I want to respond to http://4-ch.net/book/kareha.pl/1133796016 but I don't know how to critique poetry. All I know is how to say "I like the imagery, but I don't like the technique" or visa versa, but I don't know how to go in-depth. Specifically with modern poetry, this is difficult... I just don't like most of it, though I know it's because I'm ignorant.
So, do any intelligent people here have info on this?
Well, you can take the academic approach that you usually do in college... Talk about intertextuality (references to Biblical figures, classical mythology, etc.), rhyme and meter, multiple meanings for various symbols and metaphors, and so on. A lot of it is very dry stuff, but with practice a lot of these "analyses" come intuitively as you read a work.
>>2
Agreed.
Also, you could talk about how a title works in the piece, whether or not the speaker is accurate throughout the piece (if we start with a 6 year-old, and no age change is mentioned, do we end with a 6 year-old? - if not, where should the age change be?). Ambiguous speakers are retarded, and everyone should know that. There's no such thing as a poem that will "speak to everyone," so don't try to write one. If you try, you will find yourself writing about "nothingness" and "everything," and that's extremely hard to pull off well. You might as well give yourself a good strong speaker and work from there.
Sorry about the tangent, but...yeah.
Thank you for that oh-so-enlightening addition to the discussion.
I used to go to a catholic high school and was in charge of the dreaded poetry section of the student newspaper. The way my friend and I would judge them was this: We would sit down with a big stack of that week's submissions and read them out loud to each other. And the end of each poem we would blow a raspberry. The longer the raspberry, the worse the poem. So our rating scale went something like this:
A poem that actually rhymes or has a good beat = thppph!
Vapid poems about the school football team = thpppppph!
Suicide, abuse, or other teen agnst poetry = thppppppppph!!
Agnst that rhymes "lies" with "eyes"= thpppppppppppph!!!
Poems that starts out "Life is like..." = THPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPH!!!!
I swear to God that if I see another "Life is like..." that I will hunt the author down, bring him to his knees, rip out his heart, and slap it in his face, saying, "LIFE IS LIKE THIS, YOU SMELLY LITTLE PUNK! ENJOY IT!!"
I hate poems... life is so short that it's studip to wait his time to make that type of writing
>>9
life is like a box of chocolates :P lol how exactly do you blow raspberries?
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http://library.thinkquest.org/23846/writing_guide/poetry.html
poems are bad but i need to study theme
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Why dont you critique the rhythm of the poem. When I did Latin poetry at school we used to analyse the rhythm and metre used in it and see whether it was appropriate in relation to content.
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