Which aspect of the unit did I enjoy the most?
The aspect of the unit I enjoyed the most was, without any hesitation, the poetry presentations. Watching my friends perform their poems was a wonderful experience to begin with. The presentations made it possible to understand how poetry has a lot (and I mean A LOT!) of feelings hidden inside waiting to come alive. The performers not only gave these emotions with sound (reading), but also visualized them with facial expressions, some drama, and images that complemented the content of the poems beautifully. As for the time I performed, I also really enjoyed that. I practiced a long time for my poem, learnt what it meant, what feelings it had, got to know a poet really well with all his works, and I was able to bring the poem to life. I think all of the poetry presentations were wonderful and they were useful for our learning since they showed how poetry could be more than pieces of sentences put together.
- How did I feel about poetry before the poetry unit started and how do I feel (as a poet) now?
To be honest, when the unit first started, I pretty much “hated” poetry. Because we had focused on poetry in our Turkish Literature class throughout the whole first semester, I guess I was also a bit tired of it. Analyzing them seemed very hard to me and writing them was a nightmare! However, as the unit went by and we read examples from other poets in class and first started writing by imitating their forms/style, I started not finding it so hard and boring. But the actual time I really started enjoying writing poetry was writing our complete original pieces from scratch, not having to stick to a style, form or whatever. Then, I came to realize that poetry actual gave a lot of meaning to words and they felt and sounded even better when they were decorated with wonderful imagery. When I compare myself to the Goksu when the unit first started, I see a big difference in both comprehension and appreciation of poetry and also becoming a poet myself. (But still, I believe I express my feelings and ideas in a much better way in prose rather than poetry.)
What have I learnt in the poetry unit and from this project that is valuable to me?
This project has made me learn numerous important things about literature and poetry. First of all, analyzing poems was a skill that I built-up-to from zero. I also learnt to appreciate poetry: it's not always easy! I saw that even though sometimes you can't really get to the actual meaning of the poem, just the sound and rythm of the poem make it a wonderful experience: this is why one can also enjoy poems in a complete foreign language. Poetry is not just about the meaning we get out of it, it is also the music hidden in it that matters. In a way, this is how poetry may differ from prose. Poetry, however, just like prose has some elements to it that stregthens its messages. In the course of this project, my group and I focused on "imagery" and at the end of this project, I have built the confidence to say that I will be able to scrutinize any given poem in terms of literary devices and most of all imagery; and will be able to tell what effect it has on the meaning of the poem. This project has taught me to understand, appreciate and like poetry.