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The importance of teaching literature
The effects of poetry
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In a time when people lose their soul and languages lack genuine sincerity, poetry stands tall shaping our empty lives with joy and pain. “Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash” (Leonard Cohen). Forgotten and abandoned just like our killed hopes, raped values and unfulfilled dreams, poetry is marooned alone away—far from us—on a deserted island of ignorance. Indeed, nobody would deny the significant role of poetry in our lives. However, there has been an ongoing debate on the importance of poetry as a type of arts in enriching our lives and whether it was useful in children education. Consequently, today, some realists claim that poetry cannot contribute to society and should not be introduced to children whereas other intellectuals believe that arts can improve man’ way of thinking.
Objectors of poetry claim that it would feed unbridled passions and release the uncontrolled emotions; therefore, it would lead man to be driven by his own insatiable lusts. "Poetry feeds and waters the passions instead of drying them up; she lets them rule, although they ought to be controlled, if mankind are ever to increase in happiness and virtue" (Plato, the author of The Republic) stated. Notably, opponents of poetry believe that passions should be controlled to a greater extent. Admission of poetry to society only in the forms of hymns to gods and praises to heroes is deemed to be their only option. In addition, some realists believe that poetry would cause young children to be rebellious, mutinous and ill-mannered since they were taught to judge things by their emotions and inner feelings.
On the other hand, advocates of poetry believe that it was that mirror which makes everythin...
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...ns at all ages. Yet, today there has been a growing and a robust debate over its admission to children at an early age. Critics of poetry insisted that poetry should not be admitted to children as it may feed the passions, spoil their nature and encourage their rebellion. On the contrary, defenders of poetry argued that it should be introduced to children to promote better communication and awareness, boost great values and virtues, feed their imagination as well as stimulate their creativity. However, I believe that children must have some exposure to poetry from an early age as I have personally experienced the benefits and the advantages of learning poetry at an early age. I think that those soldiers of words who fight for our freedom and dignity using poems and verses as weapons can undoubtedly free our thinking and guarantee a better life for us.
Early on, poetry was often used with rhyme to remember things more accurately, this still rings true today, even though its use is more often to entertain. However, although it appeals to both the young, in children's books, and the old, in a more sophisticated and complex form, people are bound to have different preferences towards the different styles of poetry. Dobson’s poetry covers a variation of styles that captivate different individuals. “Her Story” is a lengthy poem with shorter stanzas. It’s free verse structure and simplistic language and face value ideas might appeal better to a younger audience. This poem includes quotes with informal language that children or teens would better understand. It’s narrative-based style is easy to follow, and although the poem covers very basic concepts, it’s message is still communicated subliminally. This particular poem is interesting because it focusses on the universal experience of pain and it’s relation to time. Similar to this is “The Householder”, written in a cyclical style, opening with a “house” and ending with a “home”. With only three stanzas, it is
But the ‘Nurses Song,’ form experience shows the reality of life: that it is hard, and people, like the nurse in the song aren’t happy and full of joy, like the memories of the old people in ‘The Echoing Green,’ and therefore, Blake’s poetry confirms the view that children are oppressed by
Poetry is taught in classrooms and has become a very important aspect of literature throughout the years. Whereas, songs have not, if anything, they have developed a negative connotation stating that less (words and meaning) is more (popular in society). Some people argue that song lyrics essentially are less valuable compared to poetry. Poetry is considered literature due to the fact that it is written in verses, prose, and forms that reflect the mastery of literary techniques and mechanisms. The biases between the two works, poetry and song lyrics, does a disfavor and prejudice to both. In giving one work over another the title of a valuable piece of literature, the audience is missing out on the meaning and appreciation behind the work. The difference among poetry and song lyrics seem very juvenile. At first glimpse, poetry relies solely on words alone, their sounds, tones, meanings, and silence all depend upon the individual himself reading the poem. The words within the poem take place in silent context. Whereas, lyrics relay on the same forces; however, it is supported by music. The musical artists use a lot of deliberate musical information to help exaggerate certain words and meanings. The main difference is the conditions of the environment which affect the structure of the words. To gain the full comprehension and appreciation of both pieces of work, poetry and song lyrics, is to read them with the same respect in order to see the correlation between the two.
Poetry is a versatile avenue from which waves or ripples can be made potentially. A writer of poetry has the ability to make their readers feel a while wide array of emotions and situations synonymous with the human condition. I, at first, was completely turned off to the idea of poetry at first because all I was exposed to early on by way of poetry were bland professions of love or lust or seemingly simple poems I was forced to process down to a fine word paste. Edgar Allan Poe was interesting, but it was a tad bit dry to me. But, after reading poems the Harlem Renaissance gave me a bit of hope for poetry. To me, the poetry written during that time period has a certain allure to it. They have serious depth and meaning that I, myself and empathize
¨ I never was very capable of expressing my feelings or emotions in words. I don't know whether this is the cause why I did it in music and also why I did it in paintings. Or vice versa: That I had this way as an outlet. I could renounce expressing something in words.¨ ( Arnold Schoenberg) In society when we assume that poems are old and boring or at least that's how I think about it. Although I thought poems were boring and old too at one point of my life. I have come to realize that poems most of the times are related to real life situations.. I changed how I view poems because of the movie Dead Poets Society. The movie taught me how poems can relate to our society. For example, expressing through music, art, and theatre or just understanding life itself. In a society like ours poems take different forms, so we can express how we feel.
