In-class Presentations

While listening to my classmates read their poetry I was happy to see the wide variety of poems chosen. I like how Dr. Sexson choose poems that he felt each person would like, and that they reflected each of us in some way. These poems were all so different, yet they had one thing in common.

All of these poems were presented in a way that I really wanted to read more. I eventually did go back through and read some of the poems on my own. I realized that because it had been so long since the poems were presented to me, I saw them in a new light. I was reading through them and found that I had many different ideas of what they meant to me than what my classmates suggested. This did not surprise me because of the different ways that people read into poetry. When I looked back on my notes of the presentations I found that my ideas were not too different from theirs, and the more I read them, the more I agreed with them.

I think that having an idea of what a poem is about is a good idea when reading poetry so that you know what direction to go in terms of making sense of it. Many of my classmates had quite the job to do, as many of the poems that were presented were very complex and difficult for me to read. I really enjoyed this assignment, despite what I may have thought about it to being with. I think that it really opened my eyes to the different interpretations of poetry, as well as the poets behind this work.