Life & Wisdom Quote by Rita Dove

Rita Dove’s sentence is a neat split-screen: one eye on the ground-level buzz of readers returning to poetry, the other on the high-altitude machinery that decides which cultural ecosystems live or die. The first clause is generous, almost reportorial. “Resurgence” implies poetry didn’t disappear; it went quiet, then reentered the room with new energy. Coming from a poet who has watched the art form move from print gatekeepers to classrooms, slams, Instagram, and playlists, it reads like recognition that poetry’s audience can regenerate without official permission.

The second clause turns that optimism into a warning. Dove doesn’t say the arts are failing; she says she’s “less optimistic” about their “prospects” under federal funding. That careful phrasing does two things at once: it avoids partisan screed while making the stakes unmistakable. “Federal funding” isn’t just money. It’s legitimacy, infrastructure, and access - the NEA grant that keeps a small-town series alive, the museum program that reaches kids who don’t already live near culture. When that support shrinks, art doesn’t vanish; it becomes more unequal, more coastal, more dependent on private donors with their own tastes and strings.

The subtext is a common American contradiction: we love the idea of art, especially when it feels grassroots and authentic, but balk at treating it as a public good. Dove’s double-edged observation suggests poetry may be culturally resilient, even trending. The arts, as a shared civic commitment, are far more fragile.