I did not draw the above image, although I wish I did.
So poetry classes suck. Who is with me?
I happen to be very interested in poetry and its construction and I would consider myself a "moderate" fan of the stuff. But I swear, the poetry class I am enrolled in can be frustratingly boring sometimes. I really don't care about most of the stuff we learn about and the fact that we learn that no poem is objectively bad while our poetry is being graded- well, it just doesn't add up.
That's not even mentioning all the boring history of poetry stuff we've learned about. It's not all Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, people. For the most part, poetry is done by people whose stories are about as interesting to listen to as a radio on mute. No disrespect to these poets; I just don't feel like their backstory is half as interesting as their work.
Well, not all poetry is interesting. I'm sure people write poetry with good intentions, hoping to make it personal enough to them while also making it vague enough so that anyone could connect to it. The problem I've found with poetry class is that some of it is TOO VAGUE. I doubt most poetry offers even feel anything when they look back on some of their old poems, ridden with metaphors as if it was a verbal plague.
And that's not the worst part. The worst part is I am actually struggling on the quizzes and tests. I mean, I pass them, but not by a respectable margin. I have to learn tons of terms and also write more than two pages on an essay question that I can barely write a comprehendible paragraph based on.
The poetry class I am taking now HAS definitely improved my writing, that is for sure. It's made me appreciate and enjoy the craft of elegant writing to a much higher degree. But with all the conflicting messages in that class, I never feel good about any of my own poetry unless it is so mind-blowingly personal that I never want it to see the light of day. Also, it has had someone who's gotten a poetry book published come in and speak and that was really fun. Very cool, down to earth guy who wrote some interesting stuff.
And my professor is also very cool and humble. This is no slight on him and I can respect his passion for this form of art. I just wish I didn't find it so laborous and boring. I appreciate the class for helping me with my prose, I really do. I do enjoy reading and writing poems much more now. But the tests and lectures in that class- well, I just can't dig it, daddy-o.
Yeah I hated English for similar reasons. I liked a lot of the poetry we read and I was writing my own, so I really "got" it but my teacher made us write stupid long literary analysis papers, and personally the only kind of papers I like are the ones that you can roll a joint with ;)
I like how you rant but you also praise the teacher and class. The point of a rant is that it's really negative and unfair and probably unreadable. It's to let out, like a poem ironically enough. But it's really Michael to present both sides and be fair and nice. I love that about you. (I'm not trying to be mean so don't take this sarcastically).
Haha, I took the first part sarcastically and was like "Why is she so cantankerous and mean?" but then I got what you meant and I was like ":)". I literally thought the words semi-colon and right parentheses.