#i just like. literature and literary analysis. when it's like poetry and it rhymes. when there's literary devices for a reason.

[moinsbienquekaworu]

i am about to sleep but i wanted to ask what your favorite poem is? will you tell me about it? what you love and why it’s your favorite? do you like any of its translations? i love you. i hope you have a good day 🥰

(⁠〒⁠﹏⁠〒⁠) beloved thank you for the question!!! As per usual I am incapable of choosing just one of a thing, so I actually have two favourite poems, one in french and one in english (because poetry in french and in english can be pretty different since the codes and models and expectations aren't always the same!) They're the two poems I can recite and know by heart haha.

The english one is Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost. I really like the last stanza (like everyone else) but also just the way when you say it out loud it does feel like a quiet moment watching the snow fall all on your own. I found it recently accompanying a fic (two different fics actually but the second time I knew it) and it entranced me!

The french one is Chanson d'Automne by Paul Verlaine. It's a classic in France, some of its lines were used as a signal for saboteurs during WWII and there's an urban legend it was used to signal the landing in Normandy. I personally had to learn it by heart in primary school (I think in 4th grade?) and it just stuck with me. I like it for the way it feels to me and the images it evokes, but also just because it was the first poem I learnt by heart and being able to recite a poem is an easily overlooked comfort of life (insert those posts and quotes about art being vital and what we need to be able to turn to in dark or light times)

Other poems I like include Remords Posthume and L'Albatros by Baudelaire, Le Dormeur du Val by Rimbaud, Le Déserteur and Je Voudrais Pas Crever by Boris Vian, Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden, and Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath. The french ones I studied in school, and I found the english ones on my own (I feel like I found both in Johnlock fics?? but I might be wrong about Funeral Blues, it's been years) I included english translations where I could for the french ones, and they're not necessarily incredible but they should let you get the vibe. If one of them speaks to you I can try to explain what makes it tick! My personal anecdotes with those because that's half the fun: we had to analyse Remords Posthume for literature class with my best friend K, and what's really cool about it is the last line, "et le ver rongera ta peau comme un remords", because it plays on the homonymy between ver, the worm, and vers, the line of poetry, meaning she will be devoured physically by worms since she'll be dead but also that his verses, his poem, will make her feel remorse; I like the albatross analogy because I was a weird kid who felt comfortable with books but not with my peers; Le Dormeur du Val is extremely extremely sad and beautiful and I think Rimbaud was a very interesting guy; technically Le Déserteur is a song and not a poem but I first saw the text without knowing that so for me it's a poem forever now, and I love talking about the original versus final ending thing; the YouTube channel Le Mock did an excellent reading of Je Voudrais Pas Crever and it's a jewel, I love it so so much; Funeral Blues was the first english poem I ever liked (or maybe read honestly) and I wrote it on the cover of my 10th grade english notebook (because the teacher was great and said that if we forgot to do our homework he wouldn't punish us if we could recite a poem for him, so I wrote it down and tried to learn if by heart in case I forgot my homework); and Mad Girl's Love Song features in a fic I read a few weeks ago and I just think it's neat. I probably forgot some but those are the ones I remember right now (edit: ADA LIMÓN!! I FORGOT ADA LIMÓN!!! Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds (the I can't help it, I love the way men love poem) hit me in the chest the first time I read it and it's so so good)

My favourites (and most of the poems I like actually) are pretty popular because I'm not really into poetry that much on my own. I get attached to poems once I see how they work inside and analyse them, but I don't sit down and decide to analyse some poem from Les Fleurs du Mal at random because it feels like homework, and I don't go looking for poetry because I'm very hit or miss (I get bored at long winded descriptions in those 4-part 7-pages poems and a lot of things trip up my instinctual Pretentiousness Radar™, and while it's not necessarily accurate it does turn me off poems). So I just stay with the basics, but that's fine, because the comfort of carrying poems with you is there whatever the poem is y'know?

Also question, do americans learn poetry in school? I assume you must analyse some in literature class, but I don't know if you learn poems when you're young. I know we also do lots of La Fontaine's Fables, though I personally never did, but learning poems to recite in primary school is a thing almost everyone has done here I think.

[notyouraryang0dd3ss]

One thing that I personally find super frustrating about Taylor Swift is the way she plays into the myth of the "lone genius" artist. Without collaboration, nothing gets done; or, if it does, it's typically of low or inconsistent quality. And this is true in pretty much ANY field or discipline you can think of: scientific research, advocacy work, etc. The fact that Taylor considers herself above that and persists in selling the myth of her "lone genius" to fans honestly feels malevolent and arrogant to me.

It's truly ridiculous, at the end of the day, that people call her a "poet" and "genius songwriter" for doing everything on her own. I think it really showcases how little she understands when it comes to poetry as an art form. Most legendary writers and poets have multiple people look over their work and go through many stages of the editing process. One of the purposes of art is to communicate, and it's honestly hard to tell sometimes if what you've written has meaning and communicates well outside of your own brain. Peer review is ESSENTIAL for writers.

I think it's also very telling that she considers herself a legendary poet and actively plays into that mythology by circulating the fact that she's distantly related to Emily Dickinson. As someone who has loved and studied literature for many years, I can honestly say that Taylor Swift's closest comparative when it comes to writing is Rupi Kaur. Pinterest poetry, and nothing more. And she has the arrogance to compare herself to one of the most important poets in American literary canon!

I'm reminded of something I heard Hozier say a little while back (I'm forgetting now which interview) about people praising his lyricism as poetry. He essentially called those claims an insult to poetry, stating that there are structural rules in music (rhyme scheme, beat, etc.) that he adheres to that poets don't have to, and that poets can be much more experimental and revolutionary in form (at least when it comes to the written word vs. the sung word). Only someone who genuinely loves poetry would say something like this; plus, it shows that he thinks about the different impacts that form can have on art the messages it communicates. And this, coming from one of the best singer/songwriters currently working!

TS and Hozier aren't writing in the same genre, but I do think it's interesting to compare them as artists in their respective approaches to lyricism. When it comes to Taylor, I think she cares more about the aesthetic of poetry as an art form than the actual art itself. Her writing doesn't actively interact with the literary canon that inspired it, like Hozier's does (or other great lyricists, like Kendrick/Florence/Mitski/Elton). Her writing feels very hollow and devoid of meaning to me.

i just want to say your ask and analysis was so well written 😭 thank you for sending this in!

Completely agree that Swift's solo songwriting genius is a myth. Only 2/16 songs from TTPD were solely credited to her...which means 12.5% of the album is solely her own writing. That is not a songwriting genius. That's just a songwriter. She already knows her fans are completely sold and convinced on her songwriting genius so of course she would drag out her ancestry.com results and up-play her relation to Emily Dickinson to help sell the aesthetic of the album. Everything for her is another marketing strategy. She has no respect for poetry, let alone writing as a craft itself. If you view her behavior through the lens of another writer, it's absolutely abhorrent, but if you view it through the lens of another capitalist, it's absolute genius.

