For the past two weeks, our ASTU class has been focusing on the literary genre of poetry. We have looked at a variety of poems and analyzed their underlying political sentiments. Recently we have focused on the post 9/11 poetry by Juliana Spahr in her book, This Connection of Everyone with Lungs. Her unique approach to poetry has proven both a challenge and a source of intrigue for our class. In general, our class has mixed emotions towards the genre of poetry. Some appreciate poetry, while others find it confusing and redundant. Regardless of personal preferences, the class has shown to be very engaged with poetry and its connection to broader political contexts.
Jordan’s blog post is a key example of a student having an appreciating poetry. She introduces the reader to the multitude and complexity of poetic structures, that goes beyond the lyric structure which is what the class is most familiar with. She explains her belief that a distaste for poetry is the result of how literature is taught in schools. She then goes on to comment about how poetry is a greater part of our lives than we may suspect; an example of this is the vocabulary in Shakespeare’s poetry that has now become common in the English language. Jordan’s comment on the prevalence of poetry in our lives parallels Eun Ho’s blog where he discusses how the poem In Flanders Fields has contributed to broader Canadian culture. He highlights how the popularity of the poem led Canadian’s to wear the poppy on November 11th, and how this poem has become immortalized in Canadian society.
Other students commented on how our class discussions on poetry have led them to change their perspective on the genre. Codi comments on how her previous interactions with poetry have been confusing and meaningless, which led to an overall distaste for the genre. This perspective changed after analyzing the contemporary work of Juliana Spahr. This renewed appreciation for poetry has also been documented in Julia’s blog about her realization of her interest in a book of poetry by Omar Khayam.
Many students connected the poetry we have been discussing in class to their own experiences with poetry outside of class. Kaspar discusses how he learned about Chinese poetry and how it was seen as an important medium to understand history. He relates this to seeing Spahr and Szymborska’s response to 9/11 as a “time capsule” to understand the event. Irene’s blog furthers this idea of poetry as a way of obtaining knowledge because she states how she knew little about 9/11 and that this poetry serves as a way to spread this history.
Overall, the class shows how even though we value and interpret poetry differently, it ultimately provides an alternative way to understanding history as well as how our society is shaped. Personally, I believe that poetry is a form of expression that can be used as a political device to make people feel a certain way about a certain situation. I really enjoyed reading the blog posts and I look forward to having more discussions about poetry in class.