Many may consider poetry to be a language of its own: full of feelings, emotions, and perceptions. All of us have our own experiences & sentiments; therefore we all have the ability to write our own poetry from our background without even realizing it. In my opinion, I do not think that the importance of American poetry should be stressed just to college students; I believe that our society as a whole should care about American poetry. Throughout history, poetry has been considered to be important, not only for entertainment purposes, but because of its unique value and the readers ability for their own interpretation. Not every single reader will walk away with the same perception of a poem; poetry is deeper than reading an encyclopedia. For example, if a student were to write a research paper on a specific animal, they may be able to look up facts about their diet, habitat, lifespan, etc. All of this information is for practical purposes; we may be able to grasp their lifestyle, however not their soul… a poem can turn this living creature into something majestic; or the total opposite. Behind poetry are experiences: beauty and ugly, customary and weird, good and bad. While I may look at a poem about hunting as beautiful and wonderful, my girlfriend would probably read the same poem and think it was disturbing and unnecessary; we may have read the same exact poem, but our past experiences allow us to have different views. This brings me to my main point, who is the reader and what type of poem is it? It may not always be something one can relate to, or even understand, but that does not mean we should not care. Poetry has evolved into something special over the years in America; readers and writers, who never even realized the...
The declaimer of the poem says “I am silver and exact [and] whatever I see I swallow” (1, 20). The purpose of these devices is to convey the position of the mirror in the poem. As an inanimate object, the mirror is incapable of consuming anything but the appearance of entities. Furthermore, the glass’ role accentuates an inner mirror, the human mirror, which does not forget instances of misery and contentment. According to Freedman, the mimicking image emulated by the mirror elicits “.
“Billy Collins' “Introduction to Poetry” isn’t an ars poetica poem about writing poetry, but about reading poetry. The speaker is a teacher who tells his students that they should experience a poem, rather than dissect it. The f...
When reading or listening to poetry, the main objective for me is to feel moved. Happiness, longing, sadness are some of the feelings that can be achieved just by listening to others’ words. It is within these words that creates another world, or separates us from our own. Words all have a certain kind of attachment to them, so if used properly an author can stimulate a reader beyond belief.
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, this is the basic tales written by Dr. Seuss. Not only are these enjoyable children’s novels, but it is often times people’s first known exposure to the literary style of poetry. Poetry can be written in many different styles, with changing messages, tone, stanzas, rhyme, and length. Whether or not the difficulty level is low for a beginning reader, or written as an epic poem for a top level scholar, there is always a specific style and message that is being interpreted in the writing. These styles are studied and the most mysterious and inspirational poets are studied in literature classes; two academic individuals who have had a large impact on the poetic community are Aristotle and Alexander Pope.
Poetry is a true literary art form that uncovers the hidden beauty of the world through its word’s. Poems are strong pieces of literature that unveil a deeper meaning using various literary devices throughout. Therefore, all humans need poetry as it is a living image that endlessly inspires the importance of change in society. Moreover, in silence, poetry is able to connect with people on any subject for it contains all the wisdom of the world. Furthermore, poetry pours out raw emotion and truth though the use of metaphors, allusions and many more devices, which shed light on the value of life. In “Constantly Risking Absurdity” a poem written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the speaker explains the devotion that a poet
He is saying that poetry should always educate a child or an adult. He also says that
Mr. Keating teaches his English class in an unconventional fashion which is reflective of the principles in Emerson’s “Self-reliance”. During the first class, he tells his class to rip out the page that introduces in the English textbook. On this page, the author of the textbook, Dr. Pritchard, says that a poem’s greatness can be measured based upon two criteria: the importance and the perfection of the poem. However, measuring the greatness of a poem using a rubric is ridiculous and as a result, he has the students rip out the page. He wants the students to measure the greatness of poetry based upon their thoughts on the poetry and to trust their feelings. Poems were written to express emotions and passion which people should interpret on their own without a quantitative scale. This reflects Emerson’s principle that people should trust themselves and ...
In the poetry of William Blake and William Wordsworth, this difference between children and adults and their respective states of mind is articulated and developed. As a person ages, they move undeniably from childhood to adulthood, and their mentality moves with them. On the backs of Blake and Wordsworth, the reader is taken along this journey.
...milarly, Plato says that Poetry has the same effect on us when it refers to sex and violence, arousing an array of ‘desires and feelings of pleasure and pain… it waters them when they ought to be left to whither, and makes them control us when we ought, in the interests of our own greater welfare and happiness, to control them.’ What this indicates from a rational perspective is that imitation brings undesirable emotions to our surface, allowing it to cloud our judgement, weaken our psychological stability and change our outlook on life itself. This could therefore have a drastic effect, according to Plato, on the present and future guardians who are required by the rest of us to remain emotionally stable and in full control of their own irrational desires and fears.