I love your Hozier comparison because Hozier is only 4 months younger than Taylor yet the quality of their lyricism are oceans apart. Hozier has proven himself to be a talented writer time and time again throughout the course of his career, and the best songwriters often know and understand the power of other writing mediums. (BTW I know what Hozier interview you’re talking about! Here it is :))

What makes a great writer is knowing the canon, and knowing other writing mediums very well. It's why the greatest songwriters incorporate canon not only of their own genre and medium but of other texts as well (I'm biased because I listened to Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights today and I know its an adaptation but still its relevant here). Intextuality is the foundation of a great work, and Taylor's work has none.

As the other anon(s) have pointed out, Taylor no longer makes music as art. She makes music for money. I don't think any artist who likes what they do or cares about what they produce would put out an album like that, with lyrics like that, and its content. At least Rupi Kaur's writing impacted poetry in bringing it into the mainstream; I don't exactly understand what ttpd could offer as a text or in pop culture.

TLDR: hozier makes music for people who eat it from the back and then handfeed you grapes afterwards. taylor swift makes music for white girls entering their first day of 7th grade send tweet

[ohwhatamessiam]

Self Control - Chapter 12

Summary: The end of the semester is upon you, but the drama is not done yet! 

Pairing: Professor!Chris Evans X TA!Reader

Word Count: 3.5k+

Warnings: Language, uncomfortable feelings, and maybe some secondhand embarrassment. 

A/N: Hi y’all! I’m back much sooner than intended, but you know, quarantine and social distancing dictate life now! There’s 1 chapter left in Self Control, and if you’re lucky, I might spring an epilogue on ya (we’ll see how the next month or so goes)! Thank you to @fangirlisms-22​ for beta’ing my sudden writing binge. I tried to tag everyone, but some blogs have deactivated, changed urls, or won’t let me tag them. Let me know if you need me to change your url on my list. Here’s the Spotify playlist for the entire fic.

I love feedback, so send me your thoughts, feelings, wishes, etc!

Tags are still barely open for this story, so send me an ask here to be added to it or my permanent list!

Self Control | Masterlist

You had no idea how much two weeks could change your life. 

You and Chris had barely spoken to one another, only given polite greetings when running into each other at the office. The rest of your communication was through email. 

And Robert had sent the story you were working on from before break to a few of his friends and former students at literary magazines. The story you had started during break was becoming more of a means of therapy, a confessional of your relationship with Chris. And it was helping you process what happened.

It was the last day of classes, and the last day before semester papers were due. The assignment was for the students to choose their favorite story or writer of the semester and then to expand upon what they learned in that specific unit. Whatever specific story or person they chose, they were supposed to research who else has used it as inspiration for work since. It could be modern television or film, or another story or author that was influenced. And then they had to explain why they chose that subject. What made them interested enough to do further research upon it, and how it might affect their future consumption of art and literature.

It was a relatively open-ended subject and for the first time the whole semester, students were actually using your office hours.

And one student in particular who’d been giving you the cold shoulder turned up. 

Tom.

He’s perched on the edge of the seat across from you, his laptop on the ground as his hands dig through articles he’d photocopied at the library. He’d chosen Keats as his essay topic, and knowing that you also held a soft spot for Keats, he wanted your opinion. 

And the deadline was approaching dangerously quickly.

“So I covered all the adaptations and inspired works, and his legacy. And I wrote about how his work is going to change my perception of poetry moving forward. I just think I’m struggling with why Keats was my favorite unit this semester.”

“That’s okay, sometimes when you get so used to academic writing, it becomes hard to write about yourself, and your own feelings. But putting sources and quotes aside to examine your own mental processes is an important part of literature and writing.”

“Okay, I understand that. But I don’t think that my honest answer about why I took an interest in Keats is appropriate for this paper.”

“If you’re worried about Chris or I reading something personal, you don’t have to be. Anything you write will be private. We won’t say anything to anyone.”

Your mind wanders to what could make Tom so worried. Did it have to do with family or his childhood? Keats had a difficult and tragedy filled childhood. Did it have to do with Keats dying so young, or the discussion of his possible addiction to opium?

His eyes drop to the folder on his legs, his fingers picking at the edges of its pages. “Are you sure?” You nod but his nerves aren’t done. “My reasoning might not be very appropriate for an academic setting.”

“Tom,” you say, your eyes softening as you watch him. “Your reasoning doesn’t have to be an expansive philosophical or literary reason. It can be, but it can also just be as simple as you liked his poems. That you found his life tragic but fascinating. Or that the words and rhyme schemes were pretty or interesting.” His eyes meet yours, the edges of his mouth ticking up the slightest bit. “Don’t overthink it. Just be honest with yourself and the text.”

He nods, letting out a deep breath. “Okay, (Y/N). I will be honest. And I’m going to try to trust you and Prof. Evans.”

“Thank you.” You give him a short nod, showing your gratitude in a punctuated fashion. He watches you for another moment, his brown eyes searching for something. But then he gulps and stops. His fingers place his materials back in his bag. 

You sit up in your chair a little, almost saddened that your time with him is up. It was nice speaking with someone who didn’t look at you with desperation (because of finals) or pity (because of Chris). Tom’s thoroughly preparedness had made this the most interesting and easy conversation in weeks.

He packs his bag quietly and you let him. He’s a student, no matter how much you appreciate this time with him, there are clear boundaries. You will not cross them. After everything, that’s something you’re damn sure of.

At your door he pauses and says thank you. You give him a small smile, “You’ve done well this semester. I look forward to reading your paper, Tom.”

He cracks a smile, and you notice the slight rosiness that colors his cheeks. He raps his knuckles against your door for the last time this semester, and then he goes. 

A pang of guilt lands in your gut, but you don’t know what to do with it yet. His blush probably meant nothing, he was just flattered. But that guilt stays nestled there, a reminder of what has happened, and a warning about what’s to come.

_______________________________________________________________________

Finals pass without a hitch, for both you and your students. You’re able to read the final papers from your apartment, away from any pity or other heavy feelings. You and Chris had decided to randomly split up the workload so you could get through them quickly and give thorough feedback. But final grades are due on Tuesday and you plan on going into your office to enter them and pick up the last few things you’ll need for next semester.

You get to your office in the afternoon Monday, hoping to miss Chris who said he’d come in early if any students wanted to dispute any last grades with him.

You did not end up with Tom’s paper in your final stack, and you wonder what he ended up writing for the rest of it. You’ve been in your office for almost two hours when you decide you’ll let your nosiness win, and you find Tom’s submission online. As you're opening the file, a heavy knock echoes from your door.

