12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part IV

Let them say more that like of hearsay well;
I will not praise that purpose not to sell.

   - William Shakespeare, Sonnet XXI

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Earl the Squirrel's Rule #11

     There is simply no way to convince producers--publishers, editors or poets--that there is more to the process of creating poetry than inserting random linebreaks in dull prose.  Accepting anything presented as poetry at face value is the only tenet of Convenient Poetics that makes practical sense, providing plenty of material to consume excess space in poetry 'zines and books.  And, hey, is mediocre lineated prose really any worse than the abject doggerel previously used as filler?  Is non-poetry any worse than godawful verse?

     Actually, yes, it is.  Infinitely so.

     First off, free verse has a tough enough time attracting an audience without being associated with prose qua poetry.  If no one can sell verse, which everyone¹ accepts as poetry, what chance is there for something that many don't?

     Secondly, take your pick of horrible versers from Thomas Tusser² (1524-1580) to Edgar Guest (1881-1959) and Nick Kenny (1895-1975).  Any of these outearned all of today's p[r]osers combined. 

     What does this prove?  That there are far more people with bad taste than good? 

     Yes.

     We need to consider a fundamental tenet of marketing and economics...and, no, I'm not talking about H. L. Mencken's "No one ever went broke overestimating the taste of the American public."

y ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/hlmencke137243.html#26xAuFdeI1pCbiYA.99

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/hlmencke137243.html#26xAuFdeI1pCbiYA.99

     The problem with our intention to publish only great poetry isn't the fact that many of those making editorial decisions don't know iambs from trochees.  That is a matter of execution.  No, the plan is fatally flawed in its design.

     Suppose the only alcohol we sold were champagne.  No beer³.  No wine.  How would bars and liquor stores remain open?  With so few people imbibing, might not even social drinking be regarded as distinctly antisocial? 

     Suppose the only automobiles we sold were Rolls Royces.  No subcompacts.  No midsized cars.  Who would build a network of roads and highways to accommodate a few hundred vehicles?  Even if there were paved streets, would wealthy people stop driving, lest they be regarded as ostentatious? 

     Without boxed wine and shitbox cars our civilization would not exist.

     Most of us first encounter poetry through nursery rhymes.  The market for fine poetry derives from those outgrowing simpler verse.  For centuries doggerel was poetry's bread and butter.  Later it was the canary in the mineshaft whose death went unnoticed.  If no one can sell--or even give away--bad poetry then there will be nothing that distinguishes the good stuff...and no one to purchase it.

     "Some gotta win, some gotta lose..."

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Footnotes:

¹ = Other than John Barr, at least.

² = From 1560 to 1640 Thomas Tusser outsold contemporaries Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare, Jonson, Donne, Herbert, and Milton combined.

³ = Could someone please explain the "en" in "Lowenbrau", the "m" in "Schmidt", or the "l" in "Schlitz"?

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Links:

1. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part I



2. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part II



3. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part III



4. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part IV



5. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part V



6. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part VI



7. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part VII



8. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part VIII



9. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part IX



10. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part X



11. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part XI



12. 12 Things Poets Get Backwards - Part XII

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Earl Gray, Esquirrel

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