Poetry is something that, it seems, most people hate. Whenever a teacher mentions the words "poetry unit", there is more often than not a collective groan of irritation and disappointment from the entire classroom. I, however, love poetry. Writing it, analyzing it, or even just reading it has always been something that I've loved doing. Anything from Shakespeare to Dr. Seuss tends to entertain and amuse me.
Edgar Allan Poe has probably had the largest influence over me. The excerpt from The Raven titled "Lenore" was one of my favorite things to read when I was around 6 or 7, as strange as that is. As I got older, I began to read more and more of his work. His poem,"Annabel Lee" really made me want to start writing my own poetry. I still have notebooks upon notebooks filled with old poetry that I'd written, almost all of which had a morbid or somber tone very similar to his. Most of it, I have to admit, is a terrible expression of teenage angst and has nothing to do with legitimate problems like Poe's work. But it did help me discover that writing is by far my favorite outlet for emotion.
My attitude toward poetry as of late has changed quite a bit. I've branched out form my narrow genre of depressing, painfully emotional poetry to almost anything I can read (even though "Alone", which as you can probably guess from that title is incredibly depressing, is my favorite poem). The poetry I write has also transitioned from a horrible attempt at being deep to being much more calm and not necessarily all that emotional. And even though most of my classmate hate the idea of doing a poetry unit in class, it is by far my favorite part of the year every year.
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