Poetry is not much rated as a writing or reading activity these days. It's significance has been on the wane since a high-water mark in the 19th Century when poets were still considered influential or important. Of course, a lot of more serious literature, the type that requires some effort on the reader' s behalf, has also suffered a fall in grace.

Some of this apparent decline can be sheeted home to the rise of modernism, where texts became increasingly difficult to read, as authors explored new ways of creating a narrative. But there have always been just enough accessible novels and the like to make reading a public-wide activity. There are also plenty of good poets who strive to be be understood too.

But the final nail, at least for the meantime, was the information revolution, which saw bookshops close en masse and real-life books disappear from the hands of commuters, folks in hammocks and readers in general. People still read on their tablets, phones and kindles, but probably much less than before.

Anyway. Poetry. It's not everyone's cup of tea I know, but it has been mine since high school. I found my old senior English notes recently and read through my responses to a variety of authors and texts. I was taken by just how much I had fallen in love with poetry through the works of the Romantics - initially Coleridge and Keats, then Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron. That's the big five, though there are others too. And it's no wonder, for they were passionate young men who sought change, elevated the imagination and celebrated the natural world.

Which makes them still relevant today.