#1 (a rebel yell needs to know what it's screaming at!)

So, in class today I was told that this Intermediate Creative Writing class would be studying the forms of poetry and that we would write a poem each week in one of these forms. To those of you less familiar with poetry, you are probably wondering what is wrong with this statement. After all, it makes common sense, right? However, my professor last semester spent most of his time metaphorically beating the form out of my poems. My first submissions were usually returned with the comment "you sound like you are 200 hundred years old." Now, I had never really studied poetry prior to last semester, so I assumed that all poetry had a distinct ending rhyme scheme and a general structure that had to be followed. So, after being told that a strict end rhyme was not necessary, I am now being taught to learn it again? You can imagine why my first reaction to the news today was an instinctive kicking and screaming. However, upon reflection, I am quite excited about studying the forms. I was never given formal training on them, so most of the time I just winged it. My high school education pretty much glossed over the specifics- poetry wasn't considered nearly as important as the novel. So, even though my poems started out with a strict rhyme scheme and sometimes other boring elements as well, I relish the idea of actually studying where the elements come from and how they could be used in a set form. I may not be the most excited person about having to write in those forms, but I am excited about finally understanding the history of poetry, basically. Studying how poems have evolved over time will allow me to put these techniques into practice in my own poems, free verse or not. So, even though Ezra Pound insists on "Make it new," or defying the canonical tradition with free verse, the understanding of the traditions will allow me to fully appreciate the freedom I currently take for granted.