Poetry ain’t dying

Migi Mercado
Sep 2, 2018 · 4 min read

These comments, reactions, and ideas are all based from what I’ve understood so far from the excerpt on Ideya, Vol.4, №1, pp. 74–90. The Article of Dr. Oscar V. Campomanes, Poetry and the Liberal Arts in the Age of Globalization: A return to the Source of the University’s Intellectual Independence and Culture of Criticism.

After reading Dr. Campomanes’ article for the first time, I thought that basically it was all about poetry going extinct, in which I was shocked. The reason behind this based on the Author’s ideals was the term “Globalization”. Now globalization may be defined in many ways, yet I believe it all boils down to the idea that it is the “adjustment of society to the new and expanding culture”.

Allow me to explain this, based on all the different explanations and various articles presented by my professors in the Ateneo (Histo 11, Enlit 12, and Socsci 11) the stable words were “process”, “development”, and “international”. As I contemplated more on their explanations and ideals, I came up with these two phrases “that it was a process which had a global influence to change a certain field in a way that it would upgrade or develop.” & “that it was something that could not only affect the business world in terms of technology but would also influence society and the culture around it”.

Summarizing, Globalization is a process that is based on adapting or at some point maybe even downgrading a little bit so that a certain idea, technology, or culture itself may be changed or influenced. That is why I chose the word “adjusting” and since globalization is about something new or an idea that was left unnoticed “society” is used because it is what is affected. Now I used the term “new and expanding culture” because either way this new or unnoticed idea will be a part of the growing culture within everyone as it may have influence them or even left a change within them.

After explaining these concepts, we can thank globalization as it is partly a reason on why poetry is less used and slowly going extinct. I agree with this statement because this phenomena is going on and is very evident within the new generations, heck it is even seen in me. I admit that to me poetry is a bit boring compared to all the video games I play. Sometimes I was so bored in my literature classes back in High school I would put on a hoodie to hide my earphones to be able to listen to new music. Sadly, this is the second reason why poetry is about to die, the disregard of the next in line. With the combination of the new and up and coming the new generation relies on what it is present and does not dwell so much in the past. As a young one myself, I failed to appreciate history before and am only starting to like it now as college has given a different angle in things.

Now that I’ve mentioned the phrase “a different angle” the things above are my ideas before our initial class discussion regarding the article. After the said class, I think I’ve gotten my mind blown because of the different angles presented in class. Now I think poetry isn’t dying but is evolving.

What if poetry isn’t dying but is changing and evolving its form or maybe even how it is expressed?

Our professor stated that Campomanes thinks that the only thing keeping poetry alive what the angle of utilitarianism, that poetry can be a symbol of the past and a mark in history (Campomanes, 2018). However, I beg to disagree. I believe that Poetry is transforming in such a way that they more abstract and that the mean in which they are communicated is vastly different already. I may be wrong but it’s an idea. What if poetry has undergone the process of globalization and has been then transformed or evolved into slam poetry, Vines, Memes, and the popular spoken word poetry. Poetry in the past has been used in the field of entertainment, communication, and even gave off moral lessons. In the Millennial age of today I think poetry is still growing because surprisingly to me memes and vines may be a form of poetry. Memes, uses a rhyming rhetoric, as well as, the their own kind of repeating pattern to express their own message and or meaning, On the other hand, Vines can be treated as something like spoken word poetry, in a certain amount of time people express themselves in various physical movements in order to give off a certain message towards the audience. Both them function the same as poetry and give off certain similarities to poetry and should be considered as a form of it. In the end, in my personal opinion poetry is not dying but it evolving and transforming into a new age of poetry that utilizes modern day global culture that has been influenced by tradition.

Proper Citation:

Campomanes, O. (2002). Poetry and the Liberal Arts in the Age of Globalization: A return to the source of the university’s intellectual independence and culture of criticism. In M. Evasco-Pernia & C. del Mundo, IDEYA (pp. 74–90). 2401, Taft Avenue, Philippines : College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University Manila.

Migi Mercado

Written by

Management Engineering Student from the Ateneo and one of the Co-Presidents from Youthack Manila. You may also address me as your favorite party person.