I think what T.S. Eliot meant is we
should all be able to develop our own styles. Some people do not like poetry,
but they can definitely find something else that interest them, or they can
simply transform the styles of traditional poetry. It is important to the
society as a whole because people can interpret a poem differently. T. S. Eliot
believed that it is important to exert some effort on literary skills.
Furthermore, it is important to have our own styles and thinking or else we
would probably be assimilated by the larger group. I definitely agree with his
assertion: “I think it is important that every people should have its own
poetry, not simply for those who enjoy poetry . . . but because it actually
makes a difference to the society as a whole, and that means to people who do
not enjoy poetry… Unless people go on producing great authors, and especially
great poets, their language will deteriorate, their culture will deteriorate
and perhaps become absorbed in a stronger one.” An obvious evidence of
deterioration is the pop culture. Technically, song lyric is a kind of poem
too. However, many of the song lyrics today are worthless of being read. Many
of them have no meaning and have bad effect on people. I think many songs back
in the 90s at least express deeper meaning. Now, songs encourage people to just
celebrate life and have fun. I think this is what T.S. Eliot meant by deterioration.
I agree that lyrics, like poetry, do reflect the levels of "profundity" of our society. People back then (on average) perhaps do have a better knowledge on literature than we do now. Or perhaps it's just we're all too into colloquial conversations that we neglected the fundamental and essential element of language.
回覆刪除People in the past not only wrote poetry in certain manners, but also speak in the way that similar to the way they wrote. You also mentioned lyrics and I think it did changed significantly over the past few decades in a bad way and many of the modern songs have bad connotations to it.
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