The Art of Poetry

When one thinks about poetry the first thing you may think about is the complexity of poetry. Typically I think people are afraid of literary works such as poetry and dismiss poetry because they find it to be too complicated. Many people don't like to read things that actually require them to think about the text and deem them complicated because they don’t want to take the time to see what the author is trying to say. However, if they were to take their time and dissect the poem they would find that poetry isn't as complicated as it seems. They may also see the beauty in poetry and that no matter who you are there is a poem somewhere you can relate to. Poetry is not straightforward and that is one of the things I personally love about it because of its depth, which I find beautiful. Even the most haunting poems I feel are still beautiful because of the way they are written especially with the use of imagery, metaphors, and similes. So to me poetry is an art form just as a paintings, songs, or films are art forms. Its a way to express feelings and emotions that have been evoked by some moment in ones life. Just as a song or film, poetry is complex and could mean something different to each person that reads it. Typically when you first read a poem you don't know exactly what the author is saying and often your first response is not actually the correct one. This was the case for me when reading “Elegy for Jane” by Theodore Roethke. When I first read the poem I thought Roethke was talking about his student that had passed away, Jane, and that he in fact was in love with this student based off the line: “Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love” (20). After furthering reading this poem however I was troubled with this analysis because I would like to think you would not describe someone you are in love with as having hair that is “limp and damp

as tendrils” (1) or a “sidelong pickerel smile” (2). I also was puzzled by all the use of nature when