‘I don’t care’: text shows modern poetry began much earlier than believed

Academic finds that lines widely reproduced in the eastern Roman empire are stressed' in a way that laid the foundations for what we recognise as poetry

For Taylor Swift, the haters gonna hate", but she'll just shake it off". Now research by a Cambridge academic into a little-known ancient Greek text bearing much the same sentiment - They say / What they like / Let them say it / I don't care" - is set to cast a new light on the history of poetry and song.

The anonymous text, which concludes with the lines Go on, love me / It does you good", was popular across the eastern Roman empire in the second century, and has been found inscribed on 20 gemstones and as a graffito in Cartagena, Spain.