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[iamnot_a_robot]

so i am so horrible at analyzing poetry. it's one of the most challenging things i've ever done and i hate how hard it is for me. the majority of the poems i read i don't even understand so i can't analyze them. i feel stupid in class too because mrs.hobson passes over discussing some of the questions because they are easy or obvious, and i'm

Comments

[soberwinter]

Personally, I think the questions are bullshit. Poems aren't meant to have one set meaning - they're cryptic, they're symbolic, they're meaningful. They're not mathematical. Some of the questions I don't understand at all either... and a lot of them I find pointless. Honestly, daily in-class discussions would be SO much more helpful than writing answers to these busy work inquiries.

Don't worry about it. I know how you feel. Maybe not with poetry, but with other things. Try not to think too in depth and it may come easier to you... hope things get better. <3

[benlaidtowaste]

That first part reminded me of Dead Poets Society. You know when the teacher tells the students to rip out the chart part of their books telling them how to analyze poetry. That almost seemed word for word inspired by that movie.

I think we should analyze poetry, and discuss it, but not by the accounts of questions. Just by participating in an open discussion over it, and not letting it go any further. Poetry is something people usually write to keep themselves sane and to find themselves, and to become so lost in trying to analyze it is ironic. It shouldn't be the way that schools have it.

[j5nn5r]

I've written poetry in the past, mostly in my late teens. It was a springboard to songwriting.

I don't see how *any* teacher can claim, if that is what this one is doing, that a poem meant a specific thing.

I believe the only person who can claim that is the poet.

I think a good way to analyze a poem is to express what the poem says to you, what emotions it brings up and why, instead of trying to guess what the poet meant.

[carry_me_please]

Yeah, that poetry book deal was a bitch. Have you done the one with the red wheel barrel and the white chickens and such? I hated that. I was trying to answer the question on a plane flying back from the east coast and I almost flushed the book down the weird gushy plane toilet with blue water. No good.

[soberwinter]

I yelled at it. Literally. And then I stopped trying. Worst poem I've ever read in my entire life.

[_bigdreamchaser]

I suck at analyzing poems the "correct" way.
I always think they mean something different than my english teacher does.
It's annoying.

[j5nn5r]

She's "wrong".