I really worked hard on my most recent discussion post for class and because of this I felt my hard work needed to be shared. I hope reading this opens your eyes to poetry as my eyes were opened when learning all of this.
A poem and a short story seem to be totally different when reading to most people. I have a hard time understanding or relating to poetry but love to read a good short story. Nevertheless, in reality, both poems and short stories have some things in common.
Both are a personal reflection of the world around the author. He or she is taking the world around them and transforming it into descriptions and understandings. A short story brings to you the scene through the author’s eyes and allows you to recreate what they describe. It gets you involved by allowing your imagination to run wild at times bringing about things you may not have realized as unique and turning them into something extraordinary. Poetry does much the same for the reader as a short story does. In chapter 9, Clugston teaches us that a poet looks “into ordinary things, examining their complexities, discovering insights and surprises that often are not seen in them, and (second) expressing what was observed or felt in the process,”(Clugston,2010). He instructs us that poetry can bring out our emotions while creating or recreating images, (Clugston, 2010). In these things, short stories and poems are not much different. If that is the case, then why do we seem to look at both as different? Why is poetry harder for some to understand or connect with versus a short story or vice versa?
The difference between a poem and a short story is easily recognizable. A poem takes on a special form in most cases. Poetry paints a picture with words much like stories do but instead of using an entire paragraph to do so a poem uses one word, one image. That one word which paints a single image is in most cases very powerful and that my friend is poetry. It doesn’t take five pages to paint a picture. Instead, it takes five lines, and you have all the insight and emotion you would have if it had been a short story. Some poems have a unique flow about them. Some may rhyme or have some type of rhythm to them while some may just take on a rare shape. There are where the differences lie between short stories and poetry.
Now that I understand this better, reading poetry is much more enjoyable. I can connect with it more. Instead of looking at a poem logically, I now tend to view in a more creative way, and I can feel it and fall in love with the poem. I respond to both types well but now that I understand poetry a little more I respond better to poems versus a short story. Poems feel powerful in emotions, and that is what I try to connect with in a short story.
When I read the poem, “She dwelt among untrodden ways” by William Wordsworth I was overwhelmed with emotion. Let us look at that line for a moment. It makes you think about many things. It immediately painted a picture for me. What untrodden ways did she dwell among? The denotation of the word untrodden means not having been walked on and the word dwelt means to think about a particular thing for a long time that causes anxiety or sadness. It can also mean that one lives in a certain place. So in logical form I read it as she thought sadly about things she had not experienced in life. In this poem, the connation of the words dwelt and untrodden sparks the emotion of sadness and discontent. I could tell that this girl, Lucy, whom is talked about in the poem is a diamond in the rough so to say but not noticed by many people. The lines that tell me this is:
“A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky,” (Wordsworth, 1798/1800).
There are a few symbols used here. First, we see a “violet by a mossy stone" (Wordsworth, 1798/1800). This informs me that Lucy stands out from her normal surroundings. However, then we read that this flower is hidden from view. For me, I see that Lucy is there but no one notices her. The next symbol is a single star who shines in the night sky. This is a comparison that shows Lucy is maybe beautiful and bright. She clearly is amazing but again who really admires a night sky with one star in it? She is an outcast so to say, or at least that is how I take it when I read this poem. The emotions that hit me here are hard and unnerving. I immediately feel sad and sorry for Lucy. I want this girl to be loved, to feel love. And then you get to the end of the poem, and you realize there is irony at play. The whole time you read this poem you feel sadness that no one knows this girl or loves her. Only to realize that, in fact, someone actually does. The persona of the poem loved Lucy. You catch it in these lines:
“She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and oh,
The difference to me,” (Wordsworth, 1798/1800).
You realize that narrator of this poem is telling you that he had seen all these great things Lucy had to offer and is saddened by the loss of her now that she has died. He loved her, and I take that she never knew. Maybe she did but I feel like she did not know. How sad is that? I did notice that I personally connected better to the poem when I heard it read aloud by a male voice. It was only then that I caught on to that last part about her being admired by someone. I did not understand the last part of the poem until then. When I heard a female read the poem the connection was just not there. I find that interesting and changes my perception of poetry yet again because I see that it matters on the fact of delivery.
I felt the same sadness and emotional response when I read the short story, “The Kiss” by Julia Alvarez. Though very different in scenarios I felt sadness for both girls involved. One girl was basically the favorite among peers. She never lacked attention and was the brightest star in the sky among the trillions of different stars. Basically, she was always noticed by all. Still after she did something apparently unforgivable, she lacked her father’s attention and craved to have it back. She set out to throw a party that he would love in order to gain his affections back, and I took it that it was really an utter failure in the end. Then you have Lucy, who was not the brightest star in the night sky at all, only that one single beautiful star in the empty night sky. Even so she wanted the same thing, love and attention, and though she may have had it, she may not have realized it. I think both girls had what they wanted and did not realize it. This is why they are both so very sad in the end.
References:
Alvarez, J. (1991). The kiss. How the Garcia girls lost their accents. New York: Plume.
Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into Literature. (Ashford University ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Wordsworth, W. (1798/1800). She dwelt among the untrodden ways. In Lyrical ballads with other poems: Vol. II. London.
