OMG! Someone’s doing research on poetry and the people?
I thought I’d run out of things to write about this week. (I’m moving after all, and putting all my books in boxes makes me sad and unable to function properly in society.) So I googled “Poetry in America” in a half-ass, smart-ass attempt to come up with something to blog about, and low and behold, what did I find but the Poetry Foundation‘s 113-page report called, what else, “Poetry in America: Review of the Findings.” And it’s fascinating. Here’s a look at what the study did:
Poetry in America is the first national, in-depth survey of people’s attitudes toward and experiences with poetry. The survey was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago on behalf of The Poetry Foundation. The survey investigated people’s leisure time pursuits and general reading habits, their early and more recent experiences with poetry, their perceptions of poets and poetry readers, their favorite poems, and their experiences with coming across poetry in unexpected places. The survey sample includes more than 1,000 adult readers with varying levels of interest in poetry. Respondents included adults who currently read or listen to poetry, those who have read poetry in the past but no longer do so, and those who have never read poetry.
Maybe this sounds like boring research BS to some of you, but for any of you who have wondered why exactly poets get such a raw deal when it comes to an audience, this study sheds some light on this issue. For instance, one of the “Ten Key Findings” is that “Parents and teachers are most often cited as people who were influential during people’s early experiences with poetry.” Not surprising, right? But the finding goes on to state that 49.3% of non-users (That’s what they call people who don’t read poetry. Funny, huh!) cited that they associate one teacher with their early poetry experiences, while only 33.6% of “poetry users cited a specific teacher. On the other hand, only 22.5% of non-users cite a parent as their earliest poetry influence, while 42% of poetry users claim that a parent influenced their reading of poetry . Why is this important? Well, it implies that teachers might be better at turning kids off of poetry than they are at turning them on to it. And it may also mean that if parents aren’t doing their part to introduce their kids to poetry, they may never find a place for it in their lives.
There are other interesting findings like the fact that adults who are still “poetry users” were exposed to Dr. Seuss and nursery rhymes just as much as “non-users,” but those who still read poetry were also exposed to other types of poetry. Maybe those who were exposed to a variety of types of poetry continue to read because their definitions of poetry were broad from a very early age. This reminds me of my post about my niece who thinks poetry has to rhyme. It’s something she learned from her teachers. I wonder if her narrow definition of poetry will keep her from enjoying it as an adult. I wonder if her teachers have done damage by giving her this inaccurate definition of poetry, because I’m fairly certain that my brother and sister-in-law don’t share poetry with her. These have been my worries all along, and now it seems that this study supports my point of view.
If you don’t read anything else from this report, I suggest reading the “Ten Key Findings” and at least skimming the table of contents. For some reason, it’s refreshing to see serious research in service to poetry. Somehow it validates what I do. To close, here’s a quote from the introduction:
Poetry and the arts challenge us to think about the world around us and about ourselves in new ways. They can open our minds and eyes to new possibilities. The extent to which poetry achieves these goals is neither well understood nor easy to quantify. Poetry in America is one of the first national studies that asks specific questions about both the personal and social benefits associated with reading or listening to poetry. Data from this study provide one of the first views of poetry’s unique and shared contribution to the public good.
Seriously, when I think back about my personal influences in poetry, it was myself that lead me to a greater appreciation. My parents don’t read it, and all I can remember of my teachers are instances when I was younger that bear a good resemblance to your niece’s experience, and then older having to memorize Thanatopsis for an AP English class in high school.
I’d probably still dislike poetry if I hadn’t been introduced to e.e. cummings and Charles Bukowski (how’s that for a broad definition?) by a friend of mine sometime in late high school.
Interesting. I wonder why the study didn’t account for other situations like friends exposing you to poetry. The only teachers I ever remember including poetry in my classes were my fourth grade teacher (Shel Silverstein) and my tenth grade teacher (Robert Frost). Other than that, it was my mom who exposed me to poetry. None of my friends were into it, as far as I know.
gonna have to check this out.
Great post. Thanks!