Poetics - Volume 9, Issue 4 - The Diigo Meta page

• 28 Mar 08
  

  Wisely

  men poetry

  • Men Hate Poetry

  • Why do most modern men hate poetry? Why is poetry now largely considered the domain of effeminacy?  

    Certainly part of the blame falls to that romantic sentimentalism still prevalent in much poetry. That might naturally and rightly turn some men away. After all, most modern men only come into contact with that "poetry" found in greeting cards, and I can't imagine Beowulf or King David chanting "love is a flower" during a drinking party. Sentimentalism, however, can't be the only culprit. Even if you show some men less-sentimental poetry, they don't have the stomach for it.
  • Perhaps it's the ghoulish intro-spectionism of so much modern poetry. Today you can't crack open a poetry anthology without being suffocated by self-absorbed poems prating on about dysfunctional families and self-inflicted loneliness. It would be nice if men were repelled by most sorts of introspectionism, but in fact our psychological century loves it. That sort of poetry should draw more moderns, not less. And the men who are all chest and no soul - aliens to any self-reflection - need to read more of that warrior David's poetry. There we often find an introspectionism that would willie those marble men who are repelled by any second-guessing.
  • I think the main culprit is modernity itself. Modernity and beauty simply don't mix. Pragmatism and an industrial-sized busyness denigrate everything that can't squeeze out of a calculator. And the first thing to die under such circumstances is a passion for beauty. For those trying desperately to jump over moving hurdles, pursuing beauty is just foolishness. Men are still those most involved with the machinery of modernity, but the point applies equally to those women who share that passion for urban busyness. And it's even more wasteful and inefficient if the poets seem to be intentionally mysterious at times, twisting tenses and mumbling meters. We just don't have the time for poetry; beauty isn't useful, we say, until we're in our eighties, when many finally reflect and realize that beauty was truly essential to a good life that has now slipped by.
  • Why did such a powerful warrior like David hear and write poetry? He had a passion for beauty - a passion for Yahweh, for life, for creation, for friends, for enemies.

  3 more annotations...

Would you like to comment?

Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.