Reply #14: It really is about you - what you like, what resonates for you.

[enlightenment]

I love older poetry and rhyming prose - probably because regular cadence resonates with me. I also prefer Baroque music to modern jazz; again, it goes back to the regularity of the rhythms. I consider myself fortunate, but I don't think it makes me a better person!

Your "ear" isn't about understanding poetry; nor is it that important for you to be able to tell "good" from "bad" (despite what you were taught) unless you're planning on teaching the subject.

If you like the older poetry, recite the older poetry. You're not under any obligation to appreciate modern poets, you know!

My only suggestion is to read it out loud. Recite it. Poetry is a verbal art - a performance.

(This is going to get me beat up, I know ;) . . .) I love the Romantics. I truly enjoy reciting Wordsworth - "We are Seven" and "The Idiot Boy" are two of my favourite poems. I love Shakespeare. And Yeats. And Auden. My most cherished book is my ancient (the 1907 version) of the "Oxford Book of English Verse." I'm unrepentant.

Shakespeare wrote " . . . and so lives this, and this gives life to thee." He was right - every time someone recites that sonnet, the person about whom he wrote lives again, for that moment. It's a powerful thing.

And if it doesn't work for you, if you just can't enjoy it - move on. You don't HAVE to like poetry to be a "complete" person.