Blog Post #6 Reflection

This essay was the hardest for me to write because I feel like poetry is one of my weakest points in English. I had a lot of trouble just understanding the poem itself. Since it was set in a very early time period, the diction and phrasing was extremely different than what I am used to seeing. Although it was hard to understand and depict sometimes, I feel like I got the general idea of the poem, and could still understand the attitude that the author had.


Throughout the poem, I was able to recognize the simple use of repetition, which helped me to create my thesis. I think my thesis was over all strong, and I used direct and apt quotes. I also think that I do a good job going into depth on each of my quotes, instead of leaving the quote without support. I think that the organization of my essay is also good. I think that it is clearly organized and it doesn't jump around. I do mention several devices that the author uses, and I think that it helps to develop the thesis better.


Although my essay was overall organized and convincing, I think that I still need to brush up on poetic devices. I think that I would have better analyzed the poem if I had better understood the devices being used. I haven't been exposed to a lot of poetry, and so I think that it would be beneficial to look over poetry and pick out the different devices used.  I also know that I still could've gone more in depth with each quote. Although I did explain them all, I know I could go even more in depth, including complexity within the writing. It's important that I keep in mind the "showing" instead of just "telling" and really focussing on the "how" aspect that the prompt addresses.


3 goals that I would like to focus on:
1. Review poetry. I think that if I go back and look at some of the poetry and poetic devices that I've learned over the years, it will make the poetry essay a lot easier for me. I need to just refresh my memory and reteach myself some of the devices.

2. Read a piece of poetry once a week,
I think familiarizing myself with poetry will really help me understand poetry better. Just seeing the structure of poems, the diction and the set up of the poem will ultimately help me depict what's going on in the poem.

3. Work on addressing complexity.
While I was reading and norming some of the essays, I noticed the 9-8 essays addressed the complexity in their essays. They used examples of paradox, and I know I didn't really use that example in my essay. I think that if I better focus in on complexity, my over all essay score will be higher.