(NOTE: This is the first draft of my First Long Lit Paper, so enjoy guys!)
(P.S. Lance Maravillas, you should remember that first poem. XD)
I love and enjoy poetry, even though sometimes I find some poems difficult to understand. I love poetry for many reasons, but three of these stand out. One is that poetry helped me to form friendships with the truest and dearest friends I had in my entire life. Second is that poetry helped me feel certain emotions or feelings I have never experienced. Third, it opened my eyes into an entirely new perspective of things around me. Thus, poetry helped me to appreciate the beauty of being human and imperfect, and for me it is a good thing.
When I was a young child, I used to think of poetry as nursery rhymes cleverly woven into tunes that children love to sing like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”. I always thought that poems are supposed to always contain rhyming words to present an image of a cow jumping over a moon, or a tiny, nimble man jumping over a candlestick. During those “grueling” kindergarten years, our teacher required us to read out loud many nursery poems such as “Humpty Dumpty” and “Mother Goose”, and recite them endlessly. We were also required to make our own “poems” (the quotation marks, since I am much ashamed to call those as true poems), and my mind was endlessly searching for rhyming words such as “dime” and “mime” because the teacher said that “the verses must rhyme with each other; if not, then a low mark”. Moving to my elementary years, I was curious of what “true” poems look like. I remember the first “true” poem we read in class, and that was the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer:
But only God can make a tree.
Reading it now, I never knew that it would be that complex, nor I never knew that many messages can be conveyed from a simple poem. But back then, all I knew (and the teacher perhaps) was that it is true that “only God can make a tree”. So that was the moral lesson of the day.
I also recall a poem I hurriedly memorized in the boys’ bathroom since I didn’t know that we were required to recite one in class. Opening my Skill Builders English book hastily, I came across a poem by Joseph Parry:
New Friends and Old Friends
Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
New-made friendships, like new wine,
Age will mellow and refine.
Those are silver, these are gold.
New-made friendships, like new wine,
Age will mellow and refine.
Friendships that have stood the test -
Time and change - are surely best;
Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray,
Friendship never knows decay.
Time and change - are surely best;
Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray,
Friendship never knows decay.
For 'mid old friends, tried and true,
Once more we our youth renew.
But old friends, alas! may die,
New friends must their place supply.
Once more we our youth renew.
But old friends, alas! may die,
New friends must their place supply.
Cherish friendship in your breast -
New is good, but old is best;
Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
New is good, but old is best;
Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
Since I hurriedly memorized this poem, and I was young back then, I never got the chance to appreciate it in a deeper level. But reading it now, I realized that this poem greatly affected my life by teaching me how to appreciate true friendship and love.
My real affair with poetry started during my high school days. My high school teacher back then required us to make our own poems. I wrote a poem entitled “The Breaking Dawn” (although sadly I lost my copy), then we were required to read it at class. While reading the poems we made, I was amazed that those poems reflected my classmates’ emotions, and how I wondered why I never experienced those feelings they had. We cried when one exclaimed how broken her heart is. We laughed when one recited how he drastically failed during his first (and last) date. Suddenly, I felt that I was exploring another kind of dimension―a world that is not mine. I felt thankful then that poetry exists because it brings you to realities you never knew that existed. It helps you broaden your knowledge about the realities of being human, of being alive. That poem reading experience helped all of us to strengthen our bonds with one another, and the joy of reading poetry lived in our hearts because of it.
Moving to college life, I realized that besides from letting you feel unknown emotions, poems can actually open your eyes to an entirely new perspective in life. I was happy to hear that poetry was offered in this university, so that all of us can be able to experience the wonders of expanding your knowledge and appreciating the beauty of art all at the same time. One day in college class, we read the poem “Ithaca” by Constantine Cavafy. In this poem, these stanzas struck me:
Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.
Ever since the day this poem was taken in class, I kept on referring this to my friends who are looking for comfort in times of despair or who are gloriously celebrating their triumph (mostly academically related). I told them that even though you do not get what you desire or want, the important thing is that these obstacles can serve as great opportunities and lessons to carry on with reaching your ultimate goal. It opened me to the fact that a goal simply serves as a catalyst for us to move on. I learned that the beauty of reaching dreams is not the dream itself, but the vast experiences and the lessons learned while reaching that dream.
Truly, poetry did help me become a better person. Reading poetry enables me to experience new feelings which in turn can serve as valuable lessons in life. Listening to poetry helps me connect with other people and their emotions. Writing poetry enables me to share my thoughts creatively and at the same time to be able to express emotions whether to convey a special message, or to plainly express one’s feelings. Poetry defines humanity in different ways, and by this we gain knowledge on how to live a fulfilled life. Poetry makes us feel the true essence of being human, and that is the true essence of poetry.
