Having an interest in writing for several years, I have taken English Classes, Creative Writing, Composition and Rhetoric; however, finding a class focused on poetry is a task in itself. Poetry is covered in several classes, such as: Women in Literature.
Studying a large variety of artists, analysis is a key point in becoming a poet. By reading poems from famous authors and observing how they design poems poets gains a greater understanding of good and bad poetry. It also helps a poet develop a sense of self and perspective. Of course, it is life that determines how a person's unique identity and point-of-view affect style preferences.
In some poems use of metaphor and concept are the most important aspect. Abstraction of thought and perception of the world is difficult to relate to; therefore, people refer to famous authors autobiographies or other information to assemble a cohesive guess of what they were thinking when they wrote the poem.
Sometimes analysis focuses on the poetic form, such as: alliteration, rhythm, rhyme, free-verse, and so-on. Technique validates a poem as poetry, as opposed to short stories or flash fiction.
Each poet has a different way of expressing themselves as a person. Some use poetic license and some try to get inside the reader's mind. They always send a message. One way to analyze poetry is finding the main message.
Poems are a small bundle of words expressing a huge amount of information. They also mean different things to different people. By no means am I trying to say I am the poetry authority. It is a personal analysis, breaking down poems word-by-word and studying the author's history. After it is broken down into units it is easy to find an overall meaning.
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