My Experiences with Poetry

Of course we have all read/heard of nursery rhymes and poems when we were young, but we did we really analyze them? I know I didn't. My first encounter with poetry was with "Humpty Dumpty". I don't really think this had any significance in terms of a strong message or meaning, but then again I never really looked at it in depth. I was around five or six years old when my Norwegian grandma read this to me. Aside from her accent, I really enjoyed listening to the rhymes and silly ways of this widely know riddle. To be honest, I mainly focused on the pictures so I could easily follow what was going on. Anyway, I learned to like nursery rhymes and it was not until middle school when I really began to read real poetry.

It was around seventh or eight grade when my class began to read poetry from the blandly beige literature books. I guess I didn't mind the poems we were reading...I was pretty neutral at the time. I though it would be easy, fun, and fairly enjoyable so I kept an open mind despite what my classmates were saying. The poems in the dreaded literature book were not half bad, such as Edgar Allen Poe. I actually really liked reading them although I had a psycho teacher that decided to scarily act them out in front of the class. Other than that, this is was a GOOD experience for me. When discussing the poetry amongst my peers I realized that there are so many different interpretations to poetry and this I loved. I'm not the kind of person who wants a straight shot, one way answer...I like options and different perspectives. Poetry gave this to me.

I learned that poetry is such a beautiful thing. No matter how small a poem may be, a very large thought or message can be carried out through those few words, lines, or whatever it may be. When I hear the word poetry, I get excited because I get to not only analyze what the author is saying but have that connection with what it means to me.

Conflict in Romeo and Juliet

In Romeo and Juliet there are so many different conflicts going on. One example of conflict is internal/personal conflict. This conflict occurs when Juliet is deciding who she loves and is sad for after Tybalt's death. "My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain, And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband." (3.2.115) This shows Juliet's angst about Tybalt's death. She loves Romeo... but he kind of killed Tybalt who was her cousin...woops. This conflict is important to overall themes of the entire play because it is a smaller battle in the huge fight between the two familes. The conflict that Juliet has with her self is showing that her character is unsure and sort of innocent about what to think. This is an important conflict in the play because Juliet keeps changing her mind about Romeo or Tybalt, Tybalt or Romeo. In the whole play, people are always changing their minds.
      
In my life I find that I do think things through a lot. I will have conversations in my head, not out loud like Juliet in the play, but I will think things through the way Juliet did. I think that I do argue with myself the way Juliet does People today think things through all of the time either out loud or in their head. Personally, I reason things out in my head. When I'm making an important decision or just thinking about what I need to do for the rest of the day I have a thought process. I'm not necessarily arguing and having a conflict with myself. This isn't really conflict for me, but if I am thinking about something I will just try to relax and maybe make a list to get all my thoughts out.

Romeo and Juliet.....It's Everywhere!

Romeo and Juliet is such a famous play and pretty much everyone roughly knows what it's about. There are movies, TV shows, and even songs today that share the same message or theme as this classic love story. Some are more obvious than others of course and when thinking about it...the movie Shrek popped into my head. Yes, yes, of course Twilight and West Side Story were in the back of my mind but for some reason I began to realize that these two are alike in so many ways (of course not in every way). I found that the characters somewhat match up and saw the similar message that "these two can't be together" even when Shrek/Fiona and Romeo/Juliet are madly in love. Here's a video that shows a little bit more on what I'm talking about..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5wWROI4oEU&feature=related
It's actually really weird, but funny at the same time. Overall it shows how they relate so that's all that really matters!
(There are sequels to this video that can be found in the sidebar if you are still interested.)