He speaks before you get the chance to look up, “Uh (Y/N)?” The way he says your name reaches your skin, your pulse, well before you find the strength to see him. You close your eyes for a moment, letting out a shallow breath before you answer.

“What can I do for you, Chris?” 

He’s still the Chris you first met, clean, crisp lines composing his appearance. The Chris he might have always been. Maybe you just got a private viewing of him, a show for only your eyes. Maybe your Chris was a piece that he never let out. Maybe just an alias. A way to distance his actions from who everyone thought he was. 

There is no trace of your soft or rumpled time together.

His eyes catch yours, and there’s something there. A pain, a distance, a longing. But it goes away.

And then he’s stepping into your office, “I wanted to ask you something privately?” He closes the door behind himself, but remains standing.

Does he want to get back together? Is he going to divorce Jennifer? Is he ready to choose you?

With your mind running wild, you make a conscious effort to clasp your hands together and keep your face blank, eyes steady.

“What is it?”

“Have you read Tom’s final paper yet?”

All that hope, gone. A pang of annoyance settles in your core. And it’s accompanied by that hint of guilt.

“I have not. Since you graded it, I didn’t need to.”

“Well… I think you should.” There was something in his eyes again, a spark nearly indicating intensity or concern.

“Okay, um. I’ll take a look at it.” You do not tell him you already have it open. You skim the first page, finding nothing but brief analysis and lots of references. “So far, there’s nothing unusual here. It’s a solid paper.”

“Keep going.” The tension of him standing in your office, waiting for you to finish reading agitates your nerves. Your eyes flick to his, but there’s something else mixed in with his previous intensity. There’s an edge, a little too sharp to ignore.

You keep reading. The second page is finished, and it’s literally everything you two had already discussed. The third page is where things get interesting. 

Tom wrote that he enjoyed the lyricism of Keats, but what really cemented the poet as his favorite was his TA. 

You.

He wrote that since Keats was one of your favorites, he paid more attention to it. That he saw you view Keats’ work as beautiful, giving it a reverence that he argued Keats should even be honored to have. That he looked up to your opinion and your interests, and that’s how he fell in love with the poetry.

Heat spreads across your chest, your face. You’re honored, but also, this is not what you expected from Tom. You look down from his paper, trying to search your mind for any conversations you had with him that would indicate that he was paying too much attention to you. And unfortunately, it’s there. So is the guilt you felt the last time you saw him. 

But you know nothing happened here. You would have never entertained anything more than your positions in this academic institution allowed.

“Seems like he really learned a lot from you this semester.” The edge is there, and this time you can identify it. Humor.

“What are you trying to say?” Your words come out more defensive than you intend.

“(Y/N). This kid has a crush on you. Hell, in his hormonal mind, maybe more. Did you know?”

You shake your head. “No. No, if he has a crush on me, that’s his business. I was nothing but kind and open to Tom, but I didn’t know about this.” Truly, you’re referring to the paper more than Tom’s supposed crush.

The humor leaves him. “Kind and open? Are those two things strictly professional?”

The warmth of your skin turns into something worse, anger. “They were. I would never cross that line with a student.”

His hands brace his body as he leans onto your desk. His face mere inches from yours. “But you’d cross it with me? Your colleague and your boss.”

His words hit you like a slap. You flinch in response. How dare he insinuate that you might be a problem here, a repeat offender of an inappropriate relationship. 

You want to yell at him, to let your rage out. But instead, you put on your best passive aggressive smirk. You remind yourself of everything that’s happened. He doesn’t get to see you angry or upset anymore. He gets a civil, bare minimum now.

“I will repeat it. If Tom has a crush on me, that is his business. I know he dropped by my office hours pretty often this semester, but I figured my hours fit his schedule better. And no. I was not crossing any boundaries with him. I would not do that.”

He opens his mouth, his eyes clouding with a hint of regret.

“And I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve been pretty occupied trying to hide a different relationship all semester. I didn’t have the time to consider Tom as anything but a student, when most of my time was occupied by someone else.”

The guilt you felt before dissipates, but Chris’ downturned lips and furrowed brow just indicates that it has found another home. 

“I’m sorry (Y/N).” He sighs and pulls back from your desk. “I know. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Well, you can’t take it back.” Even though every ounce of you wishes he could. Hell, you wish you could take back this entire interaction. That he had never walked to your door. “So let’s just move on.”

“Okay. I can do that.”

Yeah, he’d been doing that without you for a while. 

“I don’t know how you want to handle this situation though,” he adds, still standing over you. “If you want to talk to Robert or call Tom in to talk to-“

“Robert doesn’t need to be involved. Tom may have crossed a line into a personal territory, but he’s never acted upon his feelings. So there’s no need for administrative intervention.”

“Are you sure?”

“Chris,” you sigh. You know what you’re going to say next will hurt and may not be completely true, but you don’t need your professional reputation questioned again. “I already lied for your sake once this semester. You could return the favor by keeping this to yourself.”

“I don’t kn-”

“Don’t put a target on Tom’s back.” Your voice comes out strong, authoritatively. You’re settling this now. “I remember being his age and getting dumb crushes on TAs. It doesn’t mean anything, and it doesn’t need to be mentioned again.”

He freezes in front of you, fully taking you in. Maybe he only got little pieces of you this semester too. Maybe it was time you both saw each other for who you fully were. 

“Okay.” He nods to himself, letting out a deep breath. “Okay.”

He stays stuck in that spot, accepting your argument.

“So, if that’s settled…” you begin. But his hands squeeze together and his eyes focus on the edge of your desk again. You watch him, wondering what would cause him to look as lost as he did the last time he had been in your office.

“I uh, I wanted to tell you something else.” His blue eyes are back on you, and there’s that twinkle again. Is it longing or pain? Just the fraying of his nerves? You don’t say anything, just let his gaze burn through you, waiting for him to work up the courage. 

“I’ve been writing again.” Sebastian had told you he’d been writing when you two were together. You hoped selfishly that he’d stopped when he went back to Jennifer, but apparently not. “The novel I’m working on. It- it’s inspired by some of what happened this semester.”

So you weren’t the only one working through your feelings with writing. But your writing had been vague. It was different characters, different situations, just some of the same emotions and complications. What was he using from the last 4 months? You’d made it through your affair without ruining your career here. Hopefully, he wouldn’t blow your life up with some story about you two now. 

When you don’t answer, he turns his back to you. His breath comes ragged, he’s worried. “I just thought you should know.” 

“As long as you don’t use my name, or anything too specific, I guess that’s fine. I can’t stop you.”

He turns back quickly, his eyes wide. He must not have expected you to let this go so easily. But you can’t blame him for using the same coping mechanism as you are.

