Pytash- Classics Chapter 5

Through much of high school and college I hated poetry. I didn't want to take the time to interpret it, and I thought it was really boring. The only poems I really liked were by Poe. It wasn't until recently that I really started to enjoy poetry. In my first American literature class we looked at Emily Dickinson's works. I really liked her poems. Then when I took Creative Writing, I started to like poetry even more. Because I have dealt with hating poetry for a while, I can see why high school students would shy away from it. It is not as straight forward as prose. You have to think about it much more to really get the full meaning of what the poet is trying to say.

I really liked how Jago deals with difficult poems in her class. She starts by not asking questions about the meaning of the poem itself, but the imagery within it. I think that this gets the students dissecting the different parts of the poems without them really realizing what it is they are doing. Looking at the individual pieces of imagery takes away the uncertainty of taking on the poem as a whole. Once the students understand the imagery, they can more easily see the bigger picture in the poem. I also like how Jago makes sure to have the students reread the poem again after they have done all of this. It shows them how the poem has literally transformed for them. They will see that they can really understand poetry. It will show them their progress.

As a side note, I really liked the last small section in the chapter about Poe. I think the fact that he discussed how he wrote his poetry and the thought process behind it is something that students could really learn from. I learned something new from reading this! I had no idea Poe used a raven in his poem because they could talk. I thought he just randomly personified the bird. Being the curious person that I am, I looked talking ravens up on youtube... enjoy!