BritLit2

So many people say they hate poetry; well they think they do. They hate what they think poetry is. Although, poetry from centuries and decades ago are hard to understand, comprehend, and interpret, they are not as scary as they seem. Dictionary.com defines a poem as “Composition that, though not in verse, is characterized by great beauty of language or expression” . A person, that does not necessarily think of themselves as a writer, can sit down with a pen and paper and just write down whatever comes to mind and call it a poem. Many times writers who write poems have a lot of lines and words within their poem that the reader has no idea what they are referring to. Poems can be very personal to the person writing it. In the poem Sad Steps Philip Larkin is writing a poem that starts off by talking about going back to bed after getting up to pee. By doing so he notices a lot of things in the middle of the night, such as the moon, that cause his mind to wonder leading from one topic to the next. This poem may represent something to Larkin completely different that to the reader. It may also remind the reader of a night with the same incident and they can then relate to the poem. Just because a paragraph does not have structure, rhyming words, or even make sense does not mean that it is not a poem. The ones that say that they hate poetry probably use it in everyday life a whole lot more than they realize.

Word choice in a poem or any form of writing definitely grabs the attention of the reader. Using curse words may help to emphasize a point in a way that could not have been done otherwise. Poems are expressive so adding these words are simply expressing feelings. Larkin uses ‘the f word’ a few times in his poem This Be The Verse. By using these words I feel like he is very passionate about this subject, or that the speaker of the poem (which may not be him) uses this kind of language. I personally think that in everyday language there are many words other than ‘the F word’ that suffice. Being passionate or having strong feelings towards a topic brings out curse words, though. Words are very powerful. They have the power to lift up or break down and definitely bring attention to what they are referred to.