My idea of what I believed poetry was about is a combination of rhymes, analogies and personifications that were dumped into a few sentences and didn’t make much sense to me. Although I know that there’s a lot of passion that comes from poetry, I have to say that it’s extremely difficult to understand. After reading “How to Read a Poem” I was intrigued with the phrase “Embracing Ambiguity” which means that people tend to avoid uncertainty and are able to cope with change which offers the opportunity of learning. Often times readers give up on confusing expressions especially in poetry and embracing ambiguity directs readers into letting go of the idea that poetry is boring and let poetry take control without any assumptions or misinterpretations.
Powered by:
top
3 thoughts on “Janice Boelk, Discussion 11”
Ditto! I too could not understand certain poems, especially those in the time of Shakespeare. Once doing the activities it enlightened me on how these poems should read, and how to dissect it. It changed my mind frame to not just read the words but feel the words being written. It felt different reading the poems after actually learning about how to read it and the different sonnets that its intel. I still wouldn’t choose to read something in that genre of poems, but I would definitely understand it more now if assigned.
Hello Janice,
Thank you for sharing your post with us. It was interesting and well-organized.
Even though I have never been a huge fan of poetry I do agree with you when you mention that poetry is about a combination of rhymes analogies and personifications. It is quite difficult for me to understand poetry as well, which I think is the first reason why I have never been interested in it. I did find “How to Read a Poem” interesting became it was kind of a wake-up call for me. People definitely tend to avoid uncertainty when it actually offers them the opportunity of learning.
Hi Janice! I relate to your experience with poetry and I like how you pointed out that it is usually passionate but extremely difficult to understand. I have a very similar perception of it so far. While I think not everyone can be invested in poetry I do think that having an understanding of how to approach it and have an understanding of it’s general composition can change your overall experience and perception of a poem. For me the point about “embracing ambiguity” was very interesting and something that changed my approach to poetry moving forward.