Poetry Reflection
I have found that this project has taught me many things about poetry, and about myself. I am able to express myself in my poetry better than in any other way. I like to experiment with the many different types of poetry, though my favorite would have to be Free Verse, because I do not feel confined with requirements. I have also figured out some of my favorite things to write about.
This project helped me learn many new things about poetry itself. I learned about the history of poetry and its origins. I learned that poetry is closler related to music/songs. This was interesting to me beacuse I love to listen to music. I have discovered many different poets, also, and their different styles of writing. For example, Jack Kerouac was influenced by jazz music and Charlie Parker. I was very interested in the topics that poets chose to write about. Some wrote about very common topics, while others chose ones that were very unique, some that I had never even heard of before! Along with the history of poetry, I also learned about poetry itself. I was taught about patterns, stanzas, line breaks, and themes. Mostly, though, I learned about the different types of poetry. It was fun to try out different ones and pick out the kinds that were best for me and my personality.
This project also taught me how to express myself in my poetry. The things that helped me do this the most were the topics, types of poems, and literary elements that I used. I was easily able to find the types that were right for me and use them to show my personality and emotions through my writing. Literary elements helped me to expose my style of writing, also.
I had many inspirations for my poetry, but the one that stood out the most was nature. My surroundings. Everyday life. These things inspired me because I have an interest in them, and I think it really shows my personality and who I am when I write about them. I especially used nature in my Nature Poem and List Poem. Another thing that influences me is events and special times in my life. For, example, the Fourth of July inspires me because I find it special. It symbolizes independence, and that is something that is very important to me. I also have a lot of fun at these events with my family and friends. For my Social Concern Poem, I was influenced by someething one witnesses every day: bullying. I thought that many people could connect to that topic, including myself, so that is why I chose it. And finally, for my Self Portrait Poem, I was influenced by me!
The themes of my poems came from my inspirations, and most of them just came from everyday life. The themes of my Nature and List Poems were about nature and waking up on a Saturday morning. I got these from my surroundings and events that happen to me. The theme of my Social Concern Poem is bullying because that is something that occur often, and most people could connect to the topic. For my Self Portrait Poem, the theme is plainly about myself, and that there is more to me than one might think at first sight. Finally, for my Choice Poem, which was free verse, the theme was unexpected surprises, and how they affect people.
I think the hardest pary of my project was the format and rules for all of the poems. I found some of the guidelines of the different types of poems difficult to follow. This is mostly why I find free verse to be the easiest and most fun types of poetry I have learned about so far. The easiest poems for me that I wrote on my website were the List and Self Portrait poems because they had less structure and guidlines, so I did not feel as tied down. Another thing that was hard for me was rhyming. I tried it a few times, but found that rhyming is not really my style. Another thing that was a little bit difficult was finding a way to incorporate the right amount of literary elements into my poem. It was definetely not as easy as I thought it would be.
In conclusion, this project taught me many things. My inspirations for my poetry are the things around my and everything that impacts my day-to-day life. My inspirations helped me to come up with my themes, and I tried to use themes that my readers can connect with. There were also many different things that I thought were easy and hard as I completed this project. In the end, I found that I enjoy writing poetry much more than I thought I did before I did this project, and I am thankful that I got the chance to do it!