I actually read Lucas’ journal before typing my own, to get an idea of what the topic was (as I was on a cruise to Mexico for a week of sun and relaxing, and that tends to melt the brain), and I find it interesting that he and I feel the complete opposite about poetry and the analyzing of it. I have this great fear of writing poetry, because I approach it with all of those analytical terms in mind. Does this rhyme? Can I fit alliteration in here? What is my theme? Oh my god, this isn’t profound enough! Backspace! My experience with the wrecking poem was just that. I had some ideas on the computer, and deleted them all because I thought they weren’t good enough, or moving enough. This fear of not provoking some great emotion in poetic writing cripples me, and it was only when I woke up at 6 am and decided to just write it without thought that it actually worked. That’s the problem! I think too much, which helps with the analyzing side.
It is much more difficult for me to write my own than it is to read and deconstruct someone else’s. Analyzing poetry is much like analyzing a novel, or a short story. Different terms, and different things to look out for, but you use these things (such as alliteration and rhyme) to expound on a greater theme or issue like you would use sentence structure in a novel. Finding support and evidence of this issue is like a puzzle, and trying to fit the pieces together to form the strongest picture for the case is an adventure. I’ve heard the phrase “Those who can’t do, teach” before, but I think it should be more along the lines of “Those who can’t write poetry, analyze.”
