For the 'pop' poets, whose work has been composed expressly for the purpose of recital to live audiences, the issue is plain. They can only profit from public performance. Their verses are often very simple in both form and content, and can be assimilated at a single hearing; it is on the printed page that the deficiencies of thought, technique and imagination become clear. Poets who are dedicated to their craft, and are doing their best to continue and develop what is finest in the traditions of poetry which involves compressing the maximum amount of passion, thought, wit and vision into the smallest possible space and achieving rhythmic effects of great variety and subtlety are unlikely to be appreciated by an audience which is probably encountering their work for the first time. The danger here is, not that they will be tempted to emulate the content and style of the entertainers, but that they might, in the effort to achieve instant communication, read only their most readily accessible work which is quite likely to be their slightest and least characteristic. Attendance at poetry reading cannot be a substitute for reading poetry on the page, though it can be an enjoyable and instructive adjunct. To hear good poets read their work aloud, even if they are not accomplished public is a valuable guide as to where the precise emphases are to be placed, but it is desirable that the audience should either follow the reading with the text before them or have a prior knowledge of the poems being spoken. The principal justification for popular recitals of poetry, where the readings are sometimes interspersed with musical items (jazz and poetry used to be a very popular mixture), is that audiences will come to associate poetry with pleasure.