Poetry Reading Response

As poetry and I have always had a rocky relationship, I approached this week’s reading from a skeptical standpoint. That being I said, I took a lot from Burroway’s technical outlook of the writing of poetry. There was a point when I figured that prose, broken into many lines, would magically become free verse poetry. Perhaps a part of me still does, to a degree, but I found Burroway’s lessons on sound helpful helpful.
Specifically, I found the use of alliteration and connotation to be helpful reminders on what can be done with the form of the English language. There is subtlety in message, and then subtlety in form, and even though I’ve been aware of such technical knowledge before, it’s faded over time. So, the idea of using sounds throughout a line to tie the line together internally and with surrounding other lines was a fresh reminder of what can be done with the work. As I’ve attempted to write free form poetry in the past, these are probably lessons I’ll use most.
Additionally, I wish they had used Sylvia Plath’s “Metaphors” instead of “Stillborn”. While it has more form than “Stillborn”, “Metaphors” shows the power of the density mentioned by Burroway, as well as keeping to symbolic nine syllables for each of the nine lines.