TY - GEN T1 - Democracy, culture, and the voice of poetry T2 - University Center for Human Values series. A1 - Pinsky, Robert LA - English PP - Princeton, N.J. PB - Princeton University Press YR - 2002 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/ebsco_acadsubs_ocn362799370 AB - The place of poetry in modern democracy is no place, according to conventional wisdom. The poet is a casualty of mass entertainment and prosaic public culture, banished to the artistic sidelines to compose variations on insipid themes for a dwindling audience. Robert Pinsky argues that this gloomy diagnosis is wrongheaded and writes that to portray poetry and democracy as enemies is to radically misconstrue both. The voice of poetry, he shows, resonates with profound themes at the very heart of democratic culture. One of the country's most accomplished poets, Robert Pinsky served two terms as America's Poet Laureate (1997-2000) and led the immensely popular multimedia Favorite Poem Project, which invited Americans to submit and read aloud their favorite poems. Pinsky draws on his experiences and on characteristically sharp and elegant observations of individual poems to argue that expecting poetry to compete with show business is to mistake its greatest democratic strength--its intimate, human scale--as a weakness. He states that as part of the entertainment industry poetry will always be small and overlooked. As an art--and one that is inescapably democratic--it is massive and fundamental. OP - 96 NO - Includes index. CN - PS323.5 .P57 2002eb SN - 9781400825158 SN - 1400825156 SN - 9780691096179 SN - 0691096171 SN - 9780691122632 SN - 0691122636 KW - American poetry : 20th century : History and criticism. KW - United States : Intellectual life : 20th century. KW - Democracy in literature. KW - Culture in literature. KW - Poetry. KW - Poetry as Topic KW - Poésie américaine : 20e siècle : Histoire et critique. KW - États-Unis : Vie intellectuelle : 20e siècle. KW - Culture dans la littérature. KW - Poésie. KW - poetry. KW - LITERARY CRITICISM : Poetry. KW - American poetry KW - Culture in literature KW - Democracy in literature KW - Intellectual life KW - Poetry KW - United States KW - Gedichten. KW - Democratie. KW - 1900-1999 KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc. ER -