[Discussion] Disillusioned with Poetry

By Narrow-Rabbit

Just finished my first year studying English literature at uni, and I’ve noticed my summer reading list is full of novels and plays I actually want to read, but I can’t really make myself get into poetry again. It feels weird, because poetry used to be my absolute favourite. At school I was really into Keats and Auden, and by the time I got to uni I was basically obsessed with Yeats… now I’m just stuck. I can’t seem to find any poetry I actually want to explore. A lot of what I see coming out now feels like it’s mostly trash to me (Rupi Kaur etc.). And I’m also kind of sour on free verse as a whole—not because I think the form is inherently bad, but because it’s so often treated like poetry just means “no prosody, no metre, no rhyme” and that stuff is part of what makes it poetry, whether people admit it or not. I guess I’d love to hear what other people think: - Are there any poets who try to capture reality in a way that feels more like what novelists or playwrights do? Like if that kind of poet exists, I’d actually want to read them and maybe get my interest back. - Also, do you think poetry is basically a dead medium? I’ve got some ideas about that, but I’m not sure they’re right, so I want to hear other takes.