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'Poetic language'

13 April 2009

'I've nothing against popular culture, but the idea that there is something divisive about bringing to people the greatest language ever written is utterly wrong. I think it's dying out, but there was a feeling that somehow it almost wasn't politically correct to be interested in serious and great poetry. To some extent it's much more politically correct to go to football matches...

'After all, what is it that makes us human? It's language. And poetic language is the most rare form. It's like a thrilling thing that a line can set off in your mind a whole world of potential experience. Either it inspires you in terms of wanting certain experiences, or it can help you to treasure the experience within those lines. And therefore life, for the short time we're on this Earth, is immensely enriched.'

Josephine Hart, author of theWords that Burn book and CD