Christine Kitano: Ars Poetica 2020: The Utility of Poetry in the Contemporary Moment (July 2020)

Horace writes in Ars Poetica that “Poets aim either to do good or to give pleasure — or, thirdly, to say things which are both pleasing and serviceable for life,” a somewhat equivocal calculation often translated into the pithy dictum that poetry’s aim is to “delight and instruct.”  Implicit in the notion of instruction is the idea that literature is capable of having real social impact. The generation-long widening and democratization of the canon challenging long-held beliefs about tradition, craft, and rigor forces us today, in the second decade of the new millennium, to negotiate the tension between poetry as aesthetic object and poetry as vehicle for social justice. What values are at stake in the contemporary moment?