Monday, May 11, 2015

Poetry: still more popular than opera

In the Washington Post wonkblog, Christopher Ingraham asks about the state of poetry:
 He points out that asking whether poetry is dying is a tradition that's almost as old as poetry is:
"Is verse a dying technique? How dead is poetryWho killed poetry? Does anybody care?  Is poetry dead?  Is poetry dead? Is poetry dead?"
 ...but then goes on to look at data from the national Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, which points out that reading poetry is less popular then dancing, going to jazz concerts, or knitting... although it is more popular than attending opera.
"Poetry: still more popular than opera"-- say, that's a catchy slogan. Isn't it?


Graph of popularity of various arts
graph from http://fivethirtyeight.com

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We're number two!

Cited...

The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ~Jean Cocteau