“I don’t even know if it’ll turn into anything important. I just didn’t want it to be a surprise if it did.” 

“That’s fine.”

He leans onto your desk again, making sure his eyes are level with yours. They’re so earnest, it hurts. There’s a piece of him there that you used to see so often. That you used to think was yours. 

But it had been three weeks. And it makes it a little worse knowing you might never see that sincerity again. 

“I’ll make sure if it does go somewhere, that you get to see it first. I owe you that much.”

You nod, your eyes trained on him. He doesn’t look away. 

The intensity between you two is still there, pulling you toward each other. But you said you were done with that. You couldn’t change his decision, and it seemed he hadn’t taken it back either. 

His face moves to you, his mouth nearly on your own. You hadn’t been this close since before Thanksgiving break. You can feel his breath on your lips, it tickles your skin. The person you were before break would have used his mouth to relieve the itch. But that’s not who you are anymore. 

You pull back from him, putting the necessary distance between you two. He stands up straight, his expression somewhere between confused and upset. 

You tell yourself something very important in the moment: he doesn’t get to be upset that you’ve changed. And you don’t get to be upset anymore that he wouldn’t. All that is past you.

“Thank you, Chris.” You say loudly, but without malice. “If you have nothing else to add, I think we’re done here.”

“Of course,” he whispers. He closes his eyes, and the next time he opens them, all those previous emotions are gone. Like no part of the last several minutes happened. He leaves your office door open, just as it had been when he’d come in. 

And as you look up, you notice two sets of eyes watching you from the hallway. It is Elizabeth, and her friend and fellow grad student, Letitia. They watch you with pity. You want to be done with that. You force a smile to them, and then close your office door.

_______________________________________________________________________

Two hours later, all the final grades are submitted, and your stomach aches for something to eat. After the day you’ve had, maybe you’ll pick up Italian on your way home. You deserve large amounts of wine and pasta.

As you’re walking on the path to the parking lot, the sun setting around you, you hear feet pound against the pavement behind you. Looking over your shoulder, you see Sebastian jogging toward you. ‘Hey (Y/N),” he calls out. You slow your pace so he can catch up. 

He takes a moment to catch his breath, his hair is all messed up. The soft and fluffy look works for him. But then you chide yourself for noticing that. 

Once he composes himself, there’s an apologetic smile smeared across it. “Look, I’m sorry about how I acted toward you at Thanksgiving. I didn’t know what was going on with you and Chris.”

If you’re done with the pity, you’re done with this too. “Don’t mention it, Seb.” He grins at you, his eyes crinkling as his apologetic face disappears. “Yeah, I’m trying out the nickname.”

“Good. But are you sure? I was absolutely a dumbass about you two this semester.”

“Sebastian. It’s over. I’m done with Chris. I’m walking into winter break ready to be done with this last semester. I’m ready for something new.” He watches you, his eyes wide. He must notice that you're serious because he settles into a nod.  

“Okay. I’m right there with you. My semester has been messy too.”

You quirk a brow at him, wondering how messy his semester could have been compared to yours. What, was he living up to his reputation by sleeping with his TA too? Or did Chris say that to scare you away from him?

“Look, I’m going to tell you a secret, (Y/N). And when I meant messy, I meant messy.” You watch him as he looks around the campus to see if anyone is nearby. “I know Chris has already suspected part of it, but while he was with you, Jennifer was with me.”

Instinct takes over and you slap his arm. 

“Hey, they were on a break. And she’d been flirting with me for a whole year!”

You want to be mad at him for him sleeping with his friend’s wife. He violated a serious code of friendship. But for some reason you can’t. And you’re feeling something dangerously close to relief.

You can’t stop yourself, you laugh, loudly. If anyone else had been around, their lives would have been interrupted by the sound.

“I can’t tell if you’re taking this well.”

You smile at him genuinely. “I am actually. And I feel almost sort of, relieved?”

“Oh, have my fuck ups made yours feel less bad?” You wouldn’t have called your relationship with Chris a full fuck up. You didn’t regret it like that. But Sebastian wasn’t wrong. You reach the parking lot where your cars are and he turns on his heels. He gives you a little bow, “I’m so happy my stupidity could be of service.” 

You pull your keys out, ready to unlock your car. “Thank you for that, Sebastian.”

“By the way, keep working on that.” He leaves your side as he heads for his vehicle.

“Working on what?”

He unlocks his car from his key fob as he pivots. “My nickname. I want to make sure you have it down for next semester.”

“Is it really that important?”

He gives you the most devious smile you’ve ever seen from him. And from the time you’d spent together, he’d given you many. “It is to me. I prefer that all my TA’s are comfortable enough to treat me as a friend.”

Your jaw drops. You hadn’t heard who Robert was pairing you up with for next semester. You knew it wouldn’t be Chris, but you’d been hoping that he might give you a semester off of assisting.

This time his laugh rang out through the campus. 

“Yes (Y/N). Take the break to recharge and prepare. We’re gonna have a hell of a time teaching creative writing next semester.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Tags: @irishdancr24​ @lostboyinneverland​ @captainmarvels​ @suz-123​ @funlizzie02-blog​ @void-imaginations​ @cryingovershipsthatneversailed​ @breezykpop​ @jcc04220​ @nys30​ @jonsnowisnotdeadthough​ @guera31​ @wickedcitywitch @london-dreamer71​ @patzammit​ @lilypalmer1987​ @talannalew​ @thatonetuesdaywhensam @supperunnatural20​ @evanstanfanatic​ @lucinapomona​ @r5rocks101​ @dolphinpink310​ @bojabee​ @zlixlle @smashley816​​ @stevieang​ @youtheheckisbucky​ @chrisbck @bit-of-a-timelord​ @sebastian-i-stan​ @thefridgeismybestie​ @ssweet-empowerment​ @sophiealiice​ @imaginesofdreams​ @anotherawkwardaustralian​ @lostxsea​

[jawnkeets]

hello sorry to disturb you lovely person but i was wondering if you had some advices to have a better literary analysis, or a better culture well, i mean how can i improve my literary intelligence basically ? ( it may not be really clear but i hope you'll understand because i feel like i'm lost... )

hello anon! no need to be sorry, ur not disturbing me at all :+) feel free 2 send an ask at any time ✨✨✨

i’ll attempt to answer this by splitting ur ask into 2 parts. first i’ll try to give some tips on literary analysis, and then i’ll try to talk about the sort of wider awareness of lit (or the culture as you call it).

a little disclaimer: pls bear in mind that i am by no means qualified to speak about this in any way (i still very much consider myself a learner). i’ve generally been left alone throughout my education to do my own thing, which is a good thing in some respects and a bad thing in others; i don’t have the solid foundations that most ppl do, never following things like paragraph structures throughout lower school, and i didn’t know a thing about metre until the start of this month. however, because of my education i think i’ve managed to avoid a few conventional pitfalls. so, in short, you can take as much or as little of this advice as you like!

