Molly McKay discussion 11

After this week my outlook on poetry has most definitely broadened in a positive way.  I’ve always had much of an appreciation for poets and how they portray their vision and ideas, emotions and thoughts, in a way that often is beneath the surface. That being so, I often can become frustrated when I cannot grasp the main idea of a poem, and lose appreciation in that emotion.  After this week, I have a much better understanding of how to analyze and read poems in a way that will help me to avoid this frustration.  For example, in activity 2 they give examples of questions you can ask while reading to keep your understanding in check, such as, “who is the speaker in this poem?”, and “what does the title suggest about the poem?”, and others along with those.  Asking simple questions can help break down information and better your understanding of harder concepts.  “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).  I love this quote as well from activity 2 as it enhances the idea that poetry can be deemed as boring and frustrating because of a lack of “skills” used to understand the main idea of each line, every word and every punctuation has an intentional placement in poetry, and these activities helped to guide me on ways to grasp the bigger picture.