Dear Editor,

I’m writing in response to Lily Lang’s letter dated on 13th March. She thinks that poetry is not necessary for secondary students. She thinks that secondary school spends so much time on it. However, I don’t think so. I consider poetry is necessary and helpful for secondary students.

First, learning about poetry can help students express their immediate feelings. As William Wordsworth said,’ For all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling.’ Students learn poetry to help them understand the poet’s feeling. It is helpful for students to complete the exam paper. On the other hand, students can use poetry to express their immediate feelings to others. They can use this way to write letters and writings. It can improve their expressions of feeling through English Language.

Second, different meaning for the same poem is for different person. As Christopher Logue said, ’Poetry cannot be defined, only by experienced.’ Words in the poem are not to be interpreted literally, but also figuratively. It can help students improve their reading skills. It is a good way to let students do well in their DSE English reading paper. It is not too difficult to understand.

Third, poetry can help students improve their imagination and creativity. Octaria Paz once said, ‘ Poetry becomes image and image becomes voice.’ Poets always use a lot of literary skills to express their theme, such as, repetition, exaggeration, metaphor, simile, personification and so on. Students can learn how to use these rhetoric to make their writing more lively. Also, it can let students to imagine and create more and more so that they can improve their imagination and creativity.

Last but not least, poetry is difficult to be defined. Robert Greacen once said, ‘Poetry is like trying to catch a black cat in a dark room.’ If students don’t know the English cultures and the classical English, they may not know how to understand poetry. It will be difficult for them to understand. Although it is difficult to be defined, it can help students improve their English. On the other hand, poetry will be used in our DSE English Examination. So, we need to learn about poetry.

In conclusion, poetry is interesting. It is not too difficult to understand and we can use it and read it in the real world. It is so helpful for our exam. It can improve students’ expressions, imagination and creativity. It will make students do well in the exam.

Yours faithfully,
Pat Poon