Writing Poetry v.s. Writing About Poetry
It's all confusing. I figured I had to start with this sentence in case anyone agreed with me. Poetry has been one of the hardest things for me to understand because of the language used when writing it AND when writing about it.
When writing poetry, the figurative language that is used is meant to explain something deeper than just saying the actual meaning of it. It's ambiguous for the most part and while people might like that, it confuses me. I mean I love the fact that so many things are open to interpretation but it also makes things difficult to me.
When writing about poetry, you also have to know how to dissect this language. You have to know the use for it and what it does for the structure of the poem. Does it enhance it? Does it work where you are inserting it? The language is basically the center of it and when you write about poetry, you have to be open to all the interpretations and the meanings and everything.
So what I am understanding is that it is hard to be the writer and the audience. Even though I find it confusing, I do appreciate the beauty of it. Whether you write it or write about it, there is so much beauty that gets dissected. Although there is one giant difference which is the explaining your choices.
When writing poetry, your choices don't have to be explained. You can be writing about any topic and make it sound extremely creative and even have a hidden meaning. The possibilities are endless really. This is what leads to the multiple interpretations.
When writing about poetry, your choices have to be explained. Why do you think that line meant that? You have to be willing to back up your knowledge with more knowledge. You can't just say "I think this because it's what I think." There has to be more.
So to all the writers of poetry and the writers who write about poetry, I hope your experience of understanding it is better than mine. I also hope that it helps you along the way because as complex as it is, it really is a beautiful form of expression. I know for future experiences that I will do more research whenever I dissect one and view many many more videos of other poets when writing. Being exposed to the poetry world and how people read their work is a great step because it helps influence future ideas on what direction a poem can go. The possibilities seem to be endless.
Hello, Giselle. I love your post! Although, I disagree with the fact that poetry is difficult to understand because of its ambiguity. I think the ambiguity of poetry is what makes it easy and fun to understand. There is never a right interpretation with poetry, only possible interpretations. I think when writing poetry, the poem itself is the justification for and explanation for a poem that is written. I think when writing poetry you are justifying emotion and expressing it. I think academic writing and interpreting poetry is a logical analysis. I think this is because we have to look for historical context, who the author was and what they represented. I think when writing academically we focus less on interpretation and more on an author's point of view. I think in writing poetry we focus on more ourselves, our emotions, and our realities. I think we can detach ourselves from an author's viewpoint or come up with different interpretation that do not take into account the author's lived experience, but our own. I think when we write poetry we only take into account our history, our reality, and our emotion, but we can not detach ourselves or come up with a different interpretation. I think writing poetry is based on strong emotion of one's own person, and writing academically is based on one's own lived experience and combination of the author if we truly want to draw out the essence of a poem. The commonality is that both can rely on our own perspective.
ReplyDelete-Rogelio Quiroga
DeleteHey Giselle, you brought up a lot of great points :) I agree that whether writing poetry, or writing about it, they each have their own differences. Despite these differences, both are difficult their own way, making it come down to preference. Yet even though it was a difficult hill to climb, you found appreciation and beauty as you were experiencing it yourself. A point you brought up I didn’t consider was language, as we both have a common struggle with understanding and dissecting old poems specifically because of the language barrier. Language is vital for a gateway into the culture and setting for where the poem was created, and having such a huge deterrent makes it difficult for us to appreciate it more. The ideas you had were really spot on, and the more I read, the more I felt like you and I thought similarly.
ReplyDelete- Sean Gholami