Assignment O

I am studying both history and psychology and am planning on majoring in both subjects. Initially I was very interested in psychology and decided to make that my major however in time I lost some enthusiasm for the field and rather than stop taking classes in the subject I began to take more history classes so that I could major in that as well. I enjoy studying history very much and also like the research and writing process when writing a historical paper.
I am from Albany, NY about three and a half hours south of St. Lawrence. Albany is a small city that is a bit warmer than Canton and is much more crowded featuring miles and miles of suburbs and lots of traffic. One thing I love about coming up to the North Country is that traffic is almost nonexistent.
Aside from writing I love to snowboard and to play guitar and to write music. I take pleasure in a lot of winter sports such as snow shoeing and ice skating. Listening to music is also very important to me I hardly go anywhere without my Ipod on.
I have had good and bad experiences with getting feedback on my work. I tend to have more trouble writing for English classes than I do in history but for the most part I have received relatively positive feedback. Although this is usually the case I took introduction to poetry last fall and received probably the lowest grade I have ever been given on a written assignment. Although the feedback in this instance was negative it really did not get to me and I improved with time.
When it comes to writing poetry I would say that I am influenced by poems I have read by Alan Ginsberg and some poems by Robert Frost. A poem by Frost titled “Provide Provide” stands out as a poem I really liked to read put much thought into attempting to understand. I was also very fascinated with a few poems by T.S. Elliot such as Prufrock. I have read a few of the sonnets written by Shakespeare and found those to also be quite captivating. Another influence which is somewhat poetic is music by Bob Dylan I have listened to him for many years and feel that through listening to his music and lyrics I was able to be more appreciative of poetry and more understanding when I was learning some of the finer points in my intro class. I really admire the work of Bob Dylan maybe because it was set to music it eased me into the truly listening to the words and attempting to find a broader meaning to them. Even though I have now read works by many well known poets I still find some songs by bob Dylan to be quite remarkable and to have a great affect on me.
I think that good poetry makes you experience emotion whether it is by relating it to your own life or just empathizing with the writer a good poem should make you feel something and because of that will stay with you. We discussed in class about how the poem should be targeted toward the audience and I think that this is also very important. Other than this complex or simple, short or long, happy or sad, a poem should make you feel and understand, even if your interpretation is not exactly what the author was attempting to convey.
In this class I hope examine some poems that I have not yet read or discussed. I also hope to put into practice what I have learned from other works and use this to create meaningful poems of my own. I also hope that some of the material which we will look at in class will influence my thinking and my writing.