News at Eleven: Criticism could be meted out brutally:

when the Sicilian dictator Dionysius presented subpar poems in 384 B.C., disgusted sports fans beat him up and trashed his tent. At other Greek athletic festivals, like those at Delphi, dedicated to Apollo, the god of poetry and music, verse recital was featured as a competitive event, along with contests for the lyre and choral dancing.

For much of the 20th century, poetry was an official, medal-winning competition in the Games. The French visionary who revived the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, always insisted Greek-style arts contests should be allowed alongside athletics.

from The New York Times: Champions of Verse
then CNN: A deluge in London, but this time it's raining poems
then New Statesman: Poetry Parnassus: "This global chorus"
then BBC News: About poems
then The Guardian: Kay Ryan: the un-American poet who will fly the US flag at Poetry Parnassus
then London Evening Standard: The pick of the world's poetry in London

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