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This is an essay I wrote for my College English 101 class. It's suppose d to be a classification essay of the types of poets that dwell on Allpoetry. A lot of this is opinion based, so please don't get upset if you think I was being slanted. Chances are I was, but at the same time this essay is telling a lot of truth.
Oh if you wanted to know, I got a B+
Since I was ten, I have always had a passion for poetry. Poetry has always been a great creative outlet that I use to express my true feelings and opinions. I really did not get into poetry until I was fourteen and discovered this website called Allpoetry.com. My brother actually introduced me to the site, because at the time he was also very interested in poetry as well. On this site people have the ability to share their poems with the online community and receive feedback on their work. Members on the site are able to hold their own contest and judge people on their poetic talent. Since joining the site in 2005, I have posted over 170 poems, hosted 14 poetry contests, have a total of 40 trophies, and have commented on over 2000 poems and short stories.
On my path as a growing young poet, I have also learned that there are four major types of poets that dwell on Allpoetry.com. There are the hopeless romantics, the emotional brooders, the pretentious intellectuals, and the future philosophers. All four of these categories have smaller sub-groups that further show the break down of the poet.
For the first category, the hopeless romantics are the poets who are desperate to find the fantasy ending. They believe in soul mates, shooting stars, and destiny. However, there are two types of romance poets. There are the ones who tell people what love is, while the others are the ones who show what love is. Poets who tell their readers what love is are usually younger and more inexperienced. They have not really experienced love; so much of their poetry is about infatuation and lust. They will be more frank with their poetry and will just say, "I love you and you love me." Not that there is anything wrong with this type of poetry, it just does not have the same type of creativity, originality, and depth that knowledgeable poets have acquired. The poets who show the readers what love is are usually well informed in poetic devices. They have the ability to craft beautiful pieces with metaphors and similes, yet still convey the message of love. Every true romance poet strives to become like that one day. There is nothing better than showing love through passionate phrases.
The next type of poet is probably the most popular on the website. The emotional brooders consist of poets who prefer to write about topics such as death, suicide, angst, abuse, drugs, and so on. Not my favorite type of poetry, these genres are becoming increasingly more popular because of the large amount of teenage members on the website. More than 80% of the members on Allpoetry are between the ages of twelve and sixteen. One of the biggest trends in teenage culture is the emo phenomenon. Emo, also short for emotional, was a musical genre that first got its start in the late 80's and early 90's. Having its roots in the grunge movement, emo is a more melodramatic version of the iconic 90's revolution. Today a person is considered "emo" by the type of music they listen to, constant crying, buying all their clothes at Hot Topic, wearing their hair in an angular cut, and by self-mutilation. Sometimes they even try to commit suicide. This trend has found somehow a way to sink into the poetry world.
There are two types of emotional brooder poets. There are the overly cliché poets who openly discuss their addictions with cutting and suicide, as though it is a normal activity to do. Many of the poets congratulate other people on their ability to keep on hurting themselves. This is not healthy for young poets because all it does it promote destruction and create some extremely bad poetry. The other type of emotional poetry is call Dirty Pretty poetry. A pretty new form of poetry, Dirty Pretty is basically poetry that glamorizes everything that is wrong with popular culture. Most of these poems dwell on abuse, drugs, alcohol, prostitution, suicide, death, and cutting. There is nothing wrong with poetry that talks about the nitty-gritty of the underbelly of society, but what irks poets like me is the abuse of the poetry itself. Dirty Pretty writers use a massive amount of punctuations, arrow keys, letters, numbers, and awkwardly used symbols in order to decorate a normally boring poem. Let's face it; poets who use this style are usually covering up the fact that they need a gimmick in order to get an audience.
The next group of poets is probably the most favorite on the site as well as the most hated. They are known as the pretentious intellects. They are like the students in class who practically know everything and will grin in your face because they think they know all the secrets. They are the ones who will laugh behind your back because you do not even know who Friedrich Nietzsche was. Over the years that I have been on Allpoetry, I have grown to understand that not all poets are equal. There are poets out there who believe their poetry is a hundred times better than yours and will prove it in a massively sarcastic comment left on your piece. Case in point, their poetry probably is a lot better than your own. I have seen heaps of young poets get torn down by other poets who think they are always right. I have nothing against well thought out critiques. On second thought; I wish more members on the website gave better thought out responses. But when someone thinks they have the right to put someone down on their attempt at poetry with sly and nasty remarks, I feel it only makes this person seem too critical.
There are two major types of pretentious intellectual poets. There are the poets who are so extremely talented, that they don't even have to try. Their poems are always classified as genius. They also happen to be the poets who will host contests that only their small vicious circle of pen pals will ever win. There is no point in even attempting to join their contest because all it is is a popularity contest. And than there are the poets who write poetry with massive amounts of imagery which sometimes seems like a babble of pretty phrases dressed up in random words found in a thesaurus. It is not really impressive to show how many words you found in the Webster's Dictionary, when the poem does not make any sense at all.
The last, but my favorite type of poets, are called the future philosophers. These are the type of poets who have the ability to write about anything that comes to mind. Many of their pieces of work consist of social commentary, social awareness, and current events. They are able to teach their readers a thing or two about society through a beautiful use of imagery and language. Within the future philosophers group, there are two major sub-groups. First there are poets who usually keep their pieces simple. They do not need gimmicks or fancy vocabulary to get their message across to his or hers audience. Usually these poets write in rhymes and are exceptionally good at poetry slams. A poetry slam is a competition in which poets read or recite original work to an audience of sorts. They are considered the performers of the poetry world. Then there are the poets who are famous for their stream-of-conscious writes. Usually their poems consist of one liners, cohesive phrases, and random rants. People consider these poets to be either cynical or pessimistic because their poems usually deal with the negativity of humanity, rather than the beauty it beholds. Basically you are not going to be reading about rainbows and unicorns in their pieces. Nevertheless, their poetry, in many people's eyes, is iconic. They are simple enough for anyone to follow, but genuinely complex enough to have numerous interpretations.
From personal experience, a true poet will go through all of these major stages during his or her writing career. I first started writing poetry because I was a hopeless romantic as a young girl. I eventually went on to write horrible emotional brooder poetry. But I am glad to say it was only a one time problem. When my poetry started getting more views and comments, I started to get cocky because I thought my work was great. As of today I still dabble in different types of poetry, but I have finally found my calling. I prefer to write about society and the downfall of humanity. I want my readers to have a sense of importance when they read my poems. Being involved in poetry and becoming a member of Allpoetry has taught me that a true poet can not be caged down to one type of poetry. Even though I prefer stream-of-conscious poems, I still write the occasional romance poetry. Only people with no poetic skill will claim they only write one way or fit into one mold of poetry. A true poet has the ability to flex his or her muse as far the pen will take them.
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