The debate surrounding the perceived democracy and accessibility of poetry today: A brief analysis

Abstract

This conspectus of the twenty-first century poetry argues for evaluative benchmarks that will sift the best from the worst; foregrounds critical debates concerning the claimed democratisation of poetry; and focuses on the attendant concerns about loss of value. In particular, Viktor Shklovsky's concept of ostranenie (“Making Strange”), Fleur Adcock's “The Video,” and Ian Duhig's “The Lammas Hireling” are employed to exemplify these proposed benchmarks and something of a continuum between the apparently straightforward and the more obviously defamiliarising.

Keywords:

• Accessibility
• Adcock
• democratisation
• Duhig
• healing
• otherness
• poetry