[New-Poetry] Does Poetry Have A Social Function?

[Chris Lott]

On 1/3/07, Bob Grumman <bobgrumman at nut-n-but.net> wrote:
> Sorry, Alex, but I'm never being ironic when I plunk down for art for art's
> sake.  I grew up on Keats and Wilde--and Nietzsche who famously said that
> without music, life would be a mistake.  When I hear about poetry's "social
> function," I always think of Puritans who want everything to contribute to
> food on the table and roofs over heads, and their left-wing descendants.  I
> don't think anything is more important than the beauty the best poetry
> provides us.  I think only truth equal to it.  These two things are all I
> live for; the "necessities" are necessary, but only to allow me (and
> humanity) to get to what really counts.
>
> I do think poetry has social functions, but so does everything else--and it
> bothers me to hear poetry defended because it has them.  One is invigorating
> the language, a second breaking people free from settled outlooks.  Among
> others.

Well said. On both counts.

c