of public interest as does high-brow literature that alienates so many with its archaic language and complexity. But why is that so?
The first thing which comes to mind is the degree to which language is inaccessible in poetry. It is often the case that a poem thrives on its original use of rarely used diction that can put off a great many people who simply will not understand what is being said. Furthermore, the hope that such people may choose to try and learn what these words mean in order to understand the poem is lost on two grounds:
- They do not want to spend their relaxation time learning
- They do not know at the outset whether they will feel the effort they put in to attempt to understand a poem will be worth it
It is clear that language plays a large part in the problem. However, this is not the only reason why people do not like to read poetry. Indeed, it may not even be the main reason why they do not like to read it. A larger problem looks to lie not so much in the individual words themselves as in the way these words are put together. Often a poem is like a puzzle with words that do not necessarily possess a clear and direct meaning on first reading but which reveal more and more of themselves as they are repeatedly read and deliberated. It is this aspect of poems that I think most alienates people.
The average reader picks up a work of literature not with the expectation of having to do any deciphering of the text, but on the premise that they will be told a good story. The expectation is of being told something, rather than having to do any serious thinking of their own in order to make sense of the work. Whilst this could simply be put down to laziness, it perhaps stems more prominently out of the way in which we are taught to read. We are taught that reading is a process of receiving information on the whole, rather than engaging with written material that results in us generating our own information.
The reasons why poetry is less popular extend much further than this, but here we have a general overview of some of its key reasons. If this is to change then the way people are taught to approach literature needs to be looked into further too. Until then, poetry will likely remain in its place on the outskirts of the mainstream.
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Source: EzineArticles
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