We all know people who think they are poets. They get depressed. A lover dumps them or someone they care about dies and they scribble a few lines making sure to add some rimes. Now I do not want to trivialize those feelings, but I do want to suggest that poetry, in spite of what Wordsworth says, is more the powerful flow of emotion. It involves awareness of the poetry around them. What are other poets saying? How are they saying it? Is what they are writing about worthwhile?
In short, poets are usually aware not only of what it is they are feeling, they are also aware of what others feel and of what other people respond to. So please keep in mind that poetry is more than a genuine and heartfelt expression.
What is it, then, that makes one thing a poem and another thing a bundle of cliches ?
If you read Marianne Moore’s poem carefully, you will encounter some possible explanations of what makes poetry more complex than a gush of emotion felt at a moment when we are experiencing an intense feeling.
What reason or reasons does Marianne Moore offer for reading poetry? What connection is there between understanding something and admiring it? How can a business document have something poetic about it? What does having real toads in imaginary gardens have to do with anything?
Write a paper in which you quote from the poem and explain what Moore’s rationale is for reading poetry.
MLA
Your work must be
- typed,
- double-spaced,
- and use either Times New Roman 12-point font or Calibri 12-point font(That includes your heading).