This week’s module was very helpful because it helps me to gain some understanding more about different types of literature and poetry that I didn’t know before. To illustrate, I think writing a poem is just looking for words to do the verification, but after reading and trying to understand what poetry is, I understand and realize that poetry is an amazing art. So, I realized to write poetry, you must prepare and put yourself in a good condition to know the basics part of poetry, and the nature of poetry, the poem is often rhythmical, routinely metaphorical, and rime. Now I understand to write a good poem you should touch the soul of the reader and to engage the reader in your poetry you should have the skills, and a good vocabulary by choosing the ideal words. Also, I have learned two different types of sonnets English and Italian.
Daily Archives: April 7, 2022
In reading all these poems, my view on poetry has not changed that drastically. I still think poems are drastically overdramatic and annoying, but I have learned that not all poems are as bad. There are basic poems with little lines that can evoke many feelings, while others do not. I have learned that poems drastically differ from one another depending what type of poem you are writing. There are ones that rhyme and ones that do not. Most are written to evoke a feeling that most people will understand and connect with in some way. That is the whole point of poetry to evoke some kind of feeling in someone and understand it in their own point of view. Also, I have learned that repeated lines are meant to draw attention, I always tended to ignore the repeated lines and get annoyed at them and stop reading the poem like in Sonnet 43 how the author repeats “how they love thee” in different ways.
After seeing the activities of week 11, I can say that my point of view towards poetry has changed drastically, at the beginning or even when I was a freshman in high school I thought that a poem or poetry, in general, was just a bunch of words and already. However, I realized that poetry has the power to connect, that is, when reading a poem, thousands of stories can be linked to it. A clear example is in the poem “The wife” by Emily Dickinson and “The Story of an Hour”, a short story by Kate Chopin. With just a stanza or even a verse, you can see the connection or even relate to a previously read story. Another way in which poetry can connect is with people, that is, their personal life or it can even help that person to reflect and realize something that they had not previously grasped.
I understand poetry a little better and am able to read it while trying to figure out what it means, my understanding of poetry has altered and extended in response to the reading and activities of week 11 because I am able to read it while attempting to figure out what it means. The video in activity 1 teaches the meaning of poetry and the various genres of poetry. When I was composing poetry, I also learned the difference between poetry and prose, which I had no idea existed. The video in exercise 2 shows how to read an accurate poem of poetry. It claims that when reading an unknown poetry, novice poem readers make assumptions. When I first start reading a poem, I make assumptions about what the poem is about, and by the end of the poem, I have a better idea of what the poetry is about. I develop assumptions about the poem’s subject matter, which, in turn, makes me more interested in reading poetry. I’ve read poetry without truly considering what it means; I had no idea that poetry could be more than rhyme and short lines. Poetry has a new meaning for me now, and it’s something I’m quite interested in.
My ideas about poetry have changed and broadened in response to week 11’s readings and activities because it gave me a better understanding of poetry and how to read it correctly. In activity 1 the video explains what poetry is and what poetry is not. We also learned about poetry vs prose and how they are different. In activity 2 it has an article on how to properly read a poem, towards the bottom of the article it states some helpful questions some may ask when approaching a poem for the first time such as: Who is the speaker?, What does the title suggest? Does the poem use unusual words or use words in an unusual way?, etc. Overall I used to read poems without really thinking about them and trying to figure out the true meaning of it, you really have to dig deep to find the true meaning of each stanza and why certain words were used.
Among the sonnets that we read this week, William Shakespeare’s Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day was my favorite. First, I enjoyed the poem due to my devotion in reading Shakespeare’s works. Second and most importantly is the poem’s artistic element and theme that represents the stability of love, the immortal beauty, and the human being versus nature. When reading the poem, I can see that the speaker is comparing himself with the person to whom the poem is addressed with the specific element of the day (Spacey par.7). I admire the way Shakespeare makes efforts to ensure that we, the audience, have fun with his poetic piece. Specifically, he has ensured that the audience has a reflection on the human perspective in the poem. Through the poem, I get a critical analysis of the changes that are happening in the setting that the author is in. The summer season is described as one which has a rich and colorful perspective hence showing a beauty that is temporary and charming. Therefore, through the poem, I am able to understand contemporary issues that are caused by people’s perception of the life they live, more so that which determines their happiness. In the poem, there are specific lines that capture my attention hence, making me read it often. For example, Shakespeare says that “Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer’s lease hath all too short a date …” (Spacey par.5). In this segment of his work, he means that people have different lives and stages determined by their age and status. The speaker gives changes that happen when ones is a youth and a noble individual. Through the poem, I can understand there is a compliment of a lover […]
Before week 11 readings, I didn’t know much about poetry. I knew that they rhymed and thought they always had a special code you had to crack throughout the poem. After reading activity two, I have seen that this is a common assumption made and there is more to poetry. “The second is assuming that the poem is a kind of code, that each detail corresponds to one, and only one, thing, and unless they can crack this code, they’ve missed the point”(Hirsch). This one really stood out to me because referring back to high school, this is what I was told by my English teachers and I had carried that way of thinking about poetry ever since. Another thing that changed the way I see poetry is from activity three, sonnets. These were usually written about love from suitors to woman that they liked. Other topics were about nature and man’s roles in the world. These are always written in 14 lines and only about one subject. This is something very new to me because I did not know poetry has more meaning to it than just rhyming and short lines. I definitely see poetry differently and as something very exciting now.
