Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Words of Art (poetry)

Roses are red, violets are blue
What is poetry to me and you?

   Poetry, in actual definition, is the literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm. It is a way to write out one's thoughts and emotions to relieve an internal conflict, whether it's positive or negative. When people think of poetry, they often think of it having a rhyming scheme. This does have a lot to do with poetry, but this is not always the case. My previous English teacher once told me that poetry has no rules or regulations; it comes from what you think is poetic and expressive from your own mind and heart.

   How can one understand the basics of poetry or even make it? Well, poetry is broken down into many different elements, just like how art, in general, is divided into many parts. According to the Lifestyle Lounge in their article The Basic Elements of Poetry, the main elements of poetry are:


  • Theme
  • Symbolism
  • Meter
  • Rhythm
Other elements include:

  • Rhyme 
  • Alliteration
  • Simile
  • Metaphor
   I've also stumbled across an interesting slide-show on Google where they included personification and repetition as other forms of elements. The list still continues because again, poetry has no specific rules or regulations; it can be composed with a lot of things.


 "To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first."  -William Shakespeare



   A couple of my favorite poets are William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. Shakespeare is well-known across the world and has composed over a hundred of poems in his lifetime. Majority of people are familiar with his famous plays Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. The quote underneath his picture above is one of my favorite quotes by him. It is a simple statement that means so much and can be used for motivation in any situation in life.

Emily Dickinson
   Emily Dickinson is another one of my favorite poets because she was a private poet and lived a reclusive lifestyle. I find that interesting because I'm the same way, but with my poetry. I never seem to share my poems and I keep them locked away. What's unique about her poems is that they often lacked titles, contained short lines, and used unconventional capitalization and punctuation. This is specifically why I believe poems should not have any restrictions. Emily did it without a care and all because she was expressing herself and was not doing it for any reward or "academic writing skills".


   As an artist, I am a very sensitive and expressive person. I've previously stated that I express myself through my art and poems. This poem was constructed by me some time in the beginning of the year 2011. The poem in entitled "Dead" and it is based of a heartbreak that I have experienced in the past.

"Like a dying rose your words still untold
As my heart squanders and tries to unfold
Your presumptuous heart is highly elated
While my heart is truly devastated 
Will be dead.
Your love, evanescent, was very inconspicuous and brash
The burning flames confiscates my lungs with the burning ash
But my own solicitude for my fervent heart will stay
As your delusions and lies will be vanished away
Beginning to be dead
Looking back at the memories but on a new quest
My spirit is ascending, and my mind is more deft
As my journey comes to an end, I've finally arrived
You're still buried in your lies, because you never even tried
Dead."

   Words are beautiful, and poems say so much with just a few lines. Reading them, and picturing it can really make a person feel the pain or happiness of the writer.

2 comments:

  1. My initial thought is that, in the first paragraph, you must use quotes around the definition of poetry. Also, name the source so that we know where you found that content.

    I think it would be really interesting if you analyzed your poem. Some of your symbolism is complex--but still a mystery. For example, how can a a love be both inconspicuous and brash? Aren't they opposing actions? Sometimes poetry students can do what we call dialogic readings--those in which your original text is on one side and your analysis of the poem is on the other.

    I agree that poetry is absolutely art. What is it about Shakespeare's poetry, for example, that stands out to you? Which piece? This post has a lot going on, and I think you'd be best served by narrowing the focus and trimming the basic details and highlighting the actual poems' meanings. What do you think?

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  2. I really think that writing poems that so much skill and is probably one of the hardest forms of art to master. I love how you included so much evidence of poetry. My favorite poetry is that of Shakespeare in Hamlet.

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