Victorians...

Ugh... Victorian poetry is absolutely dreadful! Actually, the more that I read poetry in English, the more I am forced to admit that English is a truly disgusting language and is totally unfit for the production of beautiful poetry. There is just no way to soften the rhythm or the sounds of the English language in order to make poetry appealing in any of the traditional senses; the only way that poetry can halfway be decent in English is if it relies mostly upon language's natural ability to produce mental images. Rhymes and rhythms in English mostly get in the way of what little is left in the language to make poetry beautiful, so they should just be left entirely out. This alone should be enough reason for the education system to place greater emphasis on the learning of a second language.