Why do teenagers hate poetry?

Poetry is a gauge of our mutual connection. If we can't speak the language of poetry, it is a sign that human communication has been blocked in a fundamental way. This feeling of failure is what explains why people tend to hate poetry, rather than simply being indifferent to it. read more

Ben Lerner's 'The Hatred of Poetry' lends a sympathetic ear to people who hate poetry, even as he makes the case for why poetry must be appreciated. Ben Lerner's 'The Hatred of Poetry' lends a sympathetic ear to people who hate poetry, even as he makes the case for why poetry must be appreciated. read more

In The Hatred of Poetry, Lerner makes some of the same claims for the art of poetry. “ ‘Poetry’ is a word for a kind of value no particular poem can realize: the value of persons, the value of a human activity beyond the labor/leisure divide, a value before or beyond price,” he writes. read more