Revolutions in art are necessary, and no intelligent person can argue otherwise. The same changes argued by Eliot and Pound were argued in the days of Euripudes.
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kept poetry in step with other art forms.
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You're suggesting the importance of
all art forms have been destroyed, or are you disagreeing with me? *grin*
In college, in the mid-seventies, most of my peers agreed they didn't understand the poetry that was being written at the the time. They didn't understand, for one thing, why it was considered poetry. These were educated, literate men and women. If the poetry wasn't speaking to them, could it have pssibly been capturing the minds of the 'common' person? That was one of te goals that inspired the 'free verse' movement.
Of course, there were always a few who claimed special insight, and who condescended to everyone else. They were generally viewed, for the most part, as posers. I think of them whenever I read about Professor Trelawney in the Harry Potter series, and the one or two students who fawn over her.
There was the occasional 'real thing', don't get me wrong. I recently came across a short story 'Jeddy Ho!', written by a classmate, Paul C. Schuytema. I kept it all these years, because I figured he'd do well. It may be prose, but it's poetry.
Back on topic:
I sincerely believe those decisions made in the late 1800s are the reason poetry fell from grace. Average people didn't know what to make of it - it didn't stick in their minds like a metered and rhymed piece would, so they lost interest.
Today's generation has their own art forms - that's to be expected. They also have many more distractions, but poetry died a lingering death before these distractions came along, so your MP3 players and video games can't be blamed for the demise of poetry. It pretty much commited seppukku.
Curiously, though, look at one of the current art forms: rap. Metered rhyme, isn't it? Music minus the melody.
Perhaps formalism is making a comeback despite our efforts, neh?
Oh yeh - books may die, but not until they're removed completely from the schools, though I doubt writing itself will die. It will merely be saved to a different format.
[This message has been edited by Jerry Glenn Hartwig (edited June 05, 2007).]