Bringing Poets Together

In the article "Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize is a vindication of popular poetry,"  some points I agreed with but had some contention with orders.

I agree with the author that "poetry bifurcated" sometimes in the 20th century. Whereas he splits them into academia and popular poetry, I feel the division is slightly different but there are a handful of poets who are academia and also popular (Billy Collins come to mind).

Not sure how to process when the author says:

In the universities, poets ceased to write for the general reader, instead writing for their peers in poetry and academia. Their poems, espousing the abstract and the obscure, grew steadily out of touch with public taste.

But I do agree that popular poetry tend to have some rhyme scheme making them more memorable.

I felt like the article meant to defend Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for poetry but read like it was bashing academia (elitist) poets.

...poets ceased to write for the general reader, instead writing for their peers in poetry and academia. Their poems, espousing the abstract and the obscure, grew steadily out of touch with public taste.

Yes, there is some infighting among poets about who is a poet and who is not but let's not create a crater from a crack. I feel that all poets can work together and have created an anthology that showcases many styles from poets of different training (Bards of Broward:The Courtyard Chronicles  ISBN:978-1537135137).

What poetry is and isn't will always be a contentious point among poets. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder then poetry is for the ear.



Reference:
Pratt, David. "Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize is a vindication of popular poetry." Daily News:Lifestyle.