Britain’s 2009 poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, views texting as a “springboard”—not a hindrance—to strong poetry writing, arguing that the poem itself is a form of texting:
“It’s a perfecting of a feeling in language – it’s a way of saying more with less, just as texting is. We’ve got to realise that the Facebook generation is the future – and, oddly enough, poetry is the perfect form for them. It’s a kind of time capsule – it allows feelings and ideas to travel big distances in a very condensed form.”
Duffy—Britain’s first female laureate—is actively advocating for greater teaching of poetry in schools. One way that Duffy is encouraging students to connect with poetry is through her upcoming Anthologise competition, which implores secondary schoolers to create poetry anthologies.
