This is Stupid Stuff

Naturally I am one to despise poetry, I simply do not comprehend the meaning or purpose behind it. My homework was to read several poems and answer questions based on each, and naturally I did not understand on my own. I do not like hidden meanings, I would rather be told straight out what Shakespeare or Housman is trying to portray to me as the reader. So I required assistance and sought out Google's wise advice, while this did help me recognize the meaning/purpose behind the poems, it did not help me answer all of the questions; to answer those I really had to focus and use my poetry side of my brain, which was covered in cobwebs. I had to do an extensive house or "brain" cleaning to achieve success on this assignment. I do admit that it made it more pleasurable to read the poems the second time around. It made the words have meaning, rather than going through my brain and getting lost somewhere between comprehension and what I did earlier that day.

The first poem I read was Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?", I feel like this had some serious poemception that I would not have even been able to perceive without help. I simply thought it was about a man confessing how perfect he believed his true love to be, but poetry had to be sneaky and make it become so much more than that. Who would've thought it was about how Shakespeare was actually addressing all of mankind when he said "thee", and that it was a poem about how beautiful a writer he is, not this supposed "thee".

The other one I thought had acquired a hidden meaning was Housman's "Terence, This is Stupid Stuff", I concluded that it was talking about the qualities of alcohol and the purpose of it. I was to some extent right, except it had nothing to do about the alcohol, but instead it was about the necessity of poetry in everyone's life. But it was even more than just poetry, but rather Terence's poetry, which had a pessimistic, depressing mood to them. This "mood", as you can call it spoke the truth and therefore made whoever read Terence's poems stronger and more prepared for what life had to throw at them.

This homework was definitely a tough one for me. It took me several hours to complete, even with the service Google had to offer. Reading a poem is simple, but deciphering it is another story. I still do despise poetry, but even I have to admit that when I can understand a poem, it makes me like poetry for at least few minutes, well, until I have to read the next poem.