This past week (4/19 to 4/23) has been all about the mechanics. Since I'm mostly interested in math and science related subjects this unit stood out to me. Normally when I think of poetry, I think of frilly speech and hidden meanings, but this week we talked about how there's a strategy of rhythm. Comparable to many songs, poems too have rhythm and measures. Famous poets like Shakespeare and Robert Frost can be compared to famous musicians like Bach and Beethoven in the sense that they all had their own tastes, unique styles, and signatures works. For me, this was the value added.
In addition to set rhythms, there are also units of measure. Measuring poetry, called meter, is divided into units called feet (foot in singular). By utilizing different lengths, and repetitions of feet, poets create strategic works of art that speak to their particular style or meaning. With this newfound knowledge I think it'll be easier to create higher quality poems with less effort.
