Our next assignment is an evaluative essay based on poetry. This topic raises many questions, and one of the more important ones was brought up for class. What first started off as a ten minute free-write quickly turned into a chalkboard full of ideas or, rather criteria of what we may consider "good" poetry. The question was “what is ‘good’ poetry?” At first I thought to write down that criteria for the judgment of poetry, or even literature in general, would be difficult because it varies from person to person. I proceeded with my free-write by jotting down characteristics that I look for when reading poetry.
Poems to me, do not seem like something that can be judged as “good” or “bad.” Poetry is a form of expression. With this in consideration, the ideas are likely to not be judged. Everybody looks for different aspects, some may be structure, others could be rhyme schemes, and many are looking for ones with strong meanings. Some people look for clever poems that are more complex than simply stating a matter and expressing it plainly. Relativity is something that plays an important role in determining some people’s criteria on “good” poetry. At times, even the impression on memory is important to how strong a poem is. When it appeals to the senses, a poem is remembered. This point is significant because it leads to another idea brought up in class. Even when one does not enjoy a poem because of a certain topic or something, for instance death, a poem can still be “good.” I tend to look for how well a poem effectively stimulates intellectual discussion and how well a theme is conveyed. What a poem says to one person is different from what it says to another. These varying interpretations seem to be a poet’s goal. It was also brought up during class that whether someone thinks of a poem as “good” or not could depend on what subject or topic of poetry we enjoy. A poem’s success also lies in its ability to convey a central idea. However, to judge something as complex as a poem with simply “good” or “bad” does not seem sufficient.
Many things must be considered posed with a question like this. In class, we have already had the chance to discuss many of them thoroughly. With each idea, people brought up opposing ideas that would narrow down the criterion on “good” poetry.
2 comments:
I completely agree with what you have said, and I think you have done a good job at braodly defining a poem. But I think it is still necessary to decide if a peom is good or bad, and why, eventhough it is complex.
I see that if it is only a form of expression and can neither be good or bad, But than can't anything we say or do be a poem/poetic, and who's to say this poem is great and this poem lacks in an area.
We are told which are good, and given examples of poems, but they have never been defined past what we learn in grade school or from a romantic scene. And furthermore we are never taught how to define which are good or bad, just told. So as you can see there is a major contradiction in our own thoughts and from what we've been taught.
I think we need to define what a poem is, as you have,but also decide what makes that defined poetry good, because it must be something -good, bad, so-so because it cannot be nothing. So even though it is a complex subject we are going to be forced to judge it simply, because a complex judgment is a confusing and sometime contradicting judgment and therefore no judgment at all.
I believe that evaluating a poem is a statement of individuality. Each person can have their own opinion on the quality of a poem, and since humans on the whole are rational beings, each person must have reasons for their opinion. The goal of this essay is merely to expose those reasons.
In order to determine the value of anything, even a poem, you must use opinions. Even the prices of goods are not absolute. They are just the value society as a whole has determined for them. But individuals can disagree. For example, as a guy, I think it's ludicrous that anyone would spend over $50 on an article of clothing. And just the same, contrary to many people's opinions that "The Waste Land" is an exceptional poem, I might not value the ability to reference 50 other literary works in one line so highly.
"Good" and "Bad" are essentially opinionated words, but that is not to say that they do not have value. Opinions are necessary for any exchange of ideas, and that includes evaluative essays. There is no absolute definition for "Good" or "Bad," which is why it is up to each person in the class to create their own definitions within their essays.
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