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Poetry in Literature for Children and Young Adults - Research
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From: Charles Bayless <charles.bayless_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 13:49:03 -0400
I wanted to try and get a more empirical handle on this subject. I did a lot of research some years ago that documented the utilitarian case for the value of poetry reading (vocabulary expansion, reading capability, etc.) and I am not focusing on that aspect. Here is the information I uncovered in trying to find answers to questions I had about this topic.
Definitions - Poetry. Could encompass traditional rhymed poetry, free verse, nursery rhymes, hymns, popular songs, plays, Dr. Seuss. If 60% of children are regularly attending a house of worship and singing from the hymnals, theoretically they are being exposed to a quite large body of quite beautiful poetry. However, I think there are sufficient differences between sung poetry and read poetry to exclude that as a part of the definition of poetry. In this research, my primary interest is in non-Seuss, non-nursery rhyme, traditional/contemporary poetry for children.
How popular is poetry with children? - Pretty popular, particularly for younger children. 34% of the top 100 all time best-selling children's books in the US are rhyme, verse or poetry. Dominated by Seuss, Silverstein and Mother Goose. 19% of NEA's Teacher's Top 100 Favorite Children's Books, 13% of NEA's Kid's Top 100 Books. 18% of Betsy Bird's Top 100 Picture Books Poll.
How much do adults read poetry? - Only 7% of the adult population electively read poetry in a given year. Of the 7% of the adult population who read poetry in the past year, only 40% read poetry more than once a month. In other words, in a given year, only 3% of the US population reads poetry more than once a month.
Are people reading less poetry? - Yes, among adults. The 7% of the adult population who electively read poetry in a given year is down 45% since 2002
(12%). That is a much faster decline than the general decline in literary reading (novels, poetry, plays). Of the 7% who read poetry, 62% are female and 38% are male.
Are parents reading less poetry to their children? - Can't tell for certain but it appears that it might be roughly stable (within the margin of measurement error) or possibly increasing. Of those adults who electively read today (~50% of the population), 77% had Dr. Seuss and similar rhyming stories read to them as a child. 45% had regular poetry read to them. In other words, in the total adult population today, about 25% had traditional poetry read to them as a child. 97% who had been read Dr. Seuss also read Dr. Seuss to their children. "Nearly forty percent of parents who had been read other types of poetry did not choose to read similar poetry to their own children."
Overall, of the 50% of the US population who read electively in a given year and who also have children, 60% of them read regular poetry (i.e. poetry beyond Dr. Seuss) to their children. However, 40% of readers do not read poetry themselves, and in that group, only 29% read regular poetry to their children. Among readers today, 80% deemed home experience with poetry in their childhood to be positive but only 68% deemed their school experience with poetry to be positive.
For the population at large, it appears that at most, roughly 30% of children today are read traditional poetry by their parents compared to roughly 25% of children in the past.
Are people buying less children's poetry? - Hard to tell without sales numbers. Individual author collections are notoriously low sellers. Themed anthologies seem also to not have high demand (on average). On the other hand, Seuss, Silverstein, Garden of Verses, Mother Goose, A.A. Milne and other favorites are in print over many decades and in many editions. In addition, standard anthologies of children's poetry have been in print for fifty years and more, with many editions. Collections such as the Poetry for Young People series has been out for some twenty years and seem to be going strong. It appears that there is a reasonably steady demand for traditional poetry but perhaps a disengagement with contemporary poetry.
Do children still memorize poetry? - 76% of the adult reading population had to memorize poems when in school. Can't tell if rate is rising or falling among contemporary students. My impression is that it is falling.
Is there a decline in grade school exposure to nursery rhymes, fairytales and poetry? - Only 55% of current readers were exposed to poetry in Elementary School (rises to 87% by High School). Can't tell if it is declining but my impression is that exposure to poetry and fairy tales is falling but nursery rhymes likely stable.
