Reflective Essay

As a performance studies major student, the sole reason for me opting for this subject has been to expand and enhance my skill set and to explore my already nurtured interest in poetry.

As a dancer, I have performed and choreographed on Sanskrit poetry and have come to understand the beauty of it. I’ve never been great at writing poetry and to attempt the numerous types due to this course has given me immense knowledge and pride. I wouldn’t say I have become a great poet. I could never rather I have become great at understanding the sentiment of what the poets felt when they write such pieces of art. And that is what inspires me the most to write.

At the beginning the fact that this was a workshop-based course and that I had to write poems for it scared me to death but in the latter part of the time I studied this subject and it fulfilled my expectation more than justly. In the beginning we were introduced to various forms of poetry writing in order to produce some substantial and creative work.

We began by learning about love poetry and read some beautiful poems in class trying to decipher every phrase we read and heard. For practice and better learning each of us had to submit weekly poems and read it out loud.

Love poetry according to our professor Akhil Katyal was the easiest gateway to enter the realm of poetry. For the Ghazal we were shown Umrao Jaan’s “Dil cheez kya hai aap meri jaan lijiye Bas ek baar mera kaha maan lijiye.”

Our professor said that, City poems are best written when one stands in the particular place to get the feeling of what one wants to write and emote in the poem.

The class was an open space where most idea and various angles of the concerned poem were brought up and discussed on laboriously.

And personally, writing the villanelle part was the trickiest assignment I had to do. Even though thinking and writing is one of my strength’s, writing a poem was a whole another business.

Writing poetry doesn’t come naturally to me and especially this form of poetry takes a lot of thinking and planning of the outline of your poetry. It was not an easy task but I had fun. I did a lot more to write what I felt than I ever would have imagined.

It was a roller coaster ride but I wouldn’t do it as a regular activity. Too much of a hobby ruins the interest doesn’t it?

Indeed yes, but this is not the answer one might expect after doing such a course.

I have learnt a great deal more for sure, about poems in general and have made detailed notes that will help me later as I escalate in life.

I feel like I have expanded my literary knowledge to a whole another level. As for my poetry writing skills even they have got better due to this course.

I do not know how far I have progressed but I know I have become a more advanced literary person altogether. Being a theatre persona and a dancer I know how important it is to carry oneself with finesse and etiquette and those are few of the values that this course has built in me. I have become better at analyzing and understanding words and their meanings and understanding that poetry is not just some words in a rhyme scheme. It is much more than that.

And I really wish that this course were a part in every semester where one can enhance and liberate their creative sides.

Finally, I would like to thank Akhil sir for teaching us all with his utmost sincerity and admirable commitment, which is one of the reasons I have loved these classes so much. I have enjoyed the immense interest building process he built for us.

So far my view on poetry was monotonous but now I know better and that is that poetry is a painting of a poet who’d rather have words than paints to express his view.

So long fellow poets and authors.

Thank you.