I occasionally look at what Amazon lists as the "poetry bestsellers." But I do wonder if it should be poetry "bestsellers" (how well do they sell?) or if it should be "poetry" bestsellers (since some are perhaps questionable as poetry). I suppose the list does give a sense of what people are buying and perhaps even a sense of what people (or perhaps just Amazon) considers to be poetry.
It is nice to see The Iliad & the Odyssey on the list along with The Divine Comedy. I suspect some of the classic titles are due to assigned reading lists.
I am not surprised to see some Mary Oliver books because I know she is very popular. Then there are the titles by Dr, Seuss and Shel Silverstein. Both authors may be a child's introduction to poetry and rhyme. But there are a good number of authors that I have never heard of or read that might be classified as "pop poetry" or even "poetry light." (Argue amongst yourselves...)
I had a discussion in a literature class recently where I am teaching short stories. A student asked what distinguishes fiction from literature, and who gets to decide. There is that distinction in many bookstores. In my local library, it's all together. Dewey decimal puts Harlan Coben in the same aisle as Joseph Conrad. Amazon groups those two together in bestsellers but also breaks this down into many categories, from Action & Adventure to Women's Adventure Fiction.
My short story students never did settle on overall definitions for fiction and literature, but they agreed that we were reading "literature" and thought that perhaps certain authors were just automatically literature, while others were relegated to fiction.
What do you think?
Follow this blog for all things poetry.
To see our past prompts and more than 300 issues,
visit our website at poetsonline.org
No comments:
Post a Comment
* * All comments must be approved by the site administrator before appearing in order to prevent spam.