It's Not All Poetry

Today in psych, Mr. Womack started the class by handing each student a slip of paper.  We read them out loud- each was fairly nonsensical; part of mine read, “Shutters shut and shutters and so shutters shut and shutters and so and so shutters and so shutters shut and so shutters shut and shutters and so. And so shutters shut and so and also. And also and so and so and also.”  After each student read their paper, we were informed that half of the paragraphs were written by the mentally insane, while the other half were poets.  After a semester spent analyzing a few odd poems, I thought I had seen the weirdest of the weird.  Then, I learned that the above quote was actually from a poem.  To say the least, poetry has always slightly bothered me.  I have the firm opinion that poetry is often redundant, over-the-top, and not as deep as the poet seems to think.  Our analysis tends to make me enjoy poems more, as we discover the deeper meaning behind some things I first saw as cheesy, but this specific poem brought me back to everything that had bothered me about poetry in the first place.  Although the past year has given me a better appreciation for poetry, psych today reminded me that nothing is perfect, and I have some serious problems with this poem by Gertrude Stein.  I’ll say solid effort at being creative, but sometimes, you have to know when to stop.  Repetition will only get you so far.