For better or verse

It’s a fairly safe bet that man has been drafting poetry from the very first stages of evolution. We can go back as far as the Epic of Gilgamesh because the Sumarians had the tidy idea of committing the work to tablets of stone.
These days poets arrive at church halls and community centres with their work safely stored in a notebook in their pocket, or, if they are under 75 years old, they may even bring an iPad from which to read their wordplay. Let us spare a thought for those poor Sumarians who, in 2000BC, had to lug their work around in wheelbarrows. The insurance costs must have been prohibitive.

Many historians believe that poetry was first adopted as a way of remembering epic stories and it’s arguable that this is why people can remember the lyrics to songs but would blanch at the thought of memorising a page of prose.

We can add layers of complicated analysis when considering William Shakespeare and his iambic pentameters and dactylic hexameters; or we can marvel at the simplicity of Elizabeth Barrett’s secret sonnets, written during her courtship with Robert Browning.

I had formed the opinion that it is perfectly possible these days to saunter through English language and literature classes and to leave school with good grades yet be completely unaware of Shelley, Keats, or Blake.
So I was delighted upon undertaking minimal research and finding that the GCSE syllabus is awash with poets

That must mean everything is ok then?
Unfortunately not, as reality brings a depressing picture to obscure the grand theory. OFSTED reports that “Poetry featured less in the English curriculum in Years 6 and 9 in the schools visited because too many teachers focused on preparing pupils for the tests. In secondary schools, the amount of poetry which pupils needed to study at GCSE level, combined with overly didactic teaching methods, sometimes had a negative impact on pupils’ attitudes.”

So is poetry doomed to die out, a fading art form, confined for later generations to museums and libraries?

Bradley 'Blizzard' Green is a teenager from Manchester who speaks as if he has spent his life commuting between The Bronx in New York and Trenchtown, Jamaica. Like several freestyle rappers he has a curious idea about women, respect for other people, and the place of education in the development of young people.
Some may argue that Bradley and others hold the key to the future of poetry as they certainly use rhyme in an unusual and creative context.

However you can judge for yourself. Here is ‘Blizzard’ in a rap battle against a Peterborough supply teacher and poet, thirty year old Mark Grist. Who wins?

*Note – this video contains swearing in the context of rapping*

Terence Dackombe - February 2012    Follow me on Twitter if you wish