I noticed that Dickenson definitely had common themes throughout the poems we need including death and nature. One thing I want to make clear before proceeding is that I certainly am interested in these themes, but just less than the theme of Hopkins’ poems. This is why I can say that I still found it difficult to write with no bias in this essay.
I started getting a bit frustrated by this point because of how little I had progressed in the time I had spent starting the essay. I, thus, decided to start on the more detail-oriented aspects of the poems, such as length, rhyme scheme, and rhythm.
As a note of clarification I had decided to start writing the expository essay on the subject matter of their poems and the kinds of words they use, but this was the point that I decided to switch the order of my essay to beginning with the purely detail-oriented aspects of her writings.
I felt I just really needed to get something on paper so just wrote on how many lines there were per stanza, how many stanzas there were, etc… As I was writing these things, I realized just how much I had forgotten about the basics of poetry such as rhythm and rhyme. I had almost no memory of the terms, but thankfully we had gone over the iamb, which is what Dickenson usually uses.
Finishing up the detail-oriented part of my essay I realized once again how difficult it was to write with no bias. That is why I tried to think of as much details on her writings so that I would only need to write a little amount on the subject and words.
I had finally succeed in filling my paper with about three quarters of details and one thing I want to point out is that while I was writing the overall paper I constantly found myself referring to the last poem (Poem 712).
I wonder why I did this while writing this post and I believe that it is because of the consistent rhythm of the poem. I found it quite interesting how I may have unconsciously did this just because of how “catchy” it sounded compared to the other poems.
This was definitely a new experience for me and I learned a lot through it as I expect to writing poetry, which is also very new to me also.
2 comments:
I also had a lot of trouble beginning the paper, and writing with no bias. And I can definitely relate to your choice or work, because I felt the same way. I really do think it helps to pick the work you are less interested in because then you have a less bias view, and you are less likely to "accidentally" analyze. This may be because when you are interested, just by having that interest you have developed a bias for that work.
I agree that it was hard to avoid just analyzing one poem. I think this is because we get comfortable with what is going on in that poem, and find it hard to relate all of the other works to it, even if there are obvious similarities. I practically had to force myself to use other pieces of Dickinson's work to avoid just analyzing one of her poems instead of all of Dickinson's work.
I know what you mean when you said that it took a long time to begin the essay. I am normally a really slow writer, but this essay took my lack of timeliness to new limits.
Nevertheless, I liked writing the essay because it helped me develop my poetry skills. I learned how to notice way more poetic devices in each poem, so when I actually get around to analyzing poems, I'll have a stronger foundation. It was a slow, painful learning experience, though. (Probably even more painful when I receive my grade for the essay. Haha.)
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