Understanding Poetry on a Deeper Level

In the poem "Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins, he pokes fun at the fact that critics don't really enjoy poems, and instead prefer to "torture a confession" out of them in order to understand their meaning.
Listening to this poem, you can hear the humor and sarcasm in his voice as he describes in vivid detail how critics hit his poems with a hose in order to understand their meaning. In a casual way, he wants to point to the fact that he simply wants his poems to be enjoyed.

That has made all the difference

Sitting in English class in middle school, looking over this poem, it’s always intrigued me.  Something about it always made me want to read it over and over again.  At first glance, there’s the obvious forest imagery, that always reminds me of my times camping, my time in boy scouts, and the friends I’ve made there, or of the times I went hiking, and times I came across my own two paths in the wood.                                                             

            http://ey.westside66.org/exploring-the-road-not-taken-by-robert-frost/

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as  could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

               

The Love of a Lighthouse

I have always been incredibly moved by the combination of poetry and music. This mostly takes place in a song written by various artists- The Beatles, Eagles, Weezer, and many more. Music is powerful on its own, without lyrics, and the combining of lyric or poetry to a song makes something that can at times leave me speechless.

Wrapping My Head around Poetic Media (Revised)

While I must admit that poetry has not always played a large role in inspiring or motivating my life, there are some notable exceptions. When I first began to be interested in poetry, I was introduced mainly through religious sources, like hymns, scriptures, and occasionally general conference talks. The most notable, or the one that had the greatest impact on me, was quoted at the end of a talk by Boyd K. Packer in October, 2009.

“With thoughtless and impatient hands,

We tangle up the plans the Lord has wrought,

And when we cry in pain He saith,

‘Be quiet, Man, while I untie the knot.’”

-Author Unkown

Listening to Poetry

There are so many different ways to experience poetry. I spent some time last week listening to poems on a list my college professor gave us. It was quite an experience.

There was one poem that just played music in the background while the video passed over the words in a jail cell. The words were written in what looked like blood. The effect was dark. It had the feel of some awful crime had presence there.

The poems that stood out to me the most, were the ones that were spoken with music in the background. The first one I listened to was spoken and shared with passion. It was powerful and carried a strong message. I was drawn in to the poem and was emotionally attached to it. I could connect and feel the power of it’s message.

I saw and heard multiple versions of “The Raven.” They were all a little creepy, with eerie music and an ominous speaker. One version was part of an episode of “The Simpsons.”

Music held a strong role in influencing how each poem affected me. When there was not music, I was less emotionally attached.

All in all, I feel like the poems held more power when I listened to them than they would have if I had just read them. That effect is dependent on the individual and how they think. I am one who would rather listen to the author read it. Words on a page can be misread, but listening to the author read allows for a more complete picture of the intended message.

Mind Games

In fifth and sixth grade, my class had to memorize the poem “Life’s Battles.” It didn’t mean much to me then, but over the years, I still remember it.

            If you think you’re beaten, you are

            If you think you dare not, you don’t

            If you like to win, but think you can’t

            It’s almost certain you won’t

Wrapping My Head Around Poetic Media

After viewing all of the videos left behind for this assignment, I was happy that I gained a lot of great perspectives of different ways in which poetry can be performed. I was an especially big fan of some of the more creative and outgoing examples, like Edgar Allen Poe in the Simpsons or  John Masefield's "Sea Fever" in Star Trek. There were a broad variety of topics discussed, and in this post I hope to break down and discuss some of my favorites.

One of the things mentioned in this post was how to portray a sense of professionalism with your posts. We see one example that is clearly amateur, which we can tell just by the grainy quality and lack of proper lighting. An example of a good amateur video and poetry reading can be seen in the video "Kairos" where a single lady with quality footage and good lighting reads an insightful poem that is successful even though it is not professionally done. What I took from this is that even if you don't have a professional camera crew, it is still possible to create your own inspiring videos and to express your creativity to others through poetry in a way that does not come of as poor quality or extremely "amateur."

Slam Poetry and musical adaptations of poetry both stuck out to me in the same ways. I saw them as being a lot like going to a concert. As a big fan of music, I have attended quite a few concerts, and I got the same kind of vibe while watching these videos. They are obviously meant to entertain, although I think there's a difference in the slam poetry performances, as these tend to include more elements of humor, I especially liked the scene from, "So I Married an Axe Murderer." Where he talks about the woman stealing his heart and his cat, it just had a very informal, light feel to it, which is a side of poetry I don't think a lot of people see if they don't have a lot of exposure to it. They see it more as the videos at the beginning, where the people are all tense and serious while quoting Shakespeare and trying to get people to fall in love with them.

Most of the videos at the end seemed to share similarities in that they were about sharing poetry in different video formats, and included everything from 3D to rotating swirls of texts, with beats in the background. These were all a little strange for me at first, and I personally haven't seen a lot of poetry shown in this kind of format. Despite that I thought it was still creative, and I think that there is certainly an audience for it, as the extra effects give the video personality, and the words are no longer just words, but rather images that can speak for themselves as well, giving the poem a second voice.