I've heard it before, writing poetry and writing about poetry are two different things. To some degree they are. While writing poetry can be liberating and intimate, writing about poetry tends to have negative connotations.
Writing about poetry is formalistic, it's daunting, it's oftentimes obligatory, and more often than not, it isn’t fun! From my own experiences, I've tended to favor writing poetry than writing about it. This is mainly because I've always felt writing poetry, my own poetry, was the best form of selfishness. I wrote poetry for ME, ME, and ME. Poetry is therapeutic, poetry is like an imaginary friend talking back to me. Now I'm not claiming any of my poetry is award-winning, and I'd turn extremely red if someone ever read my more private poems (they're all very silly, I promise), but the function of poetry for me has always been to entertain myself. This is why I enjoy writing poetry and why I like reading poems from far more renowned poets--they express and convey lives (no matter how silly).
On the other hand, writing about poetry requires the same set of skills as with writing poetry but with more structure and guidelines. Writing about poetry requires more analysis than creative expression. To write about poetry demands one to be attuned to the other writer's designs and devices and how those factors play in the poem's overall message, theme or development. Writing about poetry requires explanations and judgements while writing poetry conveys, illuminates, and expresses through images.
I know these differences make the two seem irreconcilable, but in truth, they aren't. Truth be told, learning the hard way (I'm quite stubborn) I realized that writing about poetry can actually improve my own poetry. For one thing, analyzing poetry and becoming aware of other writers' strategies have helped me become more rounded or dimensional in my own writing. The fact that I can identify successful or more effective rhetorical devices to illustrate ideas have made me more daring and experimental in terms of poetry topics and structure. In addition, because writing about poetry demands more critical analysis from me, it has become somewhat difficult to turn off the analytical side of me when I do write. As a result, my poems tend to be more ambiguous in meaning because of my playing around with my images, words, and structure. I’ve since seen my poetry mature, moving outwards from myself to the world around me etc.
In a sense writing about poetry has opened me up to opportunities or perspectives that I never would have arrived at alone. As a result, writing about poetry and writing poetry are connected through one’s understanding of universal human conditions and the modes by which they are manifested in writing.
From our class’s series of poetry assignments, I’ve learned that poetry is so versatile and powerful. Although I’ve written poetry in private, poetry spoken to the public can be an amazing, uplifting experience. Poetry mimics life, and listening to everyone else’s poems have truly inspired me to reach out, play around, and share. As an aspiring teacher, the experience of writing poetry and sharing them to the class is something I definitely want to incorporate in my own classroom. I think students will find such activity challenging, exciting, and motivational. It gives students not only the opportunity to share their abilities and thoughts, but also connects them to their classmates that in many ways cultivates a trusting, safe, and productive classroom atmosphere.
Hasel, I felt it was very interesting when you stated that you feel that writing poetry is about entertaining yourself. I guess this struck me because I’m not a fan of poetry and I usually run the other way when I even hear the word “poetry”. I like your idea though since I think it could be very helpful when it comes to teaching students. After all, I’m sure that there are some kids out there who react the same way I do when the hear the word “poetry”. Then again, it’s possible that they already have the idea that poetry is “serious” and that it’s not supposed to be fun. Or they might not be sure what the poem is talking about, yet they know the teacher wants them to learn it. I think your attitude is one that teachers introducing poetry should have. They should let their students know that poetry can be fun and entertaining. They can also encourage students to write their own poetry. The important thing would be for them to have fun while doing it.
ReplyDeleteHey Hasel!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! I also feel writing about poetry is very structure and it does feel like an obligation. When I write about poetry I feel very confined to the explication structure of going line by line and explicating. Writing about poetry does seem to incorporate more analysis than creation due to the strict guidelines of explicating poetry. It is all about analyzing the poem and finding sources to support your explication. On the other hand, writing poetry seems to be more liberating. When I write about poetry I feel comfortable and loose. I love letting my creative juices flow in order to try to come up with a brilliant line of poetry. However, I don’t ever really create brilliant lines of poetry. I just like the feeling of writing without restrictions. I must agree that although writing about poetry and writing poetry are somewhat different, they do compliment each other because we learn things from one that can be applied to the other, vise-versa.
Hello Hasel,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, I think you raised some really interesting points when it comes to poetry. I especially like when you were talking about creating poetry for yourself and also how you mentioned poetry in itself as being therapeutic. I don’t claim to be an excellent poet, but I too write constantly in a journal that is like my child, I take it everywhere I go, scribbling down random thought, emotions, and sometimes, utter nonsense. When I write poetry, I do not sit down and say to myself, “Alright, time to write a poem about blah blah blah,” instead I just let the thoughts and ideas flow as they come to me. I think I would be embarrassed as well if anyone ever got a hold of my journal and read it’s contents. Most of my “poems” in the journal are silly and wouldn’t make sense to anyone who wasn’t inside my head.
However, I agree with you completely that being made to focus on close analysis of poetry has matured my own poetry and writing. You are correct, because writing about poetry demands more critical anyalsis; it does become difficult to “turn off” that method of thinking. Now, in almost every text I read, I find myself asking, “Well, what else could this mean?” I think that the explication of poetry, although sometimes tedious and challenging, is a skill that is very beneficial to us as writers and as future educators.
Thanks for sharing!
See you in class tomorrow.
Hello Hasel,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, I think you raised some really interesting points when it comes to poetry. I especially like when you were talking about creating poetry for yourself and also how you mentioned poetry in itself as being therapeutic. I don’t claim to be an excellent poet, but I too write constantly in a journal that is like my child, I take it everywhere I go, scribbling down random thought, emotions, and sometimes, utter nonsense. When I write poetry, I do not sit down and say to myself, “Alright, time to write a poem about blah blah blah,” instead I just let the thoughts and ideas flow as they come to me. I think I would be embarrassed as well if anyone ever got a hold of my journal and read it’s contents. Most of my “poems” in the journal are silly and wouldn’t make sense to anyone who wasn’t inside my head.
However, I agree with you completely that being made to focus on close analysis of poetry has matured my own poetry and writing. You are correct, because writing about poetry demands more critical anyalsis; it does become difficult to “turn off” that method of thinking. Now, in almost every text I read, I find myself asking, “Well, what else could this mean?” I think that the explication of poetry, although sometimes tedious and challenging, is a skill that is very beneficial to us as writers and as future educators.
Thanks for sharing, see you in class tomorrow!