Poetry is a dying art; worse yet, its funeral’s invitee list is shrinking every day, causing this fear of its death to continue to mount.

   As the next generation matures, more and more people are developing an aversion to poetry – a trend that mystifies teachers and angers aspiring creators all at once.

 English teacher Tim Groth has one oft-suggested theory why poetry seems to be in decline.

  “We seem to be a society of… brevity,” Groth said. “We like things short and to the point. We don’t want to have to think about things on a deeper level…. We want things immediately. We have this need for immediacy that poetry doesn’t really have.”

   Indeed, poetry looks out-of-place in this culture of Facebook and headphones.

Josh Attig, a sophomore with no vested interest in the future of poetry, weighs in about the poetry in his own class.

 “Poetry can be very interesting if the right people are writing it, but it also can be extremely boring,” Attig says.

  Some poems can be exciting, but most students (five out of 17 in one survey of one class period of 10th grade English students) experience their poetry entirely within English class. The kind of poems that excite have rebellious and chaotic attitudes that do not mesh well with a classroom environment.

  English teachers get lambasted often for teaching a subject that seems to have no impact on “real life.” Yet, “poetry is one of the best tools for teaching analytical thinking,” says Groth. “You have to think about things at a very different level and then you have to support those [thoughts]…. [these] are very important skills within the business world, within the working world. Poetry’s value is really underrated. It’s a very valuable tool.”

  Alaura Carey, junior and aspiring poet, has the more traditional poetry plea:

  “Emotions,” says Carey. “It helps people relate.” Poetry – the best poetry – taps into a world of deeper meaning that can’t be brought to life conventionally, and that kind of world doesn’t just go away. Maybe the world needs a new great cause to rediscover poetry (like the poetry surge during the civil rights movement in the 60’s), but it will come back to poems eventually.”

  Poetry is an art that survived through the Dark Ages. It isn’t dying now.