Poetry is one of the oldest forms of expression, even predating literacy. But it’s also seen as a bit of a dying art form, with younger generations having many more ways to express themselves than generations past. However, rather than hammering another nail in poetry’s coffin, the Internet may actually be prolonging its life.

Poems are so old that early examples have been found in cuneiform script on clay tablets. It’s thought that prehistoric civilizations used the art form as a way of aiding the memorization and oral transmission of stories and documents.

With that in mind, it’s quite amazing that poetry still exists, in pretty much the same form it always has, to this day. And there’s now both anecdotal and direct evidence to suggest poetry is an art form on the increase and possibly more popular than it ever has been. The biggest driver of this? The Internet.

According to The Telegraph, rather than killing off poetry as a form of expression, the Internet may be at least partly responsible for its recent comeback.

The benefits of the Internet on poetry are many. Firstly, and probably most importantly, it has persuaded people to once again take up writing poems because they now have an outlet where they can publish them. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace allow people to share their poetry with others when previously only getting published would have achieved this goal.

Even Twitter, which has a 140-character update limit has poets regularly sharing their work. These micro-poems are proof that technology has had a positive input into the very heart of the art form.

Social networks are also helping people build communities of poets, where budding writers can share their work, gain feedback, and talk about what poetry means to them. Email lists and Internet forums are extensions of this aspect of the trend.

Andrew Motion, the UK’s current Poet Laureate, helped set up Poetry Archive, which makes recordings of famous poems available to listen to all who want them. They can be streamed via the Internet to media players. He said:

The last 1,000 years is not exactly an aberration, but a long loop. Poetry is as much to do with the noise the poem makes as about what the words mean when written on a page. It is crucially an oral form – it’s character depends on it.

For an art form to have survived for over 3,000 years, poetry must be doing something right. I think the main reason for its success is its ability to evolve and adapt in response to the trends of the present day. The Internet is how we all communicate at the moment, and poetry is taking advantage.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 11:24 pm under Internet, Opinion, Social Media, Technology.

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