I know very literate people who see poetry as a dark alley in a deserted neighborhood that they may have glanced into a few times. (Jonathan Mayhew)
Now I understand why some of the voracious readers of novels I know look at me funny when I try to get them to read some: they think I am trying to get them to go down a dark alley with me, where I might try to offer them something that involves needles that may have been places they don't want them to have gone ...
Now I understand why some of the voracious readers of novels I know look at me funny when I try to get them to read some: they think I am trying to get them to go down a dark alley with me, where I might try to offer them something that involves needles that may have been places they don't want them to have gone ...
3 comments:
Dark alley, indeed. And some like it that way. I don't want every educated person to wander into poetry. I want people who love poetry to enter that dark alley. Don't get me wrong, this dark alley doesn't need to be exclusive, but it need not be inviting either. Poetry will always entice some.
I loved this post.
Jamie, I'm glad you loved it!
C. Dale, I am of two minds about this: I don't think poetry is for everyone, but I do think that there is a small minority of very literate people who are missing out on something that they could really get into. Why, I don't know, though the usual explanation is to say that poetry was taught poorly in school. But how much truth is there in that these days?
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