by Bruno Somerset

Created on: July 09, 2007   Last Updated: March 25, 2009

Socrates once said that "it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean." This is not a very flattering opinion of poets, and has sadly endured to varying degrees since the Greek philosopher's death 24 years ago.

There was a time in America when poets such as Longfellow and Frost received great critical acclaim, but even they had a difficult time living on just the income from their poetry. Of all of the various types of writing (novels, short stories, screenplays, etc.), poetry is by far the most difficult from which to make a living full-time. It has been reported that only 900 novelists in the United States make their living solely from writing novels, and certainly the number of poets accomplishing this feat is significantly smaller.

This somewhat depressing fact does not, and should not, deter poets from writing or from hoping to make poetry their vocation as well as their passion. The proliferation of literary websites and blogs has given poets exposure that in the past could only have been achieved through very costly self-publishing, and some of theses sites pay at least a small amount for submissions. Printed poetry collections, however (other than those that are required reading for high school English classes), are nearly non-existent because they simply don't sell. Perhaps the advent of electronic book-readers like the Amazon Kindle will change this, but perhaps not.

To a certain degree this doesn't matter; poets write because they must, not because they are looking to make a fast buck. But in the end, it will likely be impossible for the vast majority of poets, even very good ones, to make a living at their craft. 21st century society places very little value in the arts in general, and areas like poetry in particular; this is particularly true in America, where electronic gadgets and video games are the primary form of intellectual pursuit. Until there is a radical change in our outlook, until we value the arts as much as we value celebrity gossip magazines and reality television shows, it will hard for artists of any kind to make a living doing what they love. Until that time, poets will do what they've done since the time of Socrates: write their poems for free.

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