What about poetry?

Welcome to NYC Skeptic’s “Skeptic Dinners,” a series of events facilitated by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, a philosopher and biologist at the City College of New York. The idea is similar to that of the Ancient Greek symposia: let’s get a small number of like-minded people together over drinks and food and discuss interesting subjects!

Why have bards through the ages written in meter and rhyme when it would be much simpler and more direct to simply get to the point?
Poetry and art in general are topics we rarely if ever cover in our skeptic discussions, yet some of the most important works of humanity, such as the Iliad and the
Odyssey were (spoken? handed down?) in meter and rhyme since the dawn of Ancient Greece and Rome.

So this month we will investigate poetry: what is it? Does it really convey anything above what can be said in prose? What are its limits?

Suggested readings / viewing:

Ian McKellen’s recitation of “The Stranger’s Case," Shakespeare’s monologue in the play Thomas More. It pertains to the problem of unwanted immigration in England in the 16th century; A deconstruction of the same poem by Dame Sara, a Shakespeare coach;
When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer, a poem by Walt Whitman; [Tell the truth but tell it slant](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F0ueojyt8rst61.jpg&tbnid=k_snUH0e5lEu5M&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reddit.com%2Fr%2FClassicalEducation%2Fcomments%2Fmsyw56%2Ftell_all_the_truth_but_tell_it_slant_emily%2F&docid=HxCFOhd5TRHBQM&w=2234&h=1242&itg=1&hl=en-us&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm