Poetry is one of the most important and powerful forms of writing because it takes the English language, a language we think we know, and transforms it. Suddenly the words no longer sound the same and mean the same thing. The pattern of sentences seems new and melodious. It is truly another language reserved exclusively for the writer and the reader. No two poems can be read the same way, because the words mean something different to each of us. For this reason, many consider poetry an elusive art form. However, the problem with understanding poetry lies in how you read poetry. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Reading it logically results in a comprehensive, rigid and unchanging understanding. However, reading it with emotion allows the nuances and paradoxes to enter our understanding. Anyone who writes poetry can attest to this, it must be written with an open heart. So as a reader, we must do the same. All poems are a glimpse into the innermost workings of the writer's mind and soul. To read it coldly and rationally would be to close the door to the relationship that the writer is trying to establish with you. Opening your heart to poetry is the only way to flourish. If you imagine poetry as a journey, you must be willing to trust the writer to guide you. Reluctant readers will never experience every part of the adventure the same way as open-minded readers. The journey can be filled with dead ends and suffering or endless joy and happiness. And yet you continue. You take the poem, you read, you listen and you feel. Every student has the opportunity to experience this phenomenon, to reach a new level of maturity by trying to understand the meaning of each poem, as if trying to solve different life challenges to come. So far in my class we have studied Elizabeth Bishop. , Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney in depth. Each with their own unique and fascinating life stories that they highlight in each of their poems. Sylvia Plath was one of the most dynamic and admired poets of the 20th century. By the time she committed suicide at the age of 30, Plath already had a following in the literary community. In the years that followed, his work attracted the attention of a multitude of readers, who saw in his singular verses an attempt to catalog despair, violent emotions and the obsession with death. This complex and desperate woman had reached such a level of universality through her works. While she may not be the most idealistic role model of our generation, she is a woman who shows no apprehension about sharing her innermost thoughts and feelings with the world. Seamus Heaney, also known as the "King of Poetry", was dubbed by New York Review of Books essayist Richard Murphy as "the poet who demonstrated the finest artistry in presenting a coherent vision of Ireland, past and present. Heaney secured the title of a humble and thoughtful man and poet, capable of identifying and understanding others. His poetry is therefore sensitive and sympathetic, as it shows us a man meditating on his own childhood and various precious relationships. Heaney has another image as a poet celebrating traditional crafts and the identity of the country's inhabitants. Through his poetry, Heaney recognizes what is good and he cherishes and celebrates it. This is something that our generation is missing, this obsession with materialism now consumes us and the study of a poet who recognizes the simple elements butbeautiful things of life is a source of inspiration. My favorite poet in the class has to be Elizabeth Bishop. As I studied her poetry, I became more fascinated by her poetic abilities and the many challenges she faced throughout her life. In doing so, I became more mature and I am very grateful that my teacher included her in our studies. What strikes me most about Bishop as a poet is that she never hid her flaws and the scars of her past from her readers. She described everything as it was. She was an honest and authentic poet, able to ask her readers to focus not only on her, but with her. Each of these poets had such a level of wisdom, brilliance and creative power that all English students strive to achieve. For example, I believe that Heaney's poem "The Forge" can perfectly reflect their desire. Heaney emphasizes the sacred nature of art by describing the blacksmith at work and thus writing poetry himself. In “The Forge,” the blacksmith works his raw material, hammering and shaming it until it takes the desired shape. In the same way, the poet must use his talent and his know-how to shape, with words, poems from the raw material of his own experience. From the beginning we are aware of Heaney's great admiration and awe of the blacksmith. He says "All I know", meaning that he himself is aware that he has much to learn before achieving the skills demonstrated by the blacksmith. I guess you could say we're all like Heaney, as he looked to the blacksmith for inspiration. , we seek inspiration from Heaney himself. But for now, we are just observers. With each poet we study, we are immersed in the talent they produce and become familiar with their stories and personalities. We almost feel like we are given the key to all their thoughts and memories and can interpret them in whatever way we find satisfactory. It's a gift. I believe that poetry is an element of English that we will take with us on our journey to adulthood. The inspiration these poets inspire in their readers is so beautiful and their works so captivating that it would be impossible to forget them. Different factors in my daily life encourage me to evoke some of the brilliant works of these poets. For example, I was walking along the Salthill Peer with my mother and spotted a small sailboat with a young boy and his father as they spent a glorious evening fishing. I immediately remembered Bishop’s poem “The Fish.” Bishop was both a painter and a poet in her time and we could clearly see the traces of her brush in this particular poem as she gives us such an intimate and beautiful portrait of the “huge fish”. I really enjoyed this poem for its careful observation and detailed description, culminating in a moment of insight. She expected to catch the fish, but what I found very interesting was that it was actually Elizabeth Bishop who was “caught” by the fish. Each of the poet's innovations comes from ordinary everyday life, like that of the fish, the harvest bow in Heaney's poem "Harvest Bow" reminded him of his father. This poem captures the intensity and power with which memories can visit us. Touching the bow brings back memories of a distant evening for Heaney. There is also a powerful sense of nostalgia in the depiction of the poet and his father walking the 'railway slopes', Heaney with his 'fishing rod' and his father with his 'staff'. We see this in the poet's statement that he had "alreadyhomesickness/from the great lift of these evenings.” Heaney now connects the past to the present. He realizes that these good times have now passed with a feeling of intense disappointment. Maybe the reason these memories mean so much to him and the reason he paints such an ordinary event as extraordinary is because deep down he knows those special times with his father are gone . Also of course in Plath's poem 'Black Tower in Rainy Weather'. “A wet black rook arranging and rearranging its feathers in the rain” is a symbol of how the “little light” of life can suddenly shine through mundane objects. The rook is an ordinary bird, which serves to focus Plath's vision. It's a trick she chooses to instill patience. She is content with her minor light while waiting for a more transcendent vision. This poem is a deeply personal poem which says a lot about Plath's state of mind. The tower and the harvest arch, two inanimate objects that I certainly wouldn't glance at more than once, are analyzed by both Plath and Heaney and they showed a whole new meaning to them. They delve beneath the surface of each object they encounter on a daily basis and which reveal works of genius. Thus giving these objects a surreal and gratifying meaning for their readers. It has certainly made me more aware of my surroundings and I can now recognize the simple but beautiful aspects of life. Poetry at its best appeals to our inner being. It challenges us to break free from the safe strategies of the cautious mind; he calls us, like wild geese in the open sky. It is a magical art, and always has been – a creation of linguistic spells designed to open our eyes, open our doors, and welcome us into a greater world, one of the possibilities we might never have. dared to dream. This is why poetry can be dangerous as well as necessary. Because we may never be the same after reading a poem that speaks directly to our own lives. I know that when I encounter my own life in a great poem, I feel opened, clarified, confirmed somehow in what I felt was true but had no words for. Anything that can do this is surely necessary for the fullness of human life. Poems are necessary because they honor the unknown, both in us and in the world. They come from an unknown country; they are shaped by the power of language and free to fly on wings of images and metaphors. Imagine a world in which everything is already known. It would be a dead world, without questions, without surprises, without other possibilities. This is what my own world can look like sometimes when my imagination recedes. I discovered that poetry is the phoenix on which I can fly back to this forgotten land. And yet, for all its magic, poetry uses the common currency of our everyday speech. It uses words that we all know, but in a sequence and order that surprises us outside of our normal speaking rhythms and linear thought processes. Its effect is to illuminate our lives and to breathe new life, a new vision, a new taste into the world we thought we knew. Poetry is also a way to save the world from oblivion through the practice of attention. It is our attention which honors and values ​​living beings, which gives them their own name and their particularity; it takes them out of the general's obscurity. The poems that galvanize my attention wake me up. They transmit their attention, their prayer, to me, the reader. This is why poetry can make us more fully human and more fully engaged in..