We should be more surprised by the dominance of the novel in modern literature than we are. Even if we can say that something like novels existed in the ancient world or in the east, the dominant forms of literature were poetic rather than prose. The shift from epic poetry to the novel is one of the key marks of the shift from ancient and medieval to modern literature. Shakespeare, though not writing epic, is still writing poetry, as are many of the major English writers until the 18th century. It seems to me that it reveals something quite profound about the character of the modern age. What it reveals is pretty hard to determine, but it is remarkable to realize that the novel as we know it began to rise in the seventeenth century, and has since drive every other genre from the field. Nothing today rivals the novel in its popularity or number of publications or visibility. No poet today has anything close to the popularity of a John Grisham, nor even of a more serious novelist like John Updike. There is a lot of poetry written today, perhaps more than ever before, but it does not have the same cultural position that poetry had in the past.”
–Peter Leithart, Bunyan Defoe and the Novel
Poetry or novels? Why?
And doesn’t Leithart discount the influence of popular lyrical poetry that forms the basis for most pop music? Sufjan Stevens may not write classic poetry and may not be your cup of tea, but his lyrics are popular poetry, and he has just as many fans as, if not more than, John Updike.
Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
When the revenant came down
We couldn’t imagine what it was
In the spirit of three stars
The alien thing that took its form
Then to Lebanon
Oh, God
The flashing at night, the sirens grow and grow
Oh, history involved itself
Mysterious shade that took its form
Or what it was, incarnation
Three stars
Delivering signs and dusting from their eyes.
I’m not totally sure what it means, but if that ain’t popular poetry . . .
Poet of the day:
Poetry activity for today: Play Exquisite Corpse. The resulting poem might make a great rock ballad if you add in a few repeats and a bridge between verses.