Final Reflections

In the time spent analyzing texts and reflecting on them in this class, I realized that there were a lot of unique bodies of work that I never would have previously investigated if it were not for this class and I believe it was a positive experience. I have always liked poetry however never really read it or analyzed it. I never enjoyed drama plays but I enjoyed reading them through the lens of the assignments for this class. I always loved short stories like “The Thirteenth Night”, and analyzing pieces like this and many others from this class helped me learn a lot about myself and how I view the world, particularly when I was asked to comment about my initial reactions to the pieces.  

I would like to highlight my writing for Ichiyo’s “The Thirteenth Night”. This was the piece I enjoyed reading and writing about the most. I am not sure if it is necessarily my strongest writing by any means, but I will say It was the piece I was most mentally and emotionally invested in. I do not always have clear and identifiable ideas or feelings about a piece of literature, story, movie or poem, however this one resonated heavily with me. As I previously stated it may not be my strongest writing, but I am most proud of it because I felt very confident in the ideas and takeaways that I chose to write about in the assignments. 

I always find poetic analysis to be the most difficult for me. My personal outlook on poetry is that it is the raw expression of one’s mind. Because of this, it can be incredibly moving and beautiful, but also difficult to understand. There are people whose expressions and messages click with me right away and I understand what they were feeling when they wrote it clearly. Others it is less clear. It may be that the concepts that they are highlighting are foreign to me, the complexity of the poetic structure or vocabulary they choose to use, or even that I might just not resonate with their message. While it may be difficult for me to understand at times,  I feel as though it pushes me as a writer, reader and overall thinker. 

I enjoyed the body of work that we were asked to compose as a whole. I found the pieces to be very thought provoking and interesting, while also not being repetitive. I feel that I have grown as a reader the most after this course and my ability to pull ideas from literature has greatly improved since the beginning. Thank you Professor P!

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