Because I have the above beliefs, I've found myself doing a crazy amount of revision. I don't grow too attached to any specific draft of my poem, because I know it will be constantly changing. I think this is both helpful and harmful. This is helpful because I'm able to revise and let go of aspects of my poem, even if I've worked extremely hard on them. This is harmful because, I'm still unhappy with the drafts that I turn in. I see that my poem is changing, but I cannot tell if it's genuinely getting better. I think the trouble I'm having is that when I started my poem, I never envisioned it becoming what it currently is. This isn't necessarily good or bad, and I think I just need to spend more time making sure I'm satisfied the draft I turn in.
Revising poetry is difficult for me. I've never written this many drafts of a single poem in such a short period time. I'm used to revising essays and I find that extremely easy. Poetry, because of the level of beauty it requires, strikes me as more difficult in the revision process. I am, however, proud of myself for not being afraid to change my poem and taking the risk to hopefully make it better.
I've always enjoyed writing poetry but I was surprised by how difficult it was to revise my poem according to some critiques I received. I was able to successfully revise sections I was unhappy with, but I found it difficult to revise sections that I didn't necessarily see the problem with, but Mr. Allen didn't like. I'm actually very glad this happened. I think it's important to be frustrated during the writing process, and the last revised draft I handed in was certainly the most frustrating and time-consuming one I've written.
I don't think my poem isn't quite near done, but I don't expect it to ever be. The drafts I've written, although not perfect, clearly demonstrate the effort and time I put into this process. I've enjoyed writing and revising this poem and it is very rewarding to see the progress I've made both in my thinking and my writing.
4 comments:
I agree that you sometimes have to be willing to let go of your original poem to make it better. For this poem, I think I didn't do a very good job of that and that is why my revisions aren't the greatest. For my next revision, I will have to try harder to take risks and sometimes even get rid of things that I think are good to make room for things that are great. I'm sure that these skills come with practice, so the fact that you had a lot of practice with excessive revising in junior high has probably helped you be a good reviser in high school. Hopefully, I will get to the point where I am willing to take risks and make drastic changes to improve my poem soon.
After the second revision of my poem, I felt like my poem was the best it could be and I really didn't want to change anything. I agree, it was hard to let go of some of the lines that I thought were perfect in the poem, but I after this last revision, I think I found the difference between a good poem and a great poem. Great poems need to be revised over and over again even if you think they are flawless the first time. I also agree with Brandon because challenging your brain and taking risks in your writing is probably going to help us in the future.
I agree that revising can be an especially daunting process, especially when you do not see a problem with your original work. However, I also believe that revising can be a helpful experience because it allows you to let go of problematic pieces of a paper.
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