Growth as a Poet Reflection
I believe my perspective grew in many ways throw the course of this project. I felt at the beginning my poem was just words, but words that didn’t mean anything to me. Then I realized that in order to have a perspective I had to make it personal. I had to add in my frustrations and thoughts about power, and how I think it should be perceived and how it can be a positive force if used correctly. This was when my perspective and frustrations about power started to come through strong and clear in my poem. Examples of this would be, “Sir I admire your general rule, that every powerful man is a fool. And use their power for selfish motives, but, power can also be a tool.” And “Not all have lost their human care, to help a brother in despair.” Once I did this it made me connect with the poem intern helping me connect with the audience on a personal level making it real, and believable not rehearsed.
Flow/ rhyme scheme
I feel that in the course of this project I made lots of crucial changes to my poem. The biggest change I did was improve my rhyme scheme. My poem at the beginning started with a good rhyme scheme but it gradually got worse as the poem went on, intern losing the flow and meaning of the poem instead of growing and improving. Example of this,
“There are ones that deserve there rule
Because of all their hard work
And drive to show, there are still honest to good men
Who want to be more than the average Moe or Joe.”
But the more drafts I made, slowly it got better and better. I tried to focus on things like rhyming ABAB or AABB, syllables, line length, and number of lines in the beginning of my poem that way I could replicate the same things throughout my poem. I found doing this greatly impacted the mood of my poem positively. Example of how it improved,
“But some I believe have a reason to rule
Because they work hard and respect even the fools.
Just honest to good men and women, with a drive to show,
That they can make a positive difference
With their powerful tool.”
Making lines understandable
In many of my pear and group critiques I got comments about several of my lines/stanzas being confusing or hard to fallow. This was very crucial because if my reader can’t understand what I’m saying they are not going to understand the message or perspective of my poem. One line that many got confused with was, “Not all have been grandfathered in.” I intern changed it to, “Not all have been grandfathered in, like a sons priority over the working majority.” Because it wanted it to let people now not all powerful people are powerful just because they got born into a powerful family, but some have worked their way to the top. I hope my change helped the reader have a better understanding of my message.
Repetition
Another poetic device I really tried to focus on was repetition. I felt that if I used it properly it could really enhance my poem. In the beginning the only thing I repeated was Sir and, “So Sir, open your mind and see it as so. Don’t be a fool. There is still good in the power you think you know.” I did this at the beginning and end of my poem. I felt that I could do better and emphasize on more things by repeating them, so I made more changes. In my final draft I repeated several things like Not All Have, Sir, Don’t be a Fool, and Powerful Tool. This really helped add more complexity as well more meaning to the message poem.