"If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?"
-Emily Dickinson
In researching and writing on the work of Emily Dickinson, I became immersed in her life in a way I never thought I would. Where I expected to find a raving madwoman, scribbling away on scraps of paper and stashing them in holes in the wall like a mouse scurrying across the kitchen floor, I instead found a woman who simply did what she wished. I found someone generally uninterested in participating in a society she had a distaste for and so wrote not for everyone else, but for her.
I'm not much of a poet. I'm not formally trained, I could read an iamb as a trochee and vice versa depending on what day of the week it is, and God forbid you ask me to explain to you what the Hell John Donne was talking about. But in reading Dickinson and peeking into what she saw so special about poetry, I found myself having an easier time composing my own. If Emily Dickinson can become a famous poet for writing what she liked, forget what poetic convention said, then I could write my own because at the end of the day, poetry is supposed to make you feel something.
Rhyme scheme, meter, structure, those are all fine. But at the end of the day, you could write the most formally impressive poem that is simply capital b BORING. Poetry should be brimming with emotion, should make you feel as if "the top of [your] head were taken off," as it were. In writing about poetry, I found myself drawn to finding the author within her words. What life experiences informed a particular artistic choice? Why capitalize a particular noun? Why did that matter? Dickinson's poems became a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow. Where? I couldn't be sure, but definitely somewhere I could find understanding. So, when I sat down to compose on my own, I found myself thinking back to dear old Emily. How could I inject myself into my poems? How can I create something that was raw, flaming, and undeniably me? What devices would I employ and which would I throw out the window for sake of feeling? By studying one of the greats, I found myself making more informed choices, more truly artistic choices, and fewer accidental ones. I was walking in a direction instead of stumbling in the dark.
It's no secret that reading in a genre you are attempting to write in improves your writing. The opposite is also true. But experiencing it first hand is different. I found myself becoming a better poet because I had absorbed some of the technique and mindset of some of the greatest. I had exemplary models to pull from. In this way, I think it's incredibly important to ensure that students are well read in the fields they are attempting to write in.
Hello Jeremy, I love your description about how poetry should be “brimming with emotion” and should say something about the author, should have clues of the author scattered throughout. Poetry should, indeed, strive to make the readers feel something as it is supposed to be a method of expressing the poet’s ideas and emotions. Even when I chose my poem, I struggled to find a poem that resonated with me, that was interesting enough for my to love writing about, which is why I eventually chose the “Jabberwocky” since it was the most interesting poem hands down especially because I couldn’t understand half of it. And yet, it still made me feel the childish wonder of reading a story of a heroic knight slaying some beast. I admire how you admitted your experience or lack thereof when it comes to poetry. I am the same way as I have written poetry before, but I never really learned the formalities of poetry other than the basic figurative language in school. I feel that you successfully put yourself in your poems and in your performances of them, you did Emily proud. I agree that it is important to ensure students are well read in any field they are interested, or are writing about, or even may want to in the future. You never know when you will come across a Ghazal poem, but it helps to learn about it just in case you may one day decide to be the best Ghazal poet the world has ever seen. When I was writing my poem, I also found myself being more intentional in my choices because I wrote an essay on a poem beforehand and understood what I was doing. I wonder if there is a correlation between the poets everyone decided on and the poems they wrote in class? As if we all subconsciously took inspiration from the poets that we analyzed the bits out of to turn into our own expressions.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeremy, I really enjoyed reading your blog post! Your writing style is very captivating and easy to read! I really liked the quote you highlighted from Emily Dickinson, since I have the same views in regards to how I view poetry as well. Similarly, I have also been analyzing the work of Emily Dickinson and I have also found myself "immersed" in the way she writes and crafts her poetry. What I have personally notices when writing poetry, I try to be as creative as I can and allow all the idea I have in my mind be reflected in to my writing. However, when I am analyzing poems I focus more on the standards of the poem such as word structure, choice, and rhyme scheme. Similar as to how you described in your post, some poems might be the most formal structure wise, but are genuinely boring and hard to read. Like Dickinson describes in the quote you highlighted, poetry should cause such a reaction to oneself due to the intensity of emotions that are displayed in the text. I think both the practice of analyzing poems and crafting poems are great practices that should be implemented in the classroom, so students can take the creativity they present while creating poems into account while also conducting their analysis.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeremy!
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post! I love how you captured both the feelings of Dickinson’s individuality and the bigger question of what makes poetry matter. I also like how you pointed out that even without being “formally trained,” you found your own voice by looking at how Dickinson ignored convention and leaned into her own emotions. I think it's important that poetry makes you feel something first, especially as it becomes more complex in structure, rhyme, or theory.
I also thought your point about Dickinson’s poems being like “a trail of breadcrumbs” was spot on. That image really resonated with me because it captures how reading poetry is as much about discovery as it is about interpretation. You almost never fully arrive, but you do get more and more understanding, allowing git to become increasingly meaningful.
Have a great rest of the weekend,
Briana Lincoln