Why Is Reading Less And Less Poetry?

In a world where mass and rapid consumption is taking control of artistic works, some people think that less and less poetry is read. However, the real question would be… Is poetry less read or have the media been changed so that it reaches the people?

Actually, you could say that it is a mixture of both. We present five reasons with their explanations to understand what is happening.

1. There is less poetic reading in class

In the classrooms there is less obligation towards learning poetic texts. For this reason, it is more likely that children read before Harry Potter who Poet in New York Lorca. It is clear that it is not enough to schedule recitals once a year.

According to an article published in 2010 by the Journal of Educational Research and Innovation :

Some teachers propose introducing poetry in childhood using the appeal of play at this age. Thus, the avant-garde could be a great source for it, allowing young people to discover little by little the secret and magical language that hides behind many poetry.

2. You can’t read poetry

Reading poetry requires a special sensitivity on the part of the reader; On many occasions, the authors hint rather than say, and the reader needs skill to grasp the meaning of the words.

In addition, it is also important to teach the context and the life of the poet to understand, for example, the rhyme or the narrative resources that he uses. It could be said that the poet dreams and that is why he writes, and the reader who wants to dream reads poetry. This idea is transcendent, since, as in the dreamlike, phenomena such as weightlessness can occur, in poetry as well.

3. Cognitive laziness

Poetry demands a cognitive investment that many are unwilling to make. Its syntax and its rhetorical figures dislocate the sense of “the direct”, breaking the schemes of those who dare to approach the text, forcing them to look for new points of reference (which are often inside oneself).

However, as Jaime Nubiola affirms in his article The cognitive value of metaphors , the truth is that rhetorical figures serve to explain real phenomena that are perhaps more difficult to access with direct language. For this reason, the fruits of the work of “breaking away”, of reading poetry, can be really tasty.

4. It is not narrative

In the poetic context, on many occasions the connection with the work only comes through patience. Before the narrative,  poetry tries to make people feel, to convey emotions, and not just to tell a story with some characters and in a specific space-time frame.

At present, the narrative continues to be one of the genres most demanded by society. Why? Because of the possibilities that they have to facilitate the objective to the reader and because of the possibilities that it offers the writer in case he wants to concentrate the information.

A virtue that fits very well with the society of the immediate and in which the offer is so wide. For this reason, many choose a novel that allows them to quickly adjust to the course of the story.

5. Videogames and series as current literature

The spaces to imagine are changing. Thus, books are not exactly the most common place of reference, nor are they the preferred entertainment.

Digital is causing the smell of the newly acquired book to die out of the home ecosystem. A fragrance that has traditionally been an invisible thread, almost of complicity, between the scribe and the adventurous reader.

However, it is true that it cannot be ignored that the human being is in the century of new technologies. For this reason, as a research carried out in 2019 by the Autonomous University of Madrid affirms, the platforms that have largely replaced books in their popularity to make us travel in different dimensions are video games.

The same happens with the current series. In fact, most writers who are able to shape books that have been well received by readers do not take long to receive an offer to bring that story to the screen. There are many well-known examples:

• Sherlock Holmes.
• Game of Thrones.
• Dracula
• The cathedral of the sea.
• Outlander .

Therefore, video games and series are other reasons why less and less poetry is read.

6. Poetry has become a song

At present,  the great expansion of music seems to have contributed to isolate or reduce the public that enjoys reading what can be sung . Let’s think that poetry is already melodic: a stanza generally consists of a parallelism of forms (whether in consonant rhyme, assonance or free), which maintain the rhythm in the reading.

However, it is true that many times a song is recorded in the memory more easily. Why? Because in the background a base is incorporated that helps, distracts, pleases and sounds “catchy”.

For this reason, it is not strange that some poets collaborate with other music artists to recite to the rhythm of a guitar or stage their voice with a piano in the background (see the case, for example, of the album that Benedetti and Serrat). In this way, the process becomes more enjoyable and opens the door to enjoyment, even if it costs more to pick up a book in a society that continues to change.