John Ashbery, one of the most celebrated poets of our time, will be named the first poet laureate of mtvU today. I’ll admit I’ve never read anything by Ashbery, but maybe that makes me the target audience of mtvU’s new laureate program, which Ashbery hopes will “broaden the audience for poetry.”

I’m blogging this all secondhand from The New York Times which reports that MtvU will air 18 short promotional spots of excerpts from Ashbery’s poems on the channel (check out some of them here) and help sponsor a poetry contest for college students. The winner, chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, will have a book published next year by HarperCollins as part of the National Poetry Series.

“But will droves of young people respond?” Melena Ryzik, who wrote the Times article asks.

“It’s our hope that we will interest college kids in poetry in a new way, make it hip for them,” said Daniel Halpern, the publisher of Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins that has published Mr. Ashbery’s work. But, Mr. Halpern admitted, “it’s very hard to tell what exactly is going to come of all this.”

I gotta be honest. They might’ve picked lines “that were catchy and sort of meaningful in some way,” but I can’t see this effort really galvanizing a new generation of young poets. I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer though, so I’ll wait and see. Apparently Ashbery was inspired to write “The Songs We Know Best” after listening to Peaches & Herb’s song “Reunited.” All I have to say is: “It feels so good.”