Dose Poetry Matter Essay, Research Paper

Does Poetry Matter?

To me poetry does not matter. I do not like poetry because a poem is just a passage that contains a hidden meaning and I can never figure out what a poem is about. If poetry was not around then authors would just come out and say what they wanted to say . Their thoughts would not get confused and people would not miss the meaning that the author is trying to get across.

Poetry is just an art form like painting, music, sculpting, and writing. You could take away any art form and there would not be any major changes in the world but there would be a few minor changes. If poetry was to suddenly die the world would not just turn to waste. There would be some changes in the different cultures because poets would need something else to do with their time, but none that would change the whole culture to a totally different belief. Some of the minor changes that would appear if poetry vanished are greeting cards would be a lot different, songs would be different and people would need to find a new way of telling each other that they love them.

There are not a lot of people that read or write poetry. Most people that write poetry are also writers of other things such as books, stories, and articles. They could write their books instead of poems so they could still publish things and they would not be out of a job. There are also not a lot of people that read poetry. I am sure that people would not miss reading poetry in their everyday lives. Poetry is such a minute section in literature that if you went to a library and cleared out all the poetry books there would not be a lot more empty space.

The poem I picked is by Lewis Carroll and is from the story Alice In Wonderland. This poem is a parody of a poem by an English poet Isaac Watts. Both poems are from the Victorian age. During that time children were not allowed to have fun, you were born going to “Hell” unless you worked really hard in your life and could go to “Heaven”. Children were forced to memorize poems about how they were suppose to act and live. The poem by Isaac Watts clearly shows the Victorian age It was even one of the poems that the children had to memorize so they could learn how to behave in certain ways. Watts poem is against idleness and mischief. It says that children must stay busy all day, they should get a job and work, or spend their time studying. This poem clearly says that children should not have fun.

The poem by Lewis Carroll is also from the Victorian age. But his beliefs are the total opposite of Isaac Watts. Carroll rewrites Watts poem to make it sarcastic and to poke fun at the strict Victorian rules taught to children. In his poem Carroll Says the opposite of Watts. He says that children’s lives should be filled with nothing but fun. The children should be cheerful and should be smiling all day. Lewis Carroll’s poem is about nothing but how children should have fun in their lives and not just work all day.

I chose this poem because it was the only poem I could find around my house that is English literature. I also had some notes on what it was about which helped me a lot in figuring out the meaning of the poem.