Questions:

What is your relationship with poetry?

My relationship with poetry is that it is relevant to my everyday life and that it allows me to understand myself and the world better. I listen to music almost every day, and in doing so I am constantly connected with poetry and the meaning behind those songs. I am therefore more connected with poetry more than I might think, and over the years I have come to respect poetry more and more. Poetry is something which I feel should help us as readers and as humans, understand ourselves and what it means to be human and through that, to explore the positives and negatives of life.

How is your understanding of poetry affected by your understanding of the way the poem is written?

My understanding of poetry changes depending on the structure of the poem, because the meaning of poems change depending on the metaphors and other figurative language used. Structures of the poem, such as rhyming also lead to this, as the context changes, because of the similar sounds from the words. To elaborate I would say that generally longer poems, such as a sonnet, more complex because of their length and the ability to provide meaning in that poem, have much greater potential than in a smaller and less detailed poem.

What are you struggling with and what are your learning goals with the poetry unit?

Somethings which I am struggling with within the poetry unit is fully understanding the different types of structures and figurative language uses in poems. I have gradually been able to explore more and more key terms and I feel that I have a much better grasp of them now. My understanding of the different types of structures has remained the same, as I just recently learnt them. My learning goals in this poetry unit are to develop my understanding of the key poetic terminology, such as figurative language and to learn more about how to find meaning in a poem and how that can relate to me.