Is the volume of poetry production rising or falling? - The volume is rising dramatically. 2,100 new poetry titles a year from major, mid-sized, or regional publishing firms. Innumerable volumes of self-published poetry. The number of poets graduating from MFA has been in the thousands with somewhere around 6-10,000 poets attached to universities in a creative writing capacity. At the same time that the number of poets has been rising, the number of venues for critical review or exposure has been falling. Almost no reviews or publication of poetry in newspapers or general interest magazines (New Yorker, American Scholar and a couple of others being exceptions). Almost all poetry and reviews now appear in poetry/literature magazines of limited circulation.
How can production be rising and consumption falling? - Changes in market structure and change in who funds poetry production. In other words, poets used to have careers in some field (ex. Eliot in banking, William Carlos Williams in medicine, Housman as a classics scholar, etc.) that provided their principle income. Their capacity to generate income from poetry was substantially driven by broad critical or popular appeal. Today, poets are able to find a living teaching creative writing, obtaining grants and financial support from Universities and Foundations. They are therefore shielded from having to seek a popular audience. In other words, there is little need (because of grants) or ability (because of declining access through broad channels to readers) to reach a larger general audience. As long as Universities can fund poetic production as a replacement for declining appeal to the reading market, the imbalance can continue. It appears that there is likely a relatively stable demand for traditional anthologies and collections and that publishers are likely to be making money in that market segment. It appears to be contemporary poetry where there is little broad demand but high production.
Why is there declining popular consumption of contemporary poetry? - Lots of theories. See Gioia, Epstein and Livingston below. For the 93% of the adult population who do not read poetry at all, their explanation is that
"they simply don't like it." My guess is that poets who go straight from MFA to teaching creative writing at Universities and who write for a University and Foundation market (those entities providing both critical reception and funding) are likely challenged to connect with the concerns and interests of the broader reading public.
Is commercial consumption falling because poems can be found and easily printed online? - No answer found. Possible but it seems unlikely. General public poetry readings seem to have fallen substantially as well (outside of a University environment). Musicians have long had to deal with loss of revenue from music sales (digital copying) and have made up for some of that revenue loss by increasing in-person performances. That model doesn't appear to be happening with poetry suggesting that the issue is more one of weak demand than of digital piracy.
Key observations -
1) There is a problem of low demand with low levels of reading in the general public and exceptionally low levels of poetry reading. Half the public does no elective reading. Only 3% of the general public routinely read poetry.
2) There is an oversupply problem with high production of poetry. Barriers to publishing entry have disappeared with self-publishing and on-demand publishing technology.
3) There is a market structure problem with poets disconnecting from the elective, book buying and book reading public and instead writing for the university/foundation market.
4) There is a quality problem with absence of filtering of raw poetry. No critical reviewing.
5) There is a channel problem with poets not being able to connect with the book buying, book reading public. All authors are experiencing this and arises from the continuing changes in the structure of the book industry.
6) Demand for traditional/classical/canonical poetry appears to be stable.
7) Demand for contemporary poetry appears to be declining.
8) Only 25% of children are exposed to traditional poetry (non-Mother Goose, non-Seuss) in their infancy and childhood. This appears to be about the same as in the past.
9) Children are exposed to poetry in school but with declining appreciation of that poetry (compared to in the home environment).
Sources
Problem assessment
The ease of selling poetry books by Reb Livingston
Who Killed Poetry? by Joseph Epstein
Can Poetry Matter? by Dana Gioia
Measurement
Poetry in America, Review of the Findings from The Poetry Foundation, 2006.
How a nation engages with art: highlights from the 2012 survey of public participation in the arts
The New Math of Poetry by David Alpaugh
A Dog Days Reading List by Justin Taylor
All-Time Bestselling Children's Books by Diane Roback, Jason Britton, and Debbie Hochman Turvey
NEA Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children
NEA Kids' Top 100 Books
Charles
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Received on Mon 07 Apr 2014 12:49:44 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 13:49:03 -0400
I wanted to try and get a more empirical handle on this subject. I did a lot of research some years ago that documented the utilitarian case for the value of poetry reading (vocabulary expansion, reading capability, etc.) and I am not focusing on that aspect. Here is the information I uncovered in trying to find answers to questions I had about this topic.
