Poetry

I am not a big fan of poetry. Don't gasp with astonishment. I just haven't enjoyed many of the poems I was forced to read during my high school years, in college, and after that through my teaching career.

Why not, you may ask? I don't know, really. I enjoy some things, like Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." I like some of the British works by Tennyson, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, and Byron. I like Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters, and Edwin Arlington Robinson. The poems I like are usually the ones I teach. Others though..not so much.

Maybe it is modern poetry that I just don't enjoy. Most of it is written in free verse, or it has very few of the poetic elements and just seems to be a smathering of words on paper. Maybe I turned sour on poetry when my high school students penned mishmashes of words on a paper in 5-10 minutes and said, "Here Mrs. Siemens! I wrote a poem, just like you wanted me to do." No technique, no alliteration, no onomatopoeia, no allusions, no rhyme, no similes or metaphors, no rhythm...just words on paper, written to look like a poem.

With that being said, here we go into the last Pod for the semester, Poetry. I am not cringing with this Pod, however. I like Walt Whitman. Even though Emily Dickinson was a little strange, I do like her poetry. Some of the things they wrote have stayed with me through the years. I do like "Because I did not stop for Death, it kindly stopped for me" even though it seems rather morbid. Leaves of Grass is enjoyable, mostly because it reflects on nature and I like that.

Poetry could have been easily eliminated from the curriculum; however, in a survey class, all genres should be explored, and poetry cannot be ignored. It is part of the American literature history. It is a vital form of expression. There are many great poets to be read and understood.

I still don't enjoy it though.