Poetry: More Than a Pretty Description 

I’m in high school so I searched on how to write poetry properly and I found your channel. I then entered a rabbit hole into your channel, and found the rest of your helpful content. I have to say that you are talented to continue making these videos, even though your channel doesn’t have many views, which I found surprising. Your channel is extremely underrated, and it has so many helpful tips about writing. Keep making videos, and thank you for your help!

Poetry has always intimidated me. That I can't write well enough or don't know enough or don't have the education specific for it. I just started a poetry "journal" yesterday though that I plan to scribble my thoughts in often as I can, as poetry.

finally someone who can actually explain depth

Like humanity itself, great art is both unique and universal.

I find your videos hypnotizing, and even if my knowledge of English could be better and I can't understand all your words, I can't stop listening. I'm not an English native speaker, and I have much to learn. Maybe poetry is far from what I can reach, but it fascinates me, I enjoy the sound of it, and when I finally can understand it is a great pleasure. Thanks for making these videos. I hope to learn much from you.

Hello! Yesterday I watched your video "How to read (and even enjoy) poetry" and I really loved it, it really inspired me. I really live this video too. I love writing poetry and I always write when I feel there is something I have to say or express about something important. I liked your example on the autumn's leaves but it's my favourite season and I wrote one poem on it, it wasn't just about the beauty of autumn but the inner silence and the sense of peace it brings about. The problem I have is that I feel like I can only write when there is something deep within that needs to get out. Recently I have been feeling uninspired and whenever I try I feel like I can't really write anything worthwhile. Your videos made me want to try more though, so thank you.

It was really helpful and concise. And, your example of the Autumn Leave poem just made it so much more engaging and clear. I was really surprised and deeply delighted the moment you suddenly connected your overvation of fallen leaves with a fallen relationships, it is just to resonating with me!

I agree with you, Andrew, that "it's a combination of the specific beautiful imagery and the deeper more resonant themes that make the poem sing." But I would go further and say that it's not so much what a poet does as how he does it. One would think that "autumn leaves" was a completely played out subject for poetry; it is decidedly and forever "old hat." Is this true, though? Consider this poem entitled "These Autumn Leaves": These autumn leaves upstage me when they blow; outrageous churns of colors cut across my sidewalk waltz left footless by their show. I haven't burst to beauty, ripened fine, as yellow's jaundice, and red's but a rash; such colors couldn't conjure looks sublime. Because language is open-ended and ever various, poets have the ability to breathe new life into dead-tired subjects. Again, you're right to say, "Our job as poets is not just to say pretty things in pretty ways." Consider this poem by Richard Brautigan entitled "Haiku Ambulance": A piece of green pepper fell off the wooden salad bowl: so what? By affixing this simple question to the imagery that precedes it, the poet seems to be dismissing the idea that barebone imagery, by itself, can ever carry the weight of the poem. The "so what" seems to be asking for, or taking notice of, something that is not there. It is up to every poet to provide this missing element and weld it to the imagery.

You are wise. I've been down a 8 year rabbit hole trying to find out what links Nabokov, Conor oberst and Eminem together. I've poured over their work looking for patterns. I've took so many detours and learned so many things. This channel has given me answers by giving me more questions. Thank you so much! I hope in the future you make some longer videos; I know RU-vid rewards the shorter ones, but you are so knowledgeable and precise with your language. You are a great teacher that I would love to hear go more in depth in subjects. Any way, thanks again!

Andrew, i am getting so much from your videos. I would like to share them in a group that i run, for creative writing with mental health clients. Are we free to share these? Thank you for creating these - and i do appreciate that they are quick to watch!

I was just looking at my analytics on RU-vid, where I discovered that two people found me/were recommended one of my videos after watching THIS video by you…and thus, I discovered YOUR RU-vid. Social media…what a universe! Great content- I enjoyed this video very much. 😊 Sincerely, a poet from Arkansas.

thank you so much for these videos on poetry. I'm a senior in high school who is teaching a creative writing class, and I can't wait to show these to my students! A lot of them have showed apprehension to poetry and I think your videos can help show them its beauty.

Wonderful and straightforward explanation of poetry! I experienced an epiphany while watching. Thank you!

I have alwyas struggled to understand writing poetry, and you put it so simply that I am now excited to try. Thank you so much for making this video!

I paused this at 1:56 cause I felt inspired As precious metals slowly find thier new litter Thier excited chatter echoes, carried along the wind The smallest of creatures sing, shelter has arrived To hold the warmth of summer in thier dens Until they slowly rise to the canopy again, to hold it back One must imagine the autumn leaves happy How did i do?