Definitions - Poetry. Could encompass traditional rhymed poetry, free verse, nursery rhymes, hymns, popular songs, plays, Dr. Seuss. If 60% of children are regularly attending a house of worship and singing from the hymnals, theoretically they are being exposed to a quite large body of quite beautiful poetry. However, I think there are sufficient differences between sung poetry and read poetry to exclude that as a part of the definition of poetry. In this research, my primary interest is in non-Seuss, non-nursery rhyme, traditional/contemporary poetry for children.
How popular is poetry with children? - Pretty popular, particularly for younger children. 34% of the top 100 all time best-selling children's books in the US are rhyme, verse or poetry. Dominated by Seuss, Silverstein and Mother Goose. 19% of NEA's Teacher's Top 100 Favorite Children's Books, 13% of NEA's Kid's Top 100 Books. 18% of Betsy Bird's Top 100 Picture Books Poll.
How much do adults read poetry? - Only 7% of the adult population electively read poetry in a given year. Of the 7% of the adult population who read poetry in the past year, only 40% read poetry more than once a month. In other words, in a given year, only 3% of the US population reads poetry more than once a month.
Are people reading less poetry? - Yes, among adults. The 7% of the adult population who electively read poetry in a given year is down 45% since 2002
(12%). That is a much faster decline than the general decline in literary reading (novels, poetry, plays). Of the 7% who read poetry, 62% are female and 38% are male.
Are parents reading less poetry to their children? - Can't tell for certain but it appears that it might be roughly stable (within the margin of measurement error) or possibly increasing. Of those adults who electively read today (~50% of the population), 77% had Dr. Seuss and similar rhyming stories read to them as a child. 45% had regular poetry read to them. In other words, in the total adult population today, about 25% had traditional poetry read to them as a child. 97% who had been read Dr. Seuss also read Dr. Seuss to their children. "Nearly forty percent of parents who had been read other types of poetry did not choose to read similar poetry to their own children."
Overall, of the 50% of the US population who read electively in a given year and who also have children, 60% of them read regular poetry (i.e. poetry beyond Dr. Seuss) to their children. However, 40% of readers do not read poetry themselves, and in that group, only 29% read regular poetry to their children. Among readers today, 80% deemed home experience with poetry in their childhood to be positive but only 68% deemed their school experience with poetry to be positive.
For the population at large, it appears that at most, roughly 30% of children today are read traditional poetry by their parents compared to roughly 25% of children in the past.
Are people buying less children's poetry? - Hard to tell without sales numbers. Individual author collections are notoriously low sellers. Themed anthologies seem also to not have high demand (on average). On the other hand, Seuss, Silverstein, Garden of Verses, Mother Goose, A.A. Milne and other favorites are in print over many decades and in many editions. In addition, standard anthologies of children's poetry have been in print for fifty years and more, with many editions. Collections such as the Poetry for Young People series has been out for some twenty years and seem to be going strong. It appears that there is a reasonably steady demand for traditional poetry but perhaps a disengagement with contemporary poetry.
Do children still memorize poetry? - 76% of the adult reading population had to memorize poems when in school. Can't tell if rate is rising or falling among contemporary students. My impression is that it is falling.
Is there a decline in grade school exposure to nursery rhymes, fairytales and poetry? - Only 55% of current readers were exposed to poetry in Elementary School (rises to 87% by High School). Can't tell if it is declining but my impression is that exposure to poetry and fairy tales is falling but nursery rhymes likely stable.
