Poetry / Lies My High School Poetry Teacher Told Me

I like this…quite amusing. Fun to read and shows why rules in writing should not be described as “rules”. I never liked that either.

A very unusual style; cleverly reflecting the school-style notes contained within. I like the language and cynical humour that you’ve used here, e.g. the comparison between ripping apart a poem to ripping off a supermarket. I don’t know enough terminology to relate completely, but i can emphasise with the concept of distate for dissection of verse.
No suggestions to offer, as this piece makes its own rules.
I enjoyed reading this. Thanks for posting it.

S1 makes little sense, who is Williams? Why break the lines ‘poetry no/pronouns?’ This stanza needs to be expanded upon as it leaves the reader confused. It’s an interesting concept throughout, I see what you are trying to get at but the form and content is too cryptic and blunt. When you say ‘Knife means/you know’ know I don’t know what you mean by that. Since you have not established a personal narrative pronoun in the poem, when you say the ‘other sex’ it could be either sex. Who is the narrator of the poem? It is not established who is speaking and in what voice, 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Doughnuts is spelled wrong. The teacher may have been wrong as you say, but it doesn’t come off too clearly what she said that was wrong.

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March 22, 2009

by ockhamdesign

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39	M	Denver, CO	June 14

S1 is a reference to a very famous poem by William Carlos Williams called “Red Wheelbarrow” which is taught in every high school poetry class and held as a standard of how great poetry shouldn’t have “extra” words and how line breaks mean everything.

Every other stanza is a reference to something I was taught in high school that didn’t make sense.

S2 is an opinion on being told how certain metaphors only mean certain things but at the same time that poetry can mean whatever you want it to mean

S3 is the cutting newspaper headlines exercise to make a haiku -  maybe poetry class is better now, but it was pretty silly when I was in high school

S4 is the speakers opinion of rhymed and metered poetry taught.

Donots if you look in the notes, I mention the misspelling is intentional as a play on the words:  do nots.

March 22, 2009

by ockhamdesign

personal info reviewer stats

No. of Reviews	Overall Quality	Comment Followup
7	50.0% (4 votes)	11.8%

Age	Gender	Location	Last Login
39	M	Denver, CO	June 14

Comment Change:
S4 is the speakers opinion of rhymed and metered poetry written in iambic pentameter.

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