Poetry, long thought of as an art form in terminal decline, is taking off on the internet according to new figures.

	Recognising the potential of the internet for poetry: Andrew Motion

The British-based Poetry Archive has released statistics that visitors to its website are now viewing a total of more than one million pages a month.

More than 125,000 individuals – or unique users – have visited the site, which hosts poems and audio readings by the poets themselves.

Andrew Motion, the British Poet Laureate, who co-founded the Poetry Archive in 2005, said of the figures: “It’s giving the lie to the idea that nobody reads poems any more.”

He thought the internet was providing a better medium for poetry than books. “Either books have not been doing the job or they are being outmanoeuvred by the internet.”

Emily Warn, editor of the Poetry Foundation, added: “Andrew Motion was one of the first to recognise that the internet is allowing millions of people to experience poetry in its oldest form — as an oral art form.

[ click to read full article at The Telegraph ]