Is the volume of poetry production rising or falling? - The volume is rising dramatically. 2,100 new poetry titles a year from major, mid-sized, or regional publishing firms. Innumerable volumes of self-published poetry. The number of poets graduating from MFA has been in the thousands with somewhere around 6-10,000 poets attached to universities in a creative writing capacity. At the same time that the number of poets has been rising, the number of venues for critical review or exposure has been falling. Almost no reviews or publication of poetry in newspapers or general interest magazines (New Yorker, American Scholar and a couple of others being exceptions). Almost all poetry and reviews now appear in poetry/literature magazines of limited circulation.
How can production be rising and consumption falling? - Changes in market structure and change in who funds poetry production. In other words, poets used to have careers in some field (ex. Eliot in banking, William Carlos Williams in medicine, Housman as a classics scholar, etc.) that provided their principle income. Their capacity to generate income from poetry was substantially driven by broad critical or popular appeal. Today, poets are able to find a living teaching creative writing, obtaining grants and financial support from Universities and Foundations. They are therefore shielded from having to seek a popular audience. In other words, there is little need (because of grants) or ability (because of declining access through broad channels to readers) to reach a larger general audience. As long as Universities can fund poetic production as a replacement for declining appeal to the reading market, the imbalance can continue. It appears that there is likely a relatively stable demand for traditional anthologies and collections and that publishers are likely to be making money in that market segment. It appears to be contemporary poetry where there is little broad demand but high production.
Why is there declining popular consumption of contemporary poetry? - Lots of theories. See Gioia, Epstein and Livingston below. For the 93% of the adult population who do not read poetry at all, their explanation is that
"they simply don't like it." My guess is that poets who go straight from MFA to teaching creative writing at Universities and who write for a University and Foundation market (those entities providing both critical reception and funding) are likely challenged to connect with the concerns and interests of the broader reading public.
Is commercial consumption falling because poems can be found and easily printed online? - No answer found. Possible but it seems unlikely. General public poetry readings seem to have fallen substantially as well (outside of a University environment). Musicians have long had to deal with loss of revenue from music sales (digital copying) and have made up for some of that revenue loss by increasing in-person performances. That model doesn't appear to be happening with poetry suggesting that the issue is more one of weak demand than of digital piracy.
Key observations -
1) There is a problem of low demand with low levels of reading in the general public and exceptionally low levels of poetry reading. Half the public does no elective reading. Only 3% of the general public routinely read poetry.
2) There is an oversupply problem with high production of poetry. Barriers to publishing entry have disappeared with self-publishing and on-demand publishing technology.
3) There is a market structure problem with poets disconnecting from the elective, book buying and book reading public and instead writing for the university/foundation market.
4) There is a quality problem with absence of filtering of raw poetry. No critical reviewing.
5) There is a channel problem with poets not being able to connect with the book buying, book reading public. All authors are experiencing this and arises from the continuing changes in the structure of the book industry.
6) Demand for traditional/classical/canonical poetry appears to be stable.
7) Demand for contemporary poetry appears to be declining.
8) Only 25% of children are exposed to traditional poetry (non-Mother Goose, non-Seuss) in their infancy and childhood. This appears to be about the same as in the past.
9) Children are exposed to poetry in school but with declining appreciation of that poetry (compared to in the home environment).
Sources
Problem assessment
The ease of selling poetry books by Reb Livingston
Who Killed Poetry? by Joseph Epstein
Can Poetry Matter? by Dana Gioia
Measurement
Poetry in America, Review of the Findings from The Poetry Foundation, 2006.
How a nation engages with art: highlights from the 2012 survey of public participation in the arts
The New Math of Poetry by David Alpaugh
A Dog Days Reading List by Justin Taylor
All-Time Bestselling Children's Books by Diane Roback, Jason Britton, and Debbie Hochman Turvey
NEA Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children
NEA Kids' Top 100 Books
Charles
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Received on Mon 07 Apr 2014 12:49:44 PM CDT
