Interpreting Poetry For Dummies

Whenever I read a poem, I usually don't have much of a strategy. I would first look at the poem and obtain a rough idea on what the poem meant. Then I would usually read each line again and try to decipher the meaning of that particular line. I would usually read the poem about 3-5 times, each time trying to obtain the meaning further with each reading. On occasions when footnotes do appear, I would take the time to read it to help me further understand the meaning of difficult and old terms. I rarely use a dictionary when reading a poem, unless there is a word that is completely alien to me, then I would refer to the dictionary. Also, I will always read the poem in my head, never out loud because in my opinion, there really isn't much of a difference if you read it aloud or in your head. Furthermore, I do take notes on occasion when I am trying to decipher the meaning of a poem to help keep track of my idea. Lastly, I do encounter a few problems when reading poetry, for example on some poetry when the meaning is too encoded, I don't have the mentality to figure my way around, which leaves me slightly frustrated but I do feel that maybe after some practice on analyzing poetry, I can get around that obstacle when reading poetry.

This Week's Reflection (10/9)-(16/9)

This week was like any other week. We started the week off with an character analysis essay, as I have written a few before this, it was just a matter of brushing up some unused skills such as analysis skills and thinking and rationalizing skills. It was a bit of challenge at first reusing this skills after about a year or so but with some thought and practice, I came up with an essay that I was quite confident about.

After that, we did a poem called, "A Martian Sends A Postcard Home." A poem that's like a couple of riddles that were joined into a poem. I particularly enjoyed this day as we were more care free and not so serious about our work. We also took pictures of everyday objects at a different perspectives and made others try to guess them, some were kind of plain and some were kind of "dirty" :D We also made riddles that we had to make each others guess. I really wouldn't mind having these kind of activities again every once in a while, just to release all that stress we've been penting up after hours of essay writing, poem analyzing and novel discussions.

Creative Writing

84 of us line in a neat and orderly row. Some of us are white, some of us are black. There is no discrimination between the two as we band to sing to the gods who listen to us. We sing the voices of the dead and the living, a song of sadness or joy but alas as the curtains close, we only may stay silent in the shadow of our master as he receives his applause and kisses