Learning English Poetry

Dewi Khoiru Umma Mahrunisa

C-12320141

What is poetry? Have I ever heard the term poet? What does poem mean? Those tree questions were lining up in my mind when I knew one of the subjects that I would be learned in the fourth semester was Poetry.  All I ever knew about poetry was just the meaning that I got in my third semester in Introduction to English Literature subject. Poetry is the science that learned about poem. Poem itself is a piece of writing in literary works. Afterwards the creator of the poem is called as poet. However I did not know more about this subject. This under knowing condition resulted to my weaknesses in learning poetry. I found my difficulties in elaborating the explanation from the lecturer‚ interpreting the poem that is given‚ and knowing some of poets who has been created some great poems that is given by the lecture as the example in learning process.

One of the weaknesses that I faced in learning English Poetry is elaborating the explanation from the lecturer‚ Mr. Muzakki- known as Mr. Kiki. In learning process Mr. Kiki conveyed the subject in a good way through slide show that is prepared before coming to the class and explained it as well. He had different manner of lecturing from other lecturers.  Mr. Kiki never called or knew the name of his students in English Poetry class. It is because the attendance is based on the Rubric Peer and Self Evaluation given which is submitted by the students in every meeting in the end of the class. One of the questions on that Rubric Peer and Self Evaluation was “Asking meaningful question”. Actually I could understand Mr. Kiki’s explanation‚ but in fact I asked him so rarely in purpose to make I understand about the subject more. Hence‚ almost in every meeting I scored myself just around two or three for that question. Further‚ I also wrote “asking meaningful question” in chart “I could improve on”. Unfortunately this “asking meaningful question” relates with the question “helping the class understand” that is why I also could not give a high score for this question. The score I gave for myself just around three or four. However sometimes I also scored six or seven for this question because I helped my friend understood about the explanation even just with those two students who seated beside me.

Another problem I had in English Poetry class besides elaborating the explanation was interpreting the poem given in the learning process. The aim of giving this poem was to make the students could comprehend more about the subject explained before through an example. Unhappily‚ I had different perception of giving the poem as the example. After giving and explaining about the examples Mr. Kiki always asked us‚ as the students‚ what did we get from the poems? Or what did you understand from the poems? This kind of questions always drove me crazy in the class‚ because I often had a wrong or different interpretation with the lecturer‚ Mr. Kiki‚ whom I believe know more about the poem with no doubt. It might be caused of my weaknesses in memorizing vocabularies‚ moreover poem uses the secondary modeling system of language. It did not help me at all‚ instead made me more confused to understand and comprehend the meaning of the words‚ furthermore to know the meaning of the poem implicitly. More‚ sometime some poets also used “strange word”‚ it means something the used the words which have meaning in cultural or social context based on their place of lifetime. How I could stand for this kind of situation then?

When we learned about a poem it would be better if we know more about the creator‚ who are in this case known as the poet. In learning a deeper meaning of a poem or the meaning of poem implicitly must be followed in knowing the poet of that poem itself. Unluckily I could not interpret the implicit meaning of a poem easily. I believed this weakness was related to my other weakness of knowing the poet of the poem itself. I was so “blind” about the expansion of poetry whether in past or now on. Why did we need to know about the poet in understanding and comprehending the meaning of a poem? Because I thought‚ this knowing of the poet would help us to understand and comprehend the implicit meaning of a poem. This opinion was a result of my conclusion that social culture could influence the way a poet wrote down his or her poem. I did not know whether my conclusion about the relation of the poets and their own poem was right or not. It was just my own opinion about my weaknesses in learning English Poetry.

I had difficulties in learning English Poetry so far‚ and those difficulties must be solved soon. I believe does more reading about the poem also the history about the poet will help me in better understanding of this subject. Therefore I need to be more diligent and active in learning process in the class.