My opinion on what “poetry” is has not changed at all. I think poetry is just a word that defines expressing one’s own thoughts or ideas. Even something that cannot think can express “poetry”. I see poetry everywhere, even in outer space. Just the silence of the black abyss speaks an unlimited amount of words to me. The class has been very calm and focused, but I feel we lose the true nature of the words in the poem when it’s all based on opinion. I want to know what the writer was thinking or if he was thinking at all when he wrote those words. Maybe you can tell us to search some information on the poem and then come to class and mix in the writer’s thoughts with our opinion. It then becomes more than an opinion and something we can learn about the writing. I do agree with the statement you made about always using “I think” and how it can become very tiresome without having any true knowledge to support your opinion.
Something else that I feel should be improved on is the way we analyze the writings in the book. When we read “The Sick Rose” and tried to find out what it was about, I felt that the writing was lost in translation. It became a festival for thoughts, too many ideas and opinions to focus on. Maybe I’m more intrigued to read about what inspired the writing then what I think of it. What does an opinion change if the facts are right in front of you, or are they really facts if the writing is unknowable.
I agree with your thoughts that poetry can be found anywhere and therefore cannot be clearly defined. I disagree that our class is opinion based, intrepreting poetry is one way that we all can learn. The professor picks at our mind to help us to think deeper but does not punish us if we are off because there is no right or wrong answer. I also believe that looking up the authors intention may be interesting but it is not necessarily factual. It is not certain the their input will change someones interpretation when they read the poem.