In Class Analysis--Prompt 1
by D.J. Garcia
Poetry is a tool for a writer to express a thought, belief, feeling, or vision. Poetry should be creative. There are many difficult ways to express creativity. Imagery lies at the heart of poetry and imagery defines creativity when it comes to writing poetry. Originality is characteristic of a good poem. The author’s personality and the poems authenticity usually go hand in hand in order to make a poem a creative expression of a specific human condition. Poetry should have a theme. The style and language should support the theme.
Imagery is used to direct the reader to their senses without directly telling then how something looks, feels, sound, or tastes. In my poem, “Country Fold is Smart.” There were a couple examples in which I thought I used good imagery, the way Granny’s Christmas strew is described lets one know that people from the city and people from the country don’t eat the same kinds of foods. Also, I didn’t have to say what it tasted like, but left it to the readers to decide how city folk might mot like possum stew mixed with last weeks leftovers and gizzards. The expression “critters brew” implies that she put them in whole. The detailed description of Uncle John shows what country fold typically think about business men and the term “sexatary” shows both the illiteracy of country folk and the author’s direct perception of Uncle John’s secretary.
Poetry must be original. Originality has to do with how experiences, thoughts or ideas are presented. The dialect in the poem was intended to be very cliché, otherwise I don’t think the readers would have picked up on the theme. This is essentially a contrast between why city fold consider country fold dumb and why country fold consider city fold dumb. The overall theme was original, but the language used was not. The poem’s original aspects include the setting. It is a bit of my wife’s grandparent’s ranch described combined with some elements of my grandparent’s farm. All the names are made up in order to add to the typical characteristics of country folk. I think the most original part of my poem is the way that the cliché style of describing country fold and city fold facilitated the expression of my theme.
The style and rhythm of the poem added to the way the dialect was used. If my poem didn’t rhyme, I don’t think it would have had the same effect on the reader, because the rhyme affects the overall flow of the poem and the overall flow tells a story. It is critical that the story is clear in order for the reader to understand the theme. I thought I did a good job illustrating the theme. The rhyme and tempo definitely helped the reader feel the experience, which is important when writing poetry. The dialect also contributes to the theme. It could have very well been written in a dialect characteristic of city folks, but it would have taken away from the humor the poem provides. The most successful part of my poem was using a cliché dialect to support the theme.