PART 1: literary analysis

• an excellent way to boost your analysis straight away, dull as it is, is to learn some literary devices beyond, say, alliteration and personification. being able to spot things like chiasmus and epiphora not only wows an examiner, but also enables you to talk about more things within a poem/ book/ play and thus broadens your literary scope in close reading.• remember that for each literary device you mention you should say what it REVEALS (DO NOT just list!!!). the best essays move from a literary device to an explanation of why this device is used - what does it reveal about a character, the speaker, or even the society that the poet or author was writing in?• rhythm and meter in a poem tick boxes in an exam, but can also lead to insightful analysis. how do the rhythm and meter add to the overall message of the poem? does, for example, the metre give a regularity to the poem? why might this be? is it broken at any point? how is this significant?• the above can be applied to rhyme scheme, too. look out for rhyming couplets at the end of a poem, which may give a sense of finality to the poem (or may seem to give a sense of finality when in actuality the speaker of the poem is far from decisive…).• it is important to remember that a particular rhyme scheme (or metre) doesn’t ALWAYS mean anything; it can mean different things in different poems, so instead of applying a ready-made formula, try to go into the exam knowing how to identify these aspects of a poem and then try to work out why you think the poet has used them in that particular poem. flexibility is key, which can be daunting but also somewhat liberating.• i personally find a ‘scribble method’ quite useful. this is where, when first approaching a piece of writing, you write down everything that comes into your head, regardless of how messy, or how basic. you then sort through your ideas, expanding upon what you think is worthwhile and discarding what you think is not. this method is generally more handy when not under time pressure, though, as it can get you into a muddle in the exam.• start simple and build up. it can be tempting to jump straight in but sometimes when you start simply new things can reveal themselves as you work your way up into more complex ideas! • perspective is extremely useful to consider. who is speaking and why? are they biased or objective? who are they speaking to and why?

unseen exam tips

• in an exam, i would approach a poetry or prose extract first by simply reading it, and trying to find out what it is about. then i would go through and highlight words/ phrases of interest, and label literary devices. finally, i would go through it again and build the main analysis. a brief paragraph plan can be useful before writing the essay.• acronyms can help sometimes as a go-to in an exam when you don’t have much time. for example, i use CFTTSOL - content (basic story, characters, who is speaking and why etc) form (poetry, prose, drama etc), tense (past/ present etc), tone (happy, sad, why? is the tone at odds with the subject matter? in emily dickinson’s ‘because i could not stop for death’, for example, the poem is about something dark but it is very jolly), structure/ syntax (rhyme, caesura, enjambment, any disrupted syntax, etc) other (anything not mentioned in the rest of the categories) and language (similes, metaphors, assonance, etc). i would recommend finding one that works for YOU and makes sense for YOU, because creating your own can really help to ease you into analysis.

PART 2: literary awareness

• read, read, read! i cannot stress the importance of wider reading enough, and also the importance of thinking whilst you read (making notes/ annotating books whilst you read is advisable). i am speaking from experience here - i didn’t read outside of the curriculum at all until the end of last year, and since i have started my literary analysis has increased tenfold. this is partly because practice is vital, but also because wider reading gave me an awareness that i could never have expected to gain. it enabled me to start making links between texts, genres, periods, etc – i began to see patterns and conventions in literature. for instance, a poem that breaks convention is easier to spot and talk about – to use a very basic example, a sonnet (usually a form of love poetry) about brutality/ violence toys with genre. if you had read some of shakespeare’s sonnets, you could then compare the violent poem with sonnet 18, to elucidate your point. this isn’t to say that you didn’t already know that sonnets were love poems, or that you wouldn’t have picked up on this without wider reading. but having read sonnets outside of class means that you can talk about this with greater clarity, authority and confidence.• i would also advise you to push yourself with the literary material you explore. it is difficult, but try to find nothing intimidating - read thick victorian novels, read modernist authors, read kant if you want, and even if the prospect of reading ‘harder’ texts doesn’t thrill you then try them anyway - you may be pleasantly surprised! part of the difficulty of studying this subject is that preconceived ideas can erect barriers and put you off. it is important to totally bulldoze these barriers and remind yourself that nothing is above you, and that you are capable. that’s not at all to say that you can’t read ‘simpler’ texts, and of course it is probably wise to admit to yourself when you perhaps need a greater literary background before you tackle a text (for example, i tried joyce’s ulysses, a modernist text full of allusion, when i have a barely working knowledge of greek mythology, and i admitted to myself that though it would not be impossible for me to read it, i would like to read more widely and then return to it in the future).• w i k i p e d i a. it’s often sniffed at but honestly don’t be afraid of using it! it’s an excellent way to absorb info fast. also don’t be ashamed of using websites like sparknotes if you don’t understand a poem to begin with! u shouldn’t rely on them for the crux of your analysis but they can be helpful to get started!• it’s perhaps obvious, but it helps to remind yourself that literature isn’t just fiction - try to read some critical essays if you can, and look at philosophy, history, psychology etc and how they relate to literature as studied in school. this is actually wayyyy more fun than it sounds (!) and will improve your general literary knowledge.• tumblr, whilst being a killer procrastination station, can also really help to broaden your knowledge. reblogged quotes from famous writers often stick around in your memory, and period moodboards can help you get a sense of different ages and help you to visualise what you’re studying. it’s also great to be in a community of passionate people - the passion of others on this site has definitely rubbed off on me!• make it relevant!! all of these texts and literary movements have shaped our society profoundly. as overdramatic as it sounds, look for the romanticism in a house party, or existentialism in internet memes, or hamlet in yourself. legacies are all around us, and seeing the world in this way can really bring literature to life.

literature is a subject where you get out what you put in. it’s relatively straightforward, if you work hard, to get very good grades in lit; if this is what you want, then having a solid knowledge of metre and literary terms, being able to spot them in texts, and then being able to describe what this reveals can get you top marks. but, in my opinion, to develop true literary intelligence you really have to let the subject permeate every aspect of your life. this is a subject where you really can take risks, be original and unique, and explore a huge amount of periods and ideas. if you see it reflected in the world around you, and think deeply and thoughtfully about everything you are reading, then the classwork honestly sorts itself out.

i hope this has been useful in some way and that it answers ur ask adequately!! if u have any further questions or require clarification please do not hesitate to let me know. i hope u have a wonderful day 💘

[chocolatecoatedpretzels]

studying #1

GCSE English Literature Revision - Revising Poetry

Overview: I did my GCSEs in May 2017 and had to do the 9-1 system for English Literature and English Language. As one of the first year groups to do the new system for English, I found it quite hard to find resources to help me with this subject, especially as there were no past papers.

