My ideas of poetry have broadened based on the different sonnets I’ve read. Poetry is shown to be an individual’s creative written response to a type of experience they had, whether its physical, emotional intellectual or just simply about something they like or enjoy such as sunflowers or sunsets. I also now understand there are different types of poems based on the number of lines. Shakespeare, however, has a unique writing and language sometimes I can understand clear and sometimes I may have to re-read, but overall, it has so much meaning and can make you see the world differently. In Sonnet 130, “My mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun” by William Shakespeare is one I enjoyed reading. It is filled with sarcasm and his comparison is one of a kind. He compares parts of his lover’s body to beautiful objects, but her body was less beautiful than to the things he compared it to. For example, her breath isn’t at all like perfume, or her eyes aren’t as bright as the sun. This poem describes female beauty and our expectations about the way a women should look in like the women in magazines.
Daily Archives: April 10, 2022
As far as what I have learned from poetry, I will have to admit first and foremost that I’m am one of those poeple making the assumption that all poetry rhymes. That was an interesting turn up events that I learned from the poetry lession presentation video. After reading William Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun”, I came to learn that you can do more than just talk about how much you love something. That you can in intricate ways speak on what is bothering you such as when Shakespeare said, “her breath reeks” or “black wires grow on her head”. Not only speaking on what he doesn’t like but also in a round about way saying that dispite all of thing listed in that poem about even though the author’s mistress dull and dim, he still love her so much. Like having an ugly item but you’re happy because it is yours, not because of how pretty it is.
I always think as if all poems are cryptic. The reasoning is due to different styles of expression writing. Some poetry can have a vague or complex perspective to the audience yet have a clear theme of choice that a poet wants to reveal. It is usually up to the readers to decipher what the poet truly wants to convey in their thought of view. William Shakespeare for example for those that can understand early modern English and translate Shakespeare’s usage of words into late modern English. Not only that, the context that is given by the poet would also depend on the reader that is studying Shakespeare’s language usage in poetry. There is a variety of examples of poetry being known as cryptic when there are languages that are being used in writing that are not familiar to the audience. Yet give interest to those who enjoy studying poetry.
Growing up I didn’t like poems and still don’t because of how the wordings on some poems. They get me confused and I just don’t prefer reading like crazy, so that adds to that. But when reading these articles in the week 11 post I seem to have a better understanding and respect the people that write them a little bit more. I liked the poems that had a nice rhythmic to it instead of a broken rhythm where you can’t really understand what’s going on. The week 11 posts showes the different types of poems there are. In the article how to read a poem I found it helpful that it saved the questions you should ask yourself when reading a poem to get a better understanding of it Who is the speaker? What circumstances gave rise to the poem? What situation is presented? Who or what is the audience? What is the tone? What form, if any, does the poem take? Is sound an important, active element of the poem? Does the poem spring from an identifiable historical moment? Does the poem speak from a specific culture? Does the poem use imagery to achieve a particular effect? What kind of figurative language, if any, does the poem use? If the poem is a question, what is the answer? If the poem is an answer, what is the question? What does the title suggest? I find these the most benificial questions that you should ask yourself before or when reading a poem.
While going through the readings In week 11 about poetry I believe that my ideas still do remain the same about poetry because to me poetry was always something that was very interesting to read and also write about, I always thought poetry gave me ideas with the type words being used by some poets and also let me be able to expand my vocabulary a little by also using these words along the line. While reading “How To Read A Poem” by Edward Hirsch a few ideas stood out to me and it came in the second paragraph as Edward stated “The goal of careful reading is often to take up a question of meaning, an interpretive question that has more than one answer. ” which I agree with very much because when you read something or such as poetry you are trying to get your answers solved to the questions you may have in the beginning of the reading or poetry and those answers do not come until you keep reading through out the lines.
Due to our week 11 activities, I have gained a new respect for poets and their abilities to portray many emotions in a few number of words. This allows the reader of said poem to feel the individual emotions of the author. I first recognized this in Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Specifically in the line, “I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use” (Browning). This line shows the speaker’s infinite love for their significant other and the various was they can describe their love. Another line this is relevant in is, “Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death” (Browning). This line further goes into how the speaker’s love extends even to the end of their natural lives and into the mystery of death.
After reading those poems, the ideas in my mind about poems haven’t changed because it still hard to understand and force to think. In the poem “How Do I Love Thee” the word thee was shown in almost every single line, which I really hate about that, I have never used the word thee(means you) in the modern convention. In other words poem sucks, you have to use your brain to process the meaning, also it might be different meanings, everyone views the story differently, you might see it as romantic, and others might see it as ridiculous. Personally, I don’t like to read poems, it likes reading an ancient English book like Romeo and Juliet, it almost killed me once and made my brain stop processing because of a word like thou and more it is just hard to understand, just like reading ancient Chinese words. Also in the modern world, we tend to make things simpler because of the internet, and I don’t think people going to write a love poem from those words, it just makes things complicated.
When I think of poetry, I think about the calming and rhythmic feel that it gives off. Although not all poetry can give a “relaxing” sensation to it, most of it is very storytelling in the few words and lines it is described in. Growing up, I loved writing poems whenever I had literature assignments. Sometimes making personal ones storytelling, replacing me with a different character or object or just having fun with rhyming and haikus. Once high school hit, however, poetry wasn’t such a main focus so my excitement towards poetry died out. The activities in Week 11 helped me realize how interesting and intriguing each piece of poetry actually is. The Italian Sonnet, “How Do I Love Thee” showed me that English can be imperfect yet still beautiful. Words can be bent to the ways of people’s thoughts and emotions, creating a doorway to how someone thinks, feels, and reacts.
