Poetry Reflection- 3/7/14

Julia Swicionis

March 7, 2014

Poetry Reflection

Poetry can be a vital, real part of everyone’s life. What place or importance does poetry have in my own life?

I believe that poetry has a large importance in my life, but I really haven’t begun to realize until now. When I was younger and would get a poetry assignment in school, I would just write about whatever, and wouldn’t pay much attention to what I was writing. Though, now I realize that poetry can be much more than just writing down some rhyming words on paper. It’s an art form that you can clearly express your thoughts and feelings through. When I write poetry, (when not for an assignment in class) I really try to dig deep, and write from my heart about  my feelings and ideas, and some of the things I write about, help myself to even realize who I really am. Poetry is a simple way to express my feelings, and really helps me get out those hard to explain thoughts. It has helped me find myself in so many ways, and that’s why I feel that is truly has played an important part in my life.

Does poetry belong to everyone? How do I know?

Yes, I do believe that poetry belongs to everyone. Anyone can write a poem, and truly, all a poem is, is a form of writing that helps to express your feelings, thoughts, and ideas. So, can’t anyone write about their thoughts, feelings, and ideas? Anyone and Everyone has Freedom of Speech (as mentioned as part of the First Amendment in the Constitution) and poetry, is just speaking your thoughts through writing, so why wouldn’t it not belong to people? Also, because poetry is made up of your thoughts and feelings, couldn’t you prove and tell that it belongs to you just by that? When people are writing about their thoughts and feelings, those are their thoughts and feelings; their ideas, and they are just being written down. Your thoughts belong to you, and poetry is just writing your thoughts, so you can obviously tell that it actually does belong to people.

How does the life and experiences of a poet affect the poem he or she creates?

I believe that the life and experiences of a poet, definitely affects the poem he or she creates. You can see that this is true if you look at Edgar Allen Poe. Edgar Allen Poe had an extremely rough life, as he lost many of his family members and loved ones throughout his life, and had many crazy experiences to add to his already crazy life/lifestyle. His poems are a bit crazy, and can be extremely gloomy, scary and sad, which is because of the horrible experiences he had growing up. All of the sad and horrible things he experienced, also kind of caused him to go mad, which was why some of his poems were a little “confusing.” If Poe were to have had and amazing childhood, with two amazing parents when he was growing up, and a wonderful wife when he grew up, maybe his poems would be more light hearted, and happy, but because he had a rough childhood, his poems were more melancholy and macabre. Like I’ve said, poems are just feelings and thoughts written out, so Poe’s feelings and thoughts about his life, and his experiences, caused him to write a certain way. So, from this you can clearly see that the life and experiences of a poet, truly can affect the type of poems they create.