Hopefully, I can impart some knowledge on how to revise for your GCSE in English Literature. (I’ll be focusing on English Literature advice more than Language as I study English Lit. as an A Level but also I winged my English Language exam).

What was your examination board? OCR

Which set texts did you study? An Inspector Calls, Pride and Prejudice, Macbeth and Love and Relationship poems from the OCR anthology for poetry

Poetry can be one of the most tedious things to study in English Literature, trust me when I say I sympathise with you. When it came to preparing fifteen poems and practically learning them all off by heart, it was not entirely enjoyable, but here are some of the things I did to revise for the poetry part of the exam.

1) Go through the poem with a pencil at hand

Seems like a really obvious thing to do, but start by making any general annotations. Look up the meanings of any words you don’t know, mark out a few literary techniques and just try to get the overall gist of the poem.

It’s really important to be able to identify types of literary devices aside from your bog standard similies and metaphors. Here is a list of literary techniques you may stumble across, and trust me, but this will really elevate your poetry essays to the next level.

2) Annotate the poem by yourself, then compare annotations with a friend

I always found this a great method to see the poem from the perspective of another person. This is also a good way to explain your reasons for interpreting a line the way you did, which is a crucial part of essay writing as well.

3) Revising the poetry

Sorry for the shockingly bad quality of the photo below, but this is an example of how I set out my poetry notes. I was taught to use STIFF analysis when dealing with a poem. This table I replicated for each poem and was essentially the essay I wrote out in the exam.

By that I mean, the subject column I used as an introduction and the feeling column as my conclusion. Then in between, I had my 3 main paragraphs, which were PEE paragraphs (point, evidence, and explanation).

Focusing on the image column particularly, I tried to find five examples of literary techniques e.g. sibilance, personification, metaphors, irony, hyperboles. This meant I would not mention the same technique twice which would not gain any further marks.

Additionally, for tone, it is important to find a pivotal moment in which the tone of the speaker changes. In sonnets, the pivotal moment is known as a volta, however, there is not always transition in tone.

Finally, for form, find the rhyme and rhythm scheme of the poem but also state the significance of these schemes. For love poetry, there tends to be an iambic beat which is a reflection of the heartbeat, with the heart being a symbol of love.

4) Comparing poems

When comparing poems, find similar literary techniques and compare the ways in which each author uses these devices. Remember to find both similarities and differences and spend a few minutes analysing the unseen poem rather than heading straight into the essay.

That concludes this post on revising poetry. Hope you found it useful and feel free to send any questions you have about the poetry aspect of the exam. :)

[afieryflyingroule]

[ excerpt from “The Unpresidented,” an essay forthcoming later this year ] 

A poem’s fundamental responsibility is to create and maintain a space for desire in language. ‘It is not gnosis but praxis must be the fruit’, Philip Sidney insisted in the 1580s.[1] What the poem generates on this account is not knowledge but action. Not that there’s a zero-sum game here. Elaine Scarry argues that ‘habit yokes thought and action together’, and I understand Sidney to intend praxis precisely in these terms.[2] The broadest version of the question I ask here is: how do we represent the unprecedented? A corollary question would be: how do we precipitate the unprecedented? And, if I may abuse a recently tweeted neologism: what might it mean to be unpresidented?

In this essay I want to imagine the poem as an ‘affordance’ in the sense supplied by the perceptual psychologist J.J. Gibson. ‘The affordances of the environment’ (as Gibson describes them) ‘are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill’.[3] This transforms any account of the relationship between an organism and its surroundings by emphasising ‘action-possibility’ above all – what Sidney calls praxis. Following the example of Donald Norman, designers have transferred Gibson’s theory of affordances to a reconceptualisation of objects as well; in this light, what a thing is can best be understood not in terms of what you know about it but rather in terms of what it can be used for.[4] To those who say, ‘A poem should not mean / But be’ (as Archibald MacLeish famously asserts), those who want to consider the poem as an affordance respond, ‘The meaning of a word is its use’ (as Wittgenstein declares).[5] Rather than calculating a poem solely in terms of its formal properties the way we’re often taught in school (metre, rhyme, diction, etc.), we ought also attend to what potentials for action it unleashes in whatever circumstance it finds itself in.

A pint glass may be a transparent truncated glass cone sealed with a disc on the smaller end, but what it ‘affords’ is the possibility of holding beverages that one may swallow when you tip the open end into your mouth. One action a pint glass makes possible, in other words, is drinking. This is the function it was designed for. But you could also use it to draw two differently sized circles if you felt like it. Broken, a piece of it could become a blade. What might a poem afford, both by design and in excess of it? And what might poems teach us both more generally and more particularly about how to do things with words? 

J.L. Austin famously decreed that speech acts in poems don’t count: ‘If the poet says “Go and catch a falling star” or whatever it may be, he doesn’t seriously issue an order’.[6] I am not alone in failing to understand why commands in poems are by definition ‘parasitic’ or ‘etiolated’, and thus infelicitous.[7] Charles Altieri’s article on ‘demonstrative utterances’ contains fruitful insights in this regard:

Poems realize what language can do in making certain states articulate, and that realization in turn gives the imagination access to provisional identifications we can try to adapt to our own circumstances – not as a condition of experiencing the text but as a condition of adapting that experience to the world by testing for the similarities and differences it allows us to specify.[8]

Altieri means affective ‘states’, but I don’t see why we couldn’t consider the ways in which poems also could ‘realise what language can do in making certain nation-states inarticulate’. To Altieri’s rhetorical recovery of the poem from the other side of the modernist aesthetic rift, I propose we add Stanley Cavell’s account of ‘the passionate utterance’ to the mix:

A performative utterance is an offer of participation in the order of law. And perhaps we can say: a passionate utterance is an invitation to improvisation in the disorders of desire.[9]

This ‘invitation to improvisation’ allows us to consider the work of a ‘demonstrative utterance’ at a demonstration or a riot – scenes of political desire, we might call them.

Claude McKay’s sonnet that begins ‘If we must die, let it not be like hogs’ offers a robust instance of both a demonstrative and a passionate utterance. First composed in the midst of lynchings and riots during the bloody summer of 1919, it also circulated among prisoners at Attica in advance of the 1971 rebellion and massacre.[10] The militant self-defence articulated in one political environment, using a poetic form typically associated with the action and passion of love, contributes to the transformations of possibility in a completely different (though not unrelated) political environment.

