Poetry Enjoyment Levels
Sometimes poetry just doesn’t go well with all types of emotions. For example, when I am happy I don’t care to read anything depressing. Why would I? I am happy, I don’t want to be sad. The same goes for other feelings as well.
Here is a graph of my poetry enjoyment level per emotion:
Not to take away from certain emotions within poetry, but this is just how I feel; I read according to my attitude. I am always a bit sour towards the reading if it is not according to my present emotion. Maybe this is why I can’t stand certain authors–I’m looking at you Emily Dickinson!
Well, maybe not. She wrote in many different themes: morbidity, flowers, gardens, Christianity. Oh wait, maybe that is why. I would have added another notch for ‘flowers and little ponies’ on my graph, but it didn’t occur to me at the time.
What about you? Can you read any type of poem no matter what emotion you have or are you like me?
Descartes
July 13, 2008 @ 8:47 am
I grew up reading Little Willie Poems and The Walrus and The Carpenter, so I have always had a hard time getting into really deep poems. O Captain, My Captain is about as deep as I go into Whitman, for example.
So I can pretty much read a poem in any mood, but I do prefer a silly poem when happy and maybe something like When I Was One and Twenty when I’m a bit sad.
Gary R. Hess
July 13, 2008 @ 12:29 pm
I love O Captain, My Captain. Whitman is one of those poets who I just can’t get enough of. Him, Poe, John Donne, and a few others are just amazing to me.
CatSynth
July 18, 2008 @ 11:01 am
When I’m “happy” or feeling another positive emotion, I can pretty much read anything. Indeed, I am quite open to sad, or bleak or dark material when I’m happy. This applies to film as well as to written art forms.
The reverse is not true, however. When I’m sad or depressed, I can’t read anything happy. Humor works, though.