J.S. Salemi on Dying Poetry

And yet I would like to make clear right from the start that I don't think the implication of my title is necessarily hyperbolic. A very good case could be made for the contention that poetry is in fact dying, if not already dead. About a decade ago Joseph Epstein wrote a blistering article in Commentary entitled "Who Killed Poetry?" A whole range of evidence, both general and specific, supports his contention that a murder has taken place. Just look at the various phenomena and culprits: the ideological assault on real literacy, spearheaded by our universities; the politically correct multiculturalism that strangles our discourse; the almost totally ahistorical mindset of young people; the continuing debasement of our language; the ubiquity of audiovisual entertainment; the adulation of technological gadgetry; the increasing inarticulateness of the general population; the triumph of that stupid nerd-box, the computer; and above all the vulgar commercialism and materialism of our cultu

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