šŖ¶AIP 97 So, I'm Learning Poetry In 30 Days
Every high school English class I went through the same inner battle.
I sit down. The teacher goes to the board to start class. I fold my hands in prayer, and mutter under my breadth, please not poetry, please not poetry, please not poetry.
I would rather do anything elseāread Catcher In The Rye, write an essay, bleach my eyes. Poetry confused me. I was taught to treat it like an academic war dance, taking my analytic knife and attempting to cut up each sectionāIām sorry, stanzaāinto little pieces to identify what in goodness gracious was going on. Most of the time, I was left disappointed.
My video game corrupted brain simply couldnāt handle the likes of T.S. Eliot, Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson. Thankfully, once I graduated high school I wasnāt forced to touch it again. So I pretended poetry had a restraining order against me.
Which brings us to today. I still donāt get poetry. And if you're reading this, you probably donāt either.
But after the other learning challenges Iāve done on learning pixel art, and the memory palace technique, and realizing my biases and misconceptions there, I thought Iād give poetry another shot. Iāve discovered weāve been taught poetry wrong. Itās not about intellectual masterbation, it doesnāt require insane skill, and it can actually enrich our lives a great deal.
So, now I'm trying to learn poetry in 30 days. Why 30 days? Well, I needed some way to artificially create a narrative to enhance the emotional charge of my points so that you would be moved to change and this is what I came up with.
Sometime in the coming weeks, I'll demystify poetry gobstopping the likes of Shakespeare and bringing the art back into the hands of us common folk. I'll explain the essential elements that make up a great poem. And finally, I'll write some gosh darn poetry.
To make it even more fun, I'm going to sprinkle three poetry stand offs throughout (specifically in the video I make of this idea) in which I read a poem I wrote during this challenge alongside two other similar themed poems from famous poets and ask a friend to rate which one is best. Will my measly thirty days of learning prevail? Guess, you'll have to read to find out.
P.S. Iām graduating this spring 2025 from Cornell with a degree in Human Development and am beginning the exciting job search. I'm a content creator with over four years of educational YouTube, blogging, course creation, and podcasting experience. Knowledgeable about researching, producing, collaborating, social media marketing, and selling content. Looking to help another educational creator spread their ideas more effectively through ghostwriting or collaborating on production. please reach out to aidan@aidanhelfant.com if you are or know anyone who might be interested.
My resume is linked here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nDGG-0oBDtYyZWa-5x6ghWLnLyUEPz87/view?usp=sharing
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