Wonderful video, you are able to keep my attention and make me care about a subject I really thought was not for me. I especially liked the part where you went through the steps of creating the idea behind a poem I will keep that in mind and maybe try to write something myself.

Falling leaves are a very popular subject with their windswept rustlings, settling anon :D Thanks, Andrew.

Andrew, please, keep doing what you are doing! The editing, the quality of the video are awesome!

your videos are so simple yet such an attention catcher, i never got bored

Would anyone in your audience care to comment on whether this is just pretty or more than that? A conversation between departing Summer and arriving Autumn. Autumn whispers: “I’m here, winter is nigh”. Summer: replies: “Why do you sigh? Earth awaits, hopes high. Crops sway, boughs bend With Demeter’s bounty That she has sent. Swains make merry For their barns have many. Filled to the rafter Ring to their laughter. They sing their hymn Thankful to Him. Sylvan rainbows Don their best. Clouds dance. It’s September’s fest. Why do you sigh? Winter may be nigh But spirits are high. Your gifts are many, Full of zest.”

The Red Wheelbarrow is not just a red wheelbarrow YET it is wet and sits beside the chickens. Something portentous in that wheelbarrow that it's proximity to chickens seems to be negated.

I have been writing poetry since I was in elementary school. My first poem was called All the Shades of Green. My reference was in the variety of things in nature even to the variety in hue. My poetry centers around spiritual and natural themes. I here to describe life's meaning in the context of nature and spirituality. Poetry is more than just beauty but what does this beauty represent. It more like saying she's more than just a pretty face.

thanks!

I agree with you. Poetry can be a whole lot story too.

For me the poem by Hopkins is right on the edge. I struggle to understand what some of his images actually mean (in plain English, that is--I am not looking for esoteric meaning, just real world description), but the soundscape is so compelling and the introduction and final turn are so clear that the poem as a whole is still successful, even though I wish he were maybe a touch less obscure in his descriptive language. And yet, if he had been clearer, perhaps the sound of the poem would have been less compelling?

Autumn leaves are in the process of dying, at peak beauty. Then the wind shakes them loose, rustling in the breeze. They fall to the ground. Blowing a across the lawn, down the street. Still colorful. Still rustling. Cut off from any moisture or chlorophyl once supplied by the tree. Autumn is all starvation, death and decay. For the leaf

What a good explanation! As you was speaking I remember the Mexican poet Gorostiza and his poem called Oracion. Notice how short it is and do all you said: La barca morena de un pescador, cansada de bogar, sobre la playa se puso a rezar: ¡Hazme, Señor, un puerto en las orillas de este mar! MÁS POEMAS DE JOSÉ GOROSTIZA Biblioteca Digital Ciudad

Dammit your have resonated me in this lesson to be effective, that I feel so compelled to oblige!

How do you feel that paintings and poems have in comming ? Your description of poetry made me think of the way I myself define art . Great video!

To sum up, 1. Pretty/intriguing description 2. How you connect/ why it's important. Did I get that right?

My think maybe the 'redwheelbarrow' is the poet himself or anyone who is reading it cause as a human with so much baggage to carry around and still needing to move around regardless(of how many wheels the wheelbarrow have) so much depends upon him because he has a lot to finish., like his work or bringing up a family.

Your videos are very helpful: concise, informative, clearly developed, and often amusing! Thank you! Anyway, I'm hoping you can help me with something...I would appreciate a little clarification about two of your videos on poetry. In one you talk about how poetry is not a mystery to be solved, but rather a snapshot of a moment in time, and we (as readers) should not get too caught up in trying to decipher the so-called "hidden meanings" of the poem. Instead we should simply try to put ourselves into that moment in time in order to "feel" what the poet is describing. However, in this video, you suggest that poetry should be more than just a "pretty description" (or snapshot, if you will). You explain how poetry should provide more insight for the reader by supplying a resonant meaning (theme, perhaps?) and not just focus on a beautiful moment in time. I feel like these two videos are contradictory in their assertions. Am I missing something? Please help me understand! 🙂

I have always thought poetry and Shakespeare a huge waste of time and your video has not changed my thinking.

Mr. Bashford, I love your channel. Would you teach us how not to use the word that all the time? Thank you

You know your in it deep when you have meta books like "The Rhetoric of Rhetoric" lol

Poetry scares me. Intimidating to write. Will readers get it?

Amazing video, though I wonder, how is the red wheelbarrow not more than a pretty description? Is it the line "so much depends upon"? Thank you for your videos!

I prefer the Prettyverse to just the Universe

" What have I got in my pocket?"

Lol I did all the things you shouldn't do in poetry which is why nobody would read them