Things I Hate About Poetry

Poems are like puzzles. The structure of it looks easy and super short to read. But it contains a great deal of meaning and the more you dig in, the more questions you get. And eventually, you get puzzled in between all the deep answers, trying to figure out which one is the part of the puzzle, and which one is not.

Clint Smith is a writer, teacher, and doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society. Smith Clint wrote a poem called “Something You should Know.” The poem is about an early job he had in a Petsmart. The poet allows the readers into his personal life, but before he had trouble opening up to people and his work. Moreover, Clint wrote an insight in the poem about relying in anything to feel safe and he says it is the most terrifying thing any person can do.

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

Personally, I believe that the hardest part of poetry for me is finding the theme the author presents as it is always implicit. The theme is something one must deconstruct by using the devices presented by the poet. In William Stafford's “5 A.M”, the biggest challenge for me was to find the theme that was not stated directly. Theme can also be mistinturputated in many ways. Something that you may read in a poem may show a different perspective that the author is not trying to intend, and may throw you off the course of finding the theme. Reading poetry may not be as difficult as writing it for some, but personally I believe the analysation of a poem to find the theme is the most challenging aspect of

Take a minute to imagine “Men looking like they had been/attacked repeatedly by a succession /of wild animals,” “never/ ending blasted field of corpses,” and “throats half gone, /eyes bleeding, raw meat heaped/ in piles.” These are the vividly, grotesque images Edward Mayes describes to readers in his poem, “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976.” Before even reading the poem, the title gave me a preconceived idea of what the poem might be about. “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976” describes what an extreme version of what I expected the poem to be about. The images I

|Spend about 1 hour on this section. Think carefully about the poems before you write your answer. |

The Vacuum by Howard Nemerov talks about a widower and his late wife, and how he uses the vacuum as a symbol for her death. The poem expresses deep sorrow and sadness that derive from the loneliness of the speaker, after his other half’s passing away. Nemerov attempts to take his readers on a grief-stricken journey, by strategically employing figurative language (mainly personification, metaphor, simile, and alliteration), fractured rhyme schemes and turns in stanza breaks in the poem.

“’ But this is merely a negative definition of the value of education’” (23-24). Mark Halliday wrote “The Value of Education” from a first person standpoint. The introduction and the use of “I” demonstrates the poem is about the speaker. Likewise, the speaker uses imagery, self-recognition, and his own personal thoughts throughout the poem. He goes on throughout the poem stating external confrontations he is not doing because he is in the library receiving an education and reading books. With this in mind, the speaker goes on to convey images in your head to show a realization of things he could be doing if he were not in the library getting an education.

"Grey's Anatomy" is a popular drama doctor show to this day. They had a music event episode where everyone sang and they had two songs that display the symbolic cycle. Both pieces compliment each other because of their similarities in the symbolic cycle, birth and death. The visual display of the songs fit together because of the setting and how the music itself develops throughout each song. These songs were chosen to be in "Grey's Anatomy" because they illustrate real life of losing someone and being blind to someone's pain they try to hide. In "How to Save a Life" and "The Story" the composers develop the theme of life and death.

2. What are the symbolic significances of the candy store in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "The Pennycandystore Beyond the El" (Geddes, 318)?

In this essay I am going to compare and contrast ‘When we two parted’ a poem of George Gordon, Lord Byron’s written in 1815 and Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s ‘Love’s last lesson’ written in c1838, both poets are British and of the romantic period.

W.H Auden famously wrote “poetry makes nothing happen.” Do you think this accurately describes the political and social place of poetry in the twentieth century and/or the twenty first century? Explain why you agree or disagree in the case of your chosen poet, justifying your answer with close reference to your poet’s work and its reception and interpretation.

Poetry allows the writer, the reader and even those listening to get a deeper sense of being. It gives us the opportunity to break free from simple and boring routine. If done correctly a poem will done correctly a poem will be able to stir emotion, and create wonder. In order to this however all the part that make up a poem must be in sync. Its tone, diction, imaginary, rhythm, symbolism and subject matter are all critical areas. A good poem will draw an emotional reaction from its audience, whether those are light and upbeat or darker more serious feelings they will come away with a new experience, changed by what they just experienced. Two such poems that embody what a good poem should be are “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath and “Harlem”, also published as “Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes. These poems elevate the experience for reading, listening and writing poetry, and serve as an excellent reference for a poem should be.

Some of the poems and essays I have read during this class were relatable to me. Being away from college, I have struggled with not being at home. I have become a different person when I am at school, but when I am home, I feel like I am my normal self again. Some of these authors of the poems and essays that I have read throughout this class has struggled with being somewhere where they don’t belong and that they are someone else when they are not home. Unlike the other poems and essays we have read throughout the course. I enjoyed reading the ones about “home” because I actually understood what they are going through and that I can relate. Some of these poems and essays include “Going Home” by Maurice Kenny, Postcard from Kashmir”, by Agha Shahid Ali, “Returning” by Elias Miguel Munoz and “Hometown” by Luis Cabalquinto. All of these poems deal with duality.

In regards to discussing my experience in high school, I tend to keep quiet about it primarily because of the lack of memories I have about it. However, I will say that out of all the lessons that I learned in high school; in regards to concepts like time management and with meeting deadlines, there has always been this one lesson that has stuck with me. Consequently, while it's a skill that I don't use all that often, it's used to great effect. I've used it to write stories about those who have protested about civil rights and about the right of racial equality. It might not be this big important life lesson to most, but to me, learning to write in the imagist style of poetry has managed to grant me this ability to tell stories visually without the use of images themselves.