flâneur

J.S. Salemi on Dying Poetry

expansivepoetryonline.com · 3,686 words · saved by 1 readers

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

EP&M Online Guest Essay WHY POETRY IS DYING essay by Joseph S. Salemi Department of Classics, Hunter College, CUNY The following paper was presented by Dr. Salemi before the New York Poetry Forum at the Soldiers', Sailors', Marines' & Airmen's Club in Manhattan on November 17, 2001, as part of the Forum's regularly scheduled program of poetry readings and lectures, hosted by poet and playwright Daniel Fernandez. Dr. Salemi offers it to EP&M Online's readers. The title of my talk today, "Why Poetry Is Dying," is clearly meant to be provocative. That is a liberty allowed to speakers, who…

saved by

related reading