With these poly-historical affordances of McKay’s poem in mind, and also its transformation of the affordances of form, I want to take permission from Cavell’s expansion of Austin to build on Gibson’s and Norman’s accounts. Where the concept of an affordance allows us to understand the relationship between an organism and objects in its environment in terms of potentials for action, the concept of a transfordance might allow us to consider desirable transformations in those potentials for action. Affordances allow the analyst to understand the relationship between organism and environment less in terms of formal properties and more in terms of possible activities; transfordances allow the agent to transform the conditions of those possibilities by transforming that relationship between organism and environment in the first place. That’s one kind of work I’d like to think a poem can do: transform felicity conditions. ‘The issuing of the utterance’ thus becomes not just ‘the performing of the action’ (as Austin describes) but also the transforming of the conditions that make saying and doing equivalent.[11]

The poem, as I say, is thus an affordance as Gibson defines it: a potential for action. But I want to argue that it is also a means both for composing affordances and for transforming them. Both/and. Rather than considering a poem only in terms of its form – the intrinsic and extrinsic elements that lay in waiting for analysis – we should also attend to what the poem makes possible, the kind of action its form performs, the deeds the words suggest, however implicitly or explicitly. This makes the poem not only a ‘performative’ or ‘demonstrative’ or a ‘passionate’ utterance in Austin’s and Altieri’s and Cavell’s senses, but also a transformative utterance.

One name for the kind of study I am embarking on is ‘poetics’, which we can understand not only in the standard sense of the study of making (the root of the word ‘poem’ being the Greek verb poiein, ‘to make’), but also in an expanded sense of the study of transformation (as proposed by Stathis Gourgouris).[12] Insofar as making implies forming, it also requires transforming. The poetics of the sort I am proposing thus involves transforming our sense of poetics. Whereas an aesthetics and poetics that focuses on form necessarily involves a morphology in its analytical and interpretive toolkit, an aesthetics and poetics tuned to form and transformation involves both a morphology and what we might call metamorphology, which I take to signify the theory and practice of transforming conditions of possibility.

[1] Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1973, p.94.

[2] Elaine Scarry, Thinking in an Emergency, New York: W.W. Norton, 2012, p.80.

[3] J.J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986 (1979), p.127.

[4] Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, New York: Doubleday, 1990.

[5] Archibald MacLeish, Collected Poems, 1917-1982, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985, p.107; Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, (trans. G.E.M. Anscombe), New York: Palgrave MacMillan 1958, §43.

[6] J.L. Austin, Philosophical Papers, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961, p.241.

[7] J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962, p.22.

[8] Charles Altieri, ‘What Theory Can Learn from New Directions in Contemporary American Poetry’, New Literary History, 2012, No.43, p.80.

[9] Stanley Cavell, Philosophy the Day after Tomorrow, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006, p.185.

[10] See Jordan T. Camp, Incarcerating the Crisis: Freedom Struggles and the Rise of the Neoliberal State, Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2016, p.74.

[11] J.L. Austin, How to Do Things with Words, op. cit. 6.

[12] Stathis Gourgouris, ‘The Poiein of Secular Criticism’, in Ali Behdad, Dominic Richard and  David Thomas (Eds.), A Companion to Comparative Literature, Chichester, West Sussex; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell: Blackwell, 2011, esp. pp.78-80.

[oursafespaceblog-blog]

Literacy Narrative

My literacy narrative is a part of my period of reflection. While writing it I thought of who I am as a student.

The original prompt of my English Narrative was to self reflect on your own writing and relationship with English classes. I stuck to this prompt while expanding on my own writing skills and relationships with classes as a whole instead of just reflecting on English. I choose to revise this essay because of the basis of self-reflection. Self-reflection allows for self-discovery so this essay flows into my topic of creativity and self-discovery within furthering my education.

Moving around a lot has shaped the way that I interpret literacy. As my literary skills were developing and forming I was being introduced into many different cultures and school curriculums. The way I was developing as a thinker while I transitioned from school to school shaped my writing. Starting school in New York put me ahead in many ways. In New York, you are allowed to start school earlier.  I had more than a few things shaping the way I speak and write.They also start teaching certain things earlier. I learned parts of a sentence and the definition of a noun earlier. I learned about 1st, 3rd, and even 2nd person when I was only in the 2nd grade. In high school, you get a better understanding of when to use it and how to stay in one point of view for a whole essay. When I moved to South Carolina I knew I was ahead. The content they were teaching in my English class was so simple to me and I felt uncomfortable always being done first or being the only one that knew the answer. Eventually, I was tested to be put in advanced classes. When I moved again I was in 4th grade. Once again my English class was so simple to me. I remember telling my mom about my classes and how some of the kids in my gym class are in different English classes. I told my mom that these kids were always reading and seemed to be in a small group together. My mom went to the school to explain to them that I tested into advanced classes and eventually I was moved back into these advanced classes. In these classes, we read a lot and wrote a lot. I remember we would have 15 minutes to just write about our day but it had to have an introduction. We would also have book reports due every month. I feel these classes are what put me ahead and is really where I got my base knowledge about literacy and writing. My first encounter with formal essays happened mostly in South Carolina. I feel that the curriculum teachers were following did not focus heavily on the structure. They did, however, focus on reading. There were always prizes that were based around reading. The class that reads 100 books first would get a pizza party or extra time outside, These incentives did encourage me to read more but after a while, I just read because I enjoyed it. I would read outside on the playground, in gym class, at home when I was eating dinner or even when I was in the supermarket with my mom. I enjoyed reading so much I started reading books that my mom had on her bookshelf because I ran out of my own books. The collection of books my mom owned introduced me to new authors and series. The first series that I was introduced to in elementary school was The Babysitters Club. This series touched on personal issues within the characters as well as taught life lessons. I felt that the way this series was written really flowed and it directed me to how I would like to write creatively. It focused heavily on descriptive words and thoroughly explaining what is going on. Figurative language became something that was very stressed. It became engraved in our everyday life. Figurative language had to be incorporated into every story and every poem. Elementary school shaped how I use words and when I use words. Middle school shaped the structure I use when typing essays. As I continued going through English classes I lost a lot of the base things that I learned. Some English teachers led me astray and made me second guess my writing skills. I started to believe the more SAT words you use in writing the better your piece would be. I didn’t pay much attention to grammatical errors. I just try to fit as many SAT words as I can. I knew that using words to replace basic words such as good and bad would make my writing look better. This became my only goal. I did not pay attention to where I put a comma or semicolon. In 6th and 7th grade writing was not heavily stressed. Common core was introduced and everything became focused on critical thinking and analyzing. This became all that English class was about it was very strict and did not allow for any literary freedom. This is where I started to learn how to construct an essay.  I only knew the basic structure of an essay,  introduction, 3 paragraphs, and a conclusion. I also learned about argumentative essays and what those included. We touched on poetry but it was not heavily talked about. I did learn of rhyme scheme, tone, and syntax. Tone taught me how to put life into my writing. When you write and think of how tone can affect your characters or your message, it gives new life to your writing. In 8th grade, I was introduced to a whole new way to look at literature. We discussed literature thoroughly during class. My English teacher heavily stressed writing and perfecting your writing. He wanted us to write multiple rough drafts until we had a clear concise paper with absolutely no mistakes. He also introduced us to classic literature such as Brave New World and Animal Farm. While Animal Farm does not contain sophisticated language because it was 2written by George Orwell, Brave New World has a more sophisticated tone and an indirect way of telling the story. Both of these books influenced me in different ways. Animal Farm taught me about character development and how word choice can show tone. Brave New World taught me how to describe a scene without being so direct by using allusions. I used these techniques in my creative writing and eventually blended into my formal writing. Highschool transformed me into the writer I am today.  I learned how to use transitions to create a better flow. Words like however and therefore became a normal part of my writing. In high school, I learned how to expand on that and create a thesis as well as a hook. Knowing your thesis and how to create one gives you direction. A hook pulls your reader in.  I also started to write short stories more often. Writing longer stories or essays became second nature because of how often I was writing. High school didn’t introduce much that was new literature wise but it did make it easier to know how to write on a college level. I still have trouble writing long essays or even when I start an essay continuing to write without restating points I already covered. As I continue to grow as a writer I hope to gain the ability to include transitions smoothly as well as incorporate SAT words as they fit. I also hope to be able to start an essay and continue typing it without having to take breaks to gather my thoughts or to think of the point I’m trying to make. At Howard, I would really like to learn how to put my thoughts on paper in an organized way. I need my thoughts to flow together cohesively to keep my paper from being awkward.  I want to understand how to write for long periods of time without repeating myself. The longer my essay the more likely I am to repeat the same concept over and over in a different way. I would also like to be able to interpret every literary piece without assistance. Usually, when I read a piece by myself I have to read it multiple times and even then I have to google someone else’s analysis to understand the piece. I would like to be able to dissect a piece on my own after reading it a couple of times. I do not feel that my writing is on a college level I would like to be confident in my own writing skills. In order for this to happen, I need to work on aspects of my own literary knowledge. I also have to expand my knowledge and read more college literature. I know that I can expand my skills.

