Poetry: Being the Writer VS. Being the Critic

Throughout my college career I have debated this issue. Writing poetry is completely different from analyzing it. It is a completely different perspective. At least personally, I have found that when I write poetry, I focus on being able to descriptively portray a feeling or an image through words. When analyzing, the focus tends to be more on decoding these images and finding a holistic meaning using terminology formulated for this purpose. Being able to write an essay about poetry after a few semesters of focusing on prose, made me remember this focus. It also helped me realize that poets might not necessarily intentionally create certain connections that we as critics come up with.

A poet’s intention for example be to highlight certain instances in his/her life that resulted in a life changing experience. A critic could interpret that same poem to mean that the poem is an allegory for the fall of communism. Although being a poet differs from analyzing a poem, they have one basic thing in common–to highlight an issue and interpret it through their own creative flair.

Being able to write poetry and write about poetry made me realize that highschool students hay not be able to differentiate between the two because I did not think about it until I began to analyze more closely in college. If highschool students are able to see this distinction from the beginning, they might not be so intimidated by being poetry critics.