Writing Assignment 5

For the next session of class please have a poem prepared and ready to be work shopped on your blog. Remember, you have to comment on at least five of your classmates' poems. Please keep in mind that the purpose of this activity is to help one another better our poetry. Let your fellow poet know how they are doing, tell them what works with the poem and what doesn't.

Rather than assign you a need activity to write on, I decided to allow you this time to finish up on the poem you will be submitting for workshop tomorrow. I would like to take this time to discuss poetry with you a bit more.

Have you ever heard the word 'apparatus'? An apparatus is a device that is used to accomplish a particular purpose. When we write poetry we are using apparatuses. The apparatus in a poem are the poetic devices we use to get across a certain message, sensation or experience. If you wanted to write a light-hearted poem about childhood, what apparatuses would you use? One particular apparatus that we have gone over in the past is hyperbole, which is a form of exaggeration.

When your writing your poems, I would rather you be less concerned about using these devices and more concerned about the apparatus of the poem. If you had been paying attention to the previous paragraph, by now you must have thought to yourself that these two things are the same thing. While these two terms are referring to the same thing, there is still a big difference.

When a poet writes, they aren't going through a checklist trying to decide whether to use similes or metaphors, they are more focused on the poem. Deep beneath the language and technique inside a poem there is that underlining meaning or effect that the poet wants to accomplish. If the poet wishes to expresses disappointment and sadness at being spurned by a lover they try to incorporate language that gets at this meaning across. To do so ,they poet might use include metaphoric images, but the metaphor isn't the reason the poet is it, the poet is writing to express their sadness. Therefore, the poet is using metaphor as a device to accomplish this sadness.

When you write poems, I want you to be more concerned with the the experience you are trying to create. Use these poetic devices that you have learned about, but don't let them use you. Remember, they are the apparatus, these tools only function is to help you get across whatever desired outcome you have in mind.