Poet Marianne Moore opens one of her most famous works with these lines: “Poetry, I too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond all this fiddle.”  

I imagine that sentiment rings true for some people.  

Studying poetry might seem like a hobby, distraction, or luxury. It might seem like studying poetry – or any humanities or social science subject – is fiddling while Rome burns, especially if Rome is equated with the challenging job market or the burning hot social crises of our time. 

So, why study in these areas? As an English Literature professor at Trent University Durham GTA, I want to share how I talk about this topic with students – why it’s important to study literature and the arts.  

My first and best answer is practical. I assure students in the arts that the skills they learn in their programs are important; employers prize them. Studying the arts offers the best chance to develop the essential skills of reading and writing, which employers value, but can’t teach you.  

Employers can help you learn all sorts of things related to the job – but have neither the time nor expertise to help you learn the sort of deep reading practices that allow for clear and creative thinking, which is essential for writing. 

The idea that arts majors are unemployable is an obvious and harmful fiction. Study after study says that arts majors get jobs, have significant earning power, and are insulated from most fluctuations within the economy. 

My second answer is a bit more complicated but just as important. When I’m talking with prospective English majors who are still worried about why they’re in my class studying contemporary Canadian novels or mid-century confessional poetry, I tell them that literature is essential equipment for understanding ourselves, each other, and the joys and challenges that we face.  

Literature, in our moments of joy and terror, puts us in touch with our grief, can mend our hearts, or sing our happiness.  

We live in a world filled with content – material generated for social media. It is a pleasure and necessity to seek art, in the hope that we see ourselves in a better or different light. 

What’s also clear to me is that all arts programs, not just the ones housed in literature departments, are essential to our understanding of our world. Indeed, the primary function of arts programs is to explain how or why something is happening.  

Take, for example, the burgeoning situation with artificial intelligence (AI). There is no better way to understand its value than turning to the arts. Our first step here must be to understand and celebrate what humans have already created; that has to be one of the standards by which we judge what AI can do. 

Another step must be to have conversations, informed by various disciplines in the arts, about the value of building and integrating AI into our communities.  

To do so, we need people to understand the deep relationship between new media and democracy (that’s media studies, communications, political science, and history); the consequences of adopting technology without forethought (that’s cultural studies and literature); and the ethical implications of relying on a technology that repeats the biases we already have (that’s psychology, sociology, and philosophy).  

Maybe studying poetry, and other arts, is important after all. 

This article, penned by Dr. Joel Baetz, English Literature professor, Trent University Durham GTA, originally appeared in Durham Metroland.