In a cultural climate and scholarly marketplace that increasingly marginalize poetry, especially eighteenth-century poetry, relatively few critics are willing to assert its value. Among the few are Suvir Kaul and Linda Zionkowski . . . Kaul raises the question–Why poetry?–to make an irrefutable case for the significance of poetic form to literary study. Poetic form helps promote or critique nationalist and imperialist projects.
No conceivable reader of this blog will want the reference, but it really truly comes from a review in a scholarly journal, viz Eighteenth Century Theory and Interpretation, Spring 2007.