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officialkohls's review against another edition
3.0
The first half of this text is tightly focused on the American view of poetry, and is absolutely fascinating. The second half falls off the rails and gets into politics and citizenship. Is poetry inherently political? Perhaps. Is this book unable to maintain one thesis for 80 pages? Certainly.
jeremygoodjob's review against another edition
2.0
Very fun to read but also pretty forgettable. Loved his analysis of Claudia Rankine's work.
talypollywaly's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
3.25
Aside from his language being unnecessarily dense at times: has this guy never spent time around high schoolers?
The majority of people who stopped reading poetry after high school forced only Shakespeare upon them-and had poetry soured for them for many years after that- will give you a very simple reason as to why "people hate poetry."
Lerner writes with the assumption that the people who Hate poetry are people who have spent hours studying it, only to shun it.
Most people don't know shit about poetry, but what they do know is enough to resent it, and the weird elitists like Lerner- who try to expouse its beauty without ever getting down to the level of the masses who resent it- aren't helping to convince them.
You could replace "poetry" with "novels" and those of us who hated Hemingway in high school would still be ignored. Lerner ignoring the entirety of this population just seems to prove Lerner's very narrow-minded point: You can only hate poetry if you love it? Or does he really mean you can only hate poetry if you have an English degree?
The majority of people who stopped reading poetry after high school forced only Shakespeare upon them-and had poetry soured for them for many years after that- will give you a very simple reason as to why "people hate poetry."
Lerner writes with the assumption that the people who Hate poetry are people who have spent hours studying it, only to shun it.
Most people don't know shit about poetry, but what they do know is enough to resent it, and the weird elitists like Lerner- who try to expouse its beauty without ever getting down to the level of the masses who resent it- aren't helping to convince them.
You could replace "poetry" with "novels" and those of us who hated Hemingway in high school would still be ignored. Lerner ignoring the entirety of this population just seems to prove Lerner's very narrow-minded point: You can only hate poetry if you love it? Or does he really mean you can only hate poetry if you have an English degree?
tevreads's review against another edition
4.0
There seems to be a constant heralding of the death of poetry, even a conceited hatred for the supposed pretentiousness of it (I myself have only just started reading poetry outside of the handful I studied back in school, having similar thoughts).
Interestingly, Lerner looks to lamentations of the lack of universality some poetry possesses, the inability to capture hearts and minds like the the great Leaves of Grass, of every atom of me belonging to you. Even so, to say Whitman speaks for "us", including slaves, seems flippant, but a universal voice taken as an ideal proves a worthy exercise. Now, the attempts of poets to strive for an individual voice is hindering the popularity and appreciation of the form. I haven't read much poetry at all, but maybe this 'exclusivity' is one of the reasons I have shied away from it.
Overall, Lerner provides a thought-provoking argument, compelling as seems to be the case with all his writing.
Interestingly, Lerner looks to lamentations of the lack of universality some poetry possesses, the inability to capture hearts and minds like the the great Leaves of Grass, of every atom of me belonging to you. Even so, to say Whitman speaks for "us", including slaves, seems flippant, but a universal voice taken as an ideal proves a worthy exercise. Now, the attempts of poets to strive for an individual voice is hindering the popularity and appreciation of the form. I haven't read much poetry at all, but maybe this 'exclusivity' is one of the reasons I have shied away from it.
Overall, Lerner provides a thought-provoking argument, compelling as seems to be the case with all his writing.
dorab76's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
"Poetry isn't hard, it's impossible."