New beginning

This semester I decided to change the topic of my blog and turn into something new.

Poetry is believed to be a field dedicated only to well educated literary scholars with huge knowledge and a "talent to understand" or other artists who use poems as inspiration to their new works. It's probable that I would think the same way if I hadn't met my Polish teacher in high school. During three years of education she managed to refute my beliefs concerning poetry and show that it's for everyone. Or at least for me.

Belief numer one: It's impossible to understand a poem without knowing inside-out the artist and the whole age that he or she lived in.

It's obvious that a poem is immersed in life of its author - even if he or she doesn't write directly about their feelings, there's always a connection. But is it really necessary to know every piece of information about the poet's life? I learned that the basic facts will be enough.

Belief number two: Reading poetry doesn't give you anything.

If you want to unnderstand a poem, you need to be focused, sometimes you'll be obliged to read about the author, everything is written in such a complicated way... But reading poetry gives you a new perspective. You can find stunning metaphores or comparisons after which you'll think: "this conveys my feelings so perfectly even though this poem was written 100 years ago".

Today I would like to start a new journey - through poetry of English-language authors. I want to present one artist in each post - the most important pieces of information about their life, one poem and my comment on it. Undoubtely, it will be for me a big challenge because till date, I used to read only Polish poetry (but I've always wanted to befriend Emily Dickison or Edgar Allan Poe). Of course, I'm not pretending that I've mastered the skill of interpretation, that I've done a huge research or read a biagraphy of each author. Neither, I don't want to say that the academic or theoretical approch is bad. I only want to say that everyone can - with a bit of sensitivty and willingness - find their own interpretation.

Let's start!