Poetry and the Masses

[Truerenigma]

Of course there's nothing wrong with writing for money -- someone has to do it, but it's just not me. I admire people who can maintain their artistic spark in the face of capitalist acquisition. A bit.

And Donna -- I'm with you on that a poem need not be difficult to understand, but that's not the same as dumbing it down. A good poem, one that endures, will have a surface meaning and then layers that reveal themselves with each reading. This is why Frost in particular is so amazing -- you can read his work on just that superficial level and marvel at his control of meter and sound, and you will not be disappointed. However, letting it sink in and reading it from different angles only enhances the poem. If you try to do that with inferior, deliberately obscure writing it will not stand up.

(I really, really hate Billy Collins -- but that's purely a preference thing, not because he's necessarily a bad poet)

I feel the same way about Frost (although milo would probably say he was a hack), and I think he's a great example for the discussion: he felt the same way about how poems should be understood, and paid a great deal of attention to the idiom, and the way people spoke, on top of his careful attention to meter ("the sound of sense" and all that) as well literary tradition—a poet for the "everyman" and scholars alike.