52 ways of looking at a poem, or, How reading modern poetry can change your life - Ruth Padel

Over the last twenty years there has been a massive renaissance in British poetry. Never have so many published poets developed such new ways of saying things, or of touching people in so many different parts of society. And yet modern poetry is often represented as difficult and remote from most people's lives and interests. When once poets were an important part of culture, they are now hardly represented in the media. In a passionate attempt to rectify this omission and to show that today's poems are no more difficult to decode than modern films - we are simply less used to them - Ruth Padel proposed to the Independent on Sunday that she write a weekly column in which she offered a possible reading of a contemporary poem. Neither she nor the newspaper anticipated the response. Letters cascaded in revealing just how hungry people were to be introduced to poetry being written today. In this selection of fifty-two of her 'Sunday Poem' columns, Ruth Padel uses a broad range of poets to examine all aspects of modern poetry from the intricacies of rhythm and rhyme to the choice of subject matter. As she argues in her lively and provocative introduction, poetry should not intimidate us. It should be as much a part of our everyday lives as reading a novel or listening to music.'Her introduction will come to be seen as the summary of the age. I haven't seen any description of where and who we are that's as clear, balanced and inspiring.' Jo Shapcott'Many of us who like poetry but are ignorant about how a good poem is put together have learned to read unfamiliar poetry with greater understanding as a result of this weekly analysis. An Independent on Sunday reader