Poetry readership represents the sharpest decline in participation in any literary genre. The biggest contributing factor is comprehension, with many readers finding poems difficult to understand and not worth the effort.

Pave is a poetry decoder that helps people uncover the literary devices at play in a poem and read smarter, not harder. Using AI and machine learning, Pave aims to bridge the gap between fast-paced readers and complex poetry through an integrated library with real-time and user-driven analyses.

After conducting interviews with real poetry readers and reviewing the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, a few data points stuck out to me:

"Since 2002, the share of poetry-readers has contracted by 45 percent—resulting in the steepest decline in participation in any literary genre," according to the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.

More than 80 percent of former poetry readers found poetry difficult to understand.

Time required to understand a poem is a barrier to entry.

Struggling to understand a poem leaves some users questioning their own competency.

Poetry readers want to connect to the emotion/experience detailed in a poem, and they are less interested in poems they don’t relate to.

One of the first things poetry readers do when they feel like they don’t understand a poem is look up an analysis.

With a deeper understanding of the causes curbing people's interest in poetry and the attitudes of active poetry readers, my next step was to imagine the user journey of someone attempting to connect to and analyze a poem. Several pain points were revealed in the process:

Unclear baseline: Poetry is one of the most calculated forms of writing. There is an extensive glossary of poetic devices, forms, and schools/periods that can make starting to read poetry feel intimidating.

Holding interest -- Because developing a deeper understanding of a poem can take a long time, many readers give up before reaching that point and hesitate to pick up another poem after that.

Comprehension insecurity -- Poetry can be complex and ambiguous, so users can feel frustrated when comprehension doesn't come easily, or uncertain if their interpretations line up with those of the author or even other reader's.

Device pinpointing -- Even if a user has done the work and sought out knowledge about poetic tools, pinpointing where those devices are present in the works they read is an entirely different venture.

How might we reduce the amount of time it takes for readers to understand a poem?

How might we present analyses without dispelling self-guided interpretation?

How might we share poetic knowledge while also teaching to apply it?

How might we guide users toward topics and themes they're interested in?