Oh, it is National Poetry Month
It’s national poetry month and nobody told me. A couple of the blogs I read mentioned it here and there, but nobody said it loud enough to make it stick. Anyway, happy national poetry month!
I have a hard time talking about poetry in general because the subject matter is so subjective. When I took a poetry class in college I was surrounded by people who had been writing poetry for years. I, however, I had written only one poem in my entire 21 years leading up to that point. When we criticized poems they would see the puddle in the poem as being symbolic of confinement or mother nature or even God. When I talked about the puddle, I literally thought it was a puddle. It made sense in my mind. Mayhaps I am incapable of understanding the metaphors and whatnot that make up poetry.
One thing that bugs me about poetry is that I tend to read more bad poems than I do good ones. My theory in regards to bad poetry is that people often mistake it for good poetry because they do not understand it. Poetry is considered one of those “high class” art styles right? If we don’t understand it then it must be good. Seems like flawed logic to me. There are many bad poems out there. As soon as we come to terms with that the sooner we can learn from our mistakes.
Another thing I don’t understand about poetry is what is the point of having poems translated from one language to another? Say a poem was written in Spanish and translated to English. Is it the same poem? No, I do not think so. It is an entirely new poem inspired by the original.
That’s just my thoughts at least.
Poetry anyone?
April 13th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Totally agree with you on the translation issue…I don't think poems should be translated, really. I have an on again, off again relationship with poetry. Some of it I hate, some I like and I never pretend to understand poems I just don't get…I just decide they're pretentious :p But maybe it's me being uneducated, lol. Just maybe….
April 13th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I love poetry, so I might be ranting a little! I do agree with you, that there's a lot of bad poetry out there. And I agree that a lot of people will read a poem about a puddle and read so much more into it. I'm in a creative writing poetry class right now, and it's surprisingly unpretentious. I'm the only non-English major in the class, but everyone has been really great. But those kind of classes can really go either way.
I'm going to have to say, I like translated poetry. Some of it. Because, if there was no translated poetry, I would not have fallen in love with Pablo Neruda. If I had not fallen in love with Pablo Neruda, I would not be a Spanish major. If I was not a Spanish major, I have no idea who I would be. So really, I'm a little indebted to translated poetry ;). Maybe having a brand new poem is not such a bad thing, as long as we recognize it's a different thing. But maybe I'm a little biased because translating poetry is something that I would love to do for a living, haha.
Great post!
April 13th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I think being able to read poems in their original language would be neat. Right now I am in Spanish 102 so I am a ways away from reading poetry in Spanish.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Totally agree with you on the translation issue…I don't think poems should be translated, really. I have an on again, off again relationship with poetry. Some of it I hate, some I like and I never pretend to understand poems I just don't get…I just decide they're pretentious :p But maybe it's me being uneducated, lol. Just maybe….
April 14th, 2009 at 3:15 am
I love poetry, so I might be ranting a little! I do agree with you, that there's a lot of bad poetry out there. And I agree that a lot of people will read a poem about a puddle and read so much more into it. I'm in a creative writing poetry class right now, and it's surprisingly unpretentious. I'm the only non-English major in the class, but everyone has been really great. But those kind of classes can really go either way.
I'm going to have to say, I like translated poetry. Some of it. Because, if there was no translated poetry, I would not have fallen in love with Pablo Neruda. If I had not fallen in love with Pablo Neruda, I would not be a Spanish major. If I was not a Spanish major, I have no idea who I would be. So really, I'm a little indebted to translated poetry ;). Maybe having a brand new poem is not such a bad thing, as long as we recognize it's a different thing. But maybe I'm a little biased because translating poetry is something that I would love to do for a living, haha.
Great post!
April 14th, 2009 at 3:29 am
I think being able to read poems in their original language would be neat. Right now I am in Spanish 102 so I am a ways away from reading poetry in Spanish.