If you’re north of 60, you recall a world in which people read poetry, even if only when forced to in a classroom.

One of the cultural artifacts that may have been dragged before you was Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” It was a biggie in the 19th century, but chances are the “Ancient Mariner” didn’t float your boat.

The chances were better that you were more intrigued by Don McLean’s more contemporary 1971 pop single “American Pie,” with its equally cryptic, symbolic content.

Of course, be they ancient or modern, you may have felt the same about both — “Who the hell wants to actually understand this crap?”

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