Writing Poetry and Writing About Poetry

    Hi! I wanted to discuss poetry. Poetry has been written, analyzed, and understood in many different contexts. Writing poetry and writing about poetry are two different topics that feel the same but aren't. Similarly, both writing poetry and writing about poetry involve a format. In writing poetry, there is always a complexity about order, rhyme, and rhythm. And usually when you write about poetry, it's in an essay form, where you have an introduction, body, and a conclusion. You would also have an argument, and topics of interest like speaker, sound devices, or tone. Along with writing about poetry, you would have an increased knowledge of the said poem. With the differences between writing poetry and writing about poetry, you see that when you write poetry, it comes from a personal place. Personal emotions, thoughts, and maybe it doesn't have to come from somewhere personal, but something you were inspired by that affected you, or something around the world that you want to inform more creatively. Not saying writing about poetry doesn't involve a little bit of creativity, but when writing about poetry, it has more of a structure of evidence and formality. 

For me, writing poetry has never been my favorite, and I'll even go as far as saying I'm just horrible at it. Poetry has never stuck out to me, so writing poetically goes something like this for me:

And I

Want to 

Understand 

Poetry. 

I list and I make. The rhyming comes later when I realize that I have to have some kind of order. As an English major, it has become inevitable to write an essay about a specific poet or poem. Every time I write about poetry, I find it interesting and informative. But every time I have to write an actual poem, my mind can't link to the rhythm and order, or any of the information I got from writing about poetry. I have never written a poem for fun, so I can't say I've ever drawn inspiration for writing about poetry from there. Even though poetry isn't something that speaks to me, I find that my peers and professors have so many creative and knowledgeable approaches to understanding poetry.

If I were to become a teacher, I would most definitely want to create a comfortable atmosphere where there is no judgment and a lot of understanding. I personally would choose to write about poetry over and over, rather than write poetry. So I would give my students a choice. They can write a poem and give a detailed version of how they wrote it and the techniques they used, and why, or they can write about poetry and find some devices the poem has, and inform and argue their points. Each student is going to have their own likes and dislikes, and I want to make sure they get the right amount of choice and understanding.