poetry

Evaluating Poetry The poem “Gods Will for You and Me” is the good poem and “Pied Beauty” is the bad poem according to Perrine standards. The central purpose of both these poems is to encourage the readers’ individual feelings about God. The poem “Pied Beauty” is extremely didactic. The writer of this poem is preaching God on the reader. They are trying to get the reader to see all of the things that God has created on the earth and how amazing each one is. The whole poem seems to be a continuous praise on God. The poem even ends with a very clear cut statement, “Praise him.” This may leave a reader feeling uncomfortable or uneasy. Some of the phrases used in “Pied Beauty” do not seem to be the best choices for the writing. The phrase “brinded cow” does not sound as nice as other phrases and does not make me want to love the cow like the writer is suggesting. The phrase “with swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;” breaks the flow of the poem and could have been left out or worded in a different way. The poem “Gods Will for You and Me” is getting the point across to be “loyal to God” in a much simpler and easy going manner. The poem is more realistic and although it has a childlike rhyme to it, it is still fresh and original. It makes me feel, as a reader, that following Gods plan is easy and simple, such as the poem itself. While it is sweet and sentimental it is not over the top or over stimulating to the readers emotions. When it comes to evaluating poetry according to Perrine’s standards, I don’t agree that rating a poem good or bad should be based on certain rules. As a reader, if what you are reading is making you feel good inside then it should be considered a good poem, even if it is sentimental, rhetorical, or didactic. For me, when I read poetry, if I can make sense of what the writer is saying and makes me feel any emotion from the writing, then I declare it a good poem. Didactic poetry should be considered good also,