Educational or Destructive?

I love poetry, it's as simple as that. I always have. Like most of my generation, I have been taught to read, write, analyze, and depict meaning out of poems from the beginning of my education. As a kid, my favorite authors were Shel Silverstein and Doctor Seuss, both classics. I would read their collections of poetry cover to cover. Last week, I read a few children's poems at the age of sixteen. With my now more accute ability to analyze and understand a poem, what I came to find was rather unsettling. Many of the poems presented incredibly mature and quite morbid ideas for their audience. I wondered if the children reading these poems were able to understand the dark meanings that lie underneath, or if that was left undiscovered by their naive eyes. I hoped that they were not yet able to depict the meaning of certain poems, because some could certainly traumatize and negatively affect their poor innocent and curious minds. With all of the rising issues in mental health, including suicide, eating disorders, and social disorders, I wonder, is an introduction to such mature and advanced poetry at this age to blame?

The Light Side of Love

The Light Side of Love

Roses are red

Violets are blue

The sky constantly reminds me of you

Just so you know theres a space

that only you can fill

Just so you know i loved you then

and always will

To be honest this is one of the best english classes that i have ever taken. Poetry has opened my eyes up to something new. It has showed me that it is extremely crucial to be able to express oneself in many ways. In addition it has showed me that words can be extremely powerful and have a great deal of meaning when writing Poetry. This is something that i did not realize before coming into this class. I would never have thought that I would be writing about my gorgeous girlfriend, or how i felt on a certain day, or about describing a tomato. Without a doubt i felt it extremely hard to write and overall read my poetry out loud to others. However i now i feel that a comfortable environment has been created, and i am no longer worried about reading my work aloud to other people. I always had a view that poetry was just for girls but i now know that it is not and there is nothing wrong with expressing yourself. I enjoy this class ALOT and am looking forward to future assignments. In my opinion i feel that it was important to see when Tennyson waited forever for Emily Sellwood because he did not have financial support in

the beginning. Even though that this man waited so long to finally marry the woman of his dreams it made his life incredibly happier in the long run. His marriage to emily sellwood made his life happier, especially with the two children that they had.Through reading this poem it has shown me that this without question this was true love. To be able to wait so many years and finally be happy to be with the one that you waited so long to be with. In Robert Brownings "How They Brought the Good News From Ghent to Aix" it describes a trip that occurs with all of the horses. It shows how important the news was that needed to get to the destination and how each of the horses struggled to get to the place. Each of the horses had broke down but finally the last horse Roland got him to the finally place. It shows the strong connection between character and horse. How he carried on no matter how hard the going got. It broke my heart when he poured his last bit of wine down the horses throat. Overall in the class it has taught me to analyze poems for meaning as well as strong connections. I feel by the end of this class i might be a poet myself pouring poetry icing all over the place.