The Hatred of Poetry

Picked up in place of a more instructive book on the same subject, this brief criticism (more an exploration, albeit with sharp edges) felt unique and playful throughout, with a pace just quick enough to keep me turning the page, but not so much as to let me pass through without the pang of regret for want of a nice pencil or, at the least, a highlighter.

Probably the best exploration of poetry I've read, and I'm still debating whether the parts that bothered me should or not... or if I even care.

The main argument is that we hate poetry because it doesn't match up with a platonic ideal of what poetry could be, or could do. Sometimes tho, I have no idea what poetry is trying to do so I'm glad to read someone else talk about it. I was also glad when Lerner, in talking about the desire for poetry to be both individual + universal, points out the bias of one critic in assuming only white men can really speak for everyone and that no men could relate to Sylvia Plath's “Daddy” or example.