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WASHINGTON SQUARE: Do you feel poets have a responsibility to use poetry for a larger, social purpose?

RUEFLE: Some poets feel they have a responsibility to use poetry for a larger, social purpose, and some poets do not. Each poet is on an individual journey, and no two are alike. But I think all of these things are interconnected; what if you are a troubled person and a simple poem about, say, a flower, helps you overcome your trouble, helps you to get a bit outside of yourself—isn’t that a larger, social purpose? Or making someone laugh? No one can say that serves no purpose. Dickinson’s poems are not likely to change the world, but they can change one life at a time. Poems that have a larger, social purpose—who should they be read to and by? A large body of persons? Why doesn’t each session of Congress begin with a poem? I can think of more than a dozen poems it would do them good to hear, but I think, given the average Congressperson’s agenda, it might be unfair to make them hear a single thing more . . .

 https://www.washingtonsquarereview.com/an-interview-with-mary-ruefle