"In Australia, not reading poetry is the national pastime"
- Phyllis McGinley
About this Quote
This quote by Phyllis McGinley is a funny way of explaining the lack of appreciation for poetry in Australia. It indicates that Australians are more likely to participate in activities other than checking out poetry, such as watching sports or playing computer game. This could be due to the fact that poetry is typically seen as a difficult and complicated kind of literature, and lots of Australians might not have the persistence or interest to read it. It could likewise be because Australians are more likely to be exposed to other forms of literature, such as novels and short stories, which are more available and simpler to comprehend. Eventually, this quote is a humorous method of highlighting the lack of gratitude for poetry in Australia.
"We don't attempt to have any theme for a number of the anthology, or to have any particular sequence. We just put in things that we like, and then we try to alternate the prose and the poetry"
"Concrete poets continue to turn out beautiful things, but to me they're more visual than oral, and they almost really belong on the wall rather than in a book. I haven't the least idea of where poetry is going"
"I think Ginsberg has done more harm to the craft that I honor and live by than anybody else by reducing it to a kind of mean that enables the most dubious practitioners to claim they are poets because they think, If the kind of thing Ginsberg does is poetry, I can do that"