[maria-ale-t]

Poetry: One of the Richest Forms of Literature

         Poetry has been a constantly undervalued literary genre in our century, mainly because it seems that it hasn´t found the audience it deserves that appreciates its extraordinary value. It is repetitively heard “It is so confusing” or “poetry is not for me” however is it true? is poetry a luxury just for a few? Unfortunately, the problem isn´t poetry itself, but rather people, who feel discourage to explore its magnificence just because it demands more effort from the reader, since its meaning is recurrently concealed and it requires analysis to be fully comprehended. This blinds many either because their lazy, they do not know how to do so, or maybe they have had a stressful encounter with it which doesn´t allow them to see that poetry is one of the richest forms of literature how it has different themes it develops for every reader, the splendor and diversity on the style and structure it delves, and finally the figures, imagery and language it uses to convey its meaning.

         Firstly, we have the different themes it develops such as epic, tragedy, erotic, comedy, satirical, romanticism, political.... There is a wide range from where the reader can choose from that is adequate for their interests and preferences. This different possibilities obliterates the assumption that poetry is strictly related to love or unrequited love. For example, satirical verse is a roman invention, the poets that inclined to this form of poetry aimed to ridicule the prevailing vices or follies of the age, the did it in a way that people feel attracted to it due to its entertaining tone, the problems it discuss are usually in a social or moral tone, rather than a political or economic one. We also have political poetry which is a creative way in which people express their views of the world and it is also a way in which the writer exerts their freedom of speech.

Poetry has a splendor and diversity that is immeasurable in terms of form, style and structure, we can find from those that uses rhyme to those ones that do not follow any rule. As Angela Janovsky says “authors will carefully consider the structure of every piece of writing because changing the parts will change the whole message”. Angela also defines poetry as

“Literature written in stanzas and lines that use rhythm to express feelings and ideas. Poets will pay particular attention to the length, placement, and grouping of lines and stanzas, since its rearrangement can create specific effects on the reader”

For example, we have sonnets which according to learn.lexiconic.com is a:

“Lyric poem consisting of 14 lines and, in the English version, is usually written in iambic pentameter. There are two basic kinds of sonnets: the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet and the Shakespearean (or Elizabethan/English) sonnet.”

Or we also have free verse, which doesn’t follow any strict rules, we can find this type of poetry in the most modern forms, it usually doesn´t have neither rhythm nor rhyme.  

           Finally, poetry is rich in the language it uses, it is permeated with figurative language they use this type o language mainly because these words help the reader to evoke and create images of characters, setting, events and even moods. Writers use this words in a way that their meaning goes beyond its literal meaning embellishing the meaning and the feelings it is trying to convey. There are many types of figurative language like: similes, metaphors, idioms, personification, hyperbole, litotes, and many others. A metaphor according to the Merriam- Webster dictionary is,

“A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them”

For example, Maya Angelou uses this type of figurative language in the entire poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” where a bird in cage stands for those people that are oppressed and discriminated, the cage stands for society and the fear it has imposes in this people, and lastly the melody the bird sings represents the shout for something greater, for change and freedom,

“But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage

Cn seldom see through his bar of rage

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill…

And his tune is heard on the distant hill for

The caged bird sings of freedom”

       To sum up, the problem is not poetry and that it is exclusive for certain kind of public, the problem is that we are so used to literal meanings that when we are exposed to a type of literature that requires our analysis and obliges us to think to go beyond words, we just prefer to say it is not for us or that is too difficult than try. This is the main reason why poetry nowadays is being so belittled and it´s selling market has been incredibly diminish. Is this why the truth is being confined to us and we cannot appreciate poetry´s real value and richness.

Bibliography

Citelighter. (n.d.) Satirical Poetry. Retrieved from https://www.citelighter.com/literature/english/knowledgecards/satirical-poetry

Hirsch, E. (2014). Political Poetry: From a Poet´s Glossary. Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/political-poetry-poets-glossary

Janovsky, A. (n.d.). How the Structure of a Poem or Drama Contributes to Meaning. Retrieved from http://study.com/academy/lesson/how-the-structure-of-a-poem-or-drama-contributes-to-meaning.html

Literary device.net. (n.d.).Figurative language. Retrieved from https://literarydevices.net/figurative-language/

Learn.lexiconic.net. (n.d.). Elements of poetry. Retrieved from http://learn.lexiconic.net/elementsofpoetry.htm

Merriam- Webster. (n.d.). Metaphor. Retrieved from  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphor

The telegraph. (2011). Why Don´t We Truly Value Poetry? Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/poetryandplaybookreviews/8284846/Why-dont-we-truly-value-poetry.html