Message from cmayfield

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, I was too engaged by the "Using Poetry" portion of the October 11 class. That's mostly because I'm generally not enthusiastic about poetry and other forms of literature (I'm more interested in historical events).

However, I did take some useful notes during the poetry portion of this day's class. I learned that poetry is a valuable form of communication because (for some people) it's easier to remember than other forms of literature, perhaps due to it brevity in comparison to other forms of literature, which is useful for passing information from one generation to another.

Also, learned that poetry is a way of passing coded communications. I was able to identify with this point because African Americans used songs in a similar fashion during the slavery period of U.S. history. Many of the "slave songs" (with which I am intimately familiar because I've sung them many times) consist of verses that are poetic in addition to be functional.

Similarly, because poetry can be used to communicate in coded ways, Prof. Schaberg reminded me that poetry is good for exercising one's intellect.

Finally, Prof. Schaberg reminded me that poetry speaks to the soul. It tends to be less effective in this manner for me (as is the case with men in general in comparison to women), but I do not question the truth of this point.[Edit by="cmayfield on Jan 2, 3:36:31 PM"][/Edit]