Channels, Fall 2017

Channels • 2017 • Volume 2 • Number 1 Page 19 reason for why it was his favorite poem: “It describes something that you could chase down. It wasn’t a fictional story.” According to Josh, a good poem is “one that makes you think about your morals, and one that makes you think about your life.” Keith, a college sophomore, said he enjoyed poetry but did not read it very often. His favorite poem from the collected works was A.A. Milne’s “Wind on a Hill” because it was “a good description of where life is going.” He felt unable to pick a single least-favorite poem, but notably, he, like Josh, did not mention any linguistic characteristics as the basis for why he chose Milne’s piece. Keith said that on the occasions he does interact with poetry, it comes in the form of music. Sarah is a college freshman and encounters poetry most frequently through music and social media. She also favored Longfellow’s piece because it was more “philosophical” than the other poems, and it “felt airier than the other ones.” Her least favorite was Kimiko Hahn’s, which she felt was fragmented to the point of being nonsensical. Sarah identified the features of a good poem as being metrical and having an intentional word choice because it means the piece is “deeper in scope.” These comments were interesting, as the participant seemed to skirt around an explicit linguistic knowledge. In light of her statement about music being a source of poetry, though, it makes sense. Other students were more descriptive of their relationship with poetry, such as Janet. She said she likes the idea of poetry but does not really make a point of seeking it out. Perhaps unsurprisingly, her favorite poem was also Longfellow’s because it “carried meaning and had a good rhyme scheme.” She suggested that Milne’s piece sounded like “it was written by a 12year-old,” and Ezra Pound’s “I Wait” was too abstract. She closed by stating that, “The intent of poetry is to express something deep in a way that is enjoyable to listen to, and also captures a perspective on it that isn’t totally boring.” This statement was noteworthy because she captured the phonological aspect of poetry and alluded to the semantic side already discussed. Although each of the interviews was distinct and reflected unique personalities, the amount of consistency in thought was quite surprising. Most of the interviewees picked Longfellow’s piece, and only two did not mention any linguistic factors in their preference. Of those who did mention rhyme scheme, some made comments about potentially not knowing how to read poetry, as if it were a trained skill. Discussion The various methods of data collection were all effective to some degree, but the survey and particularly the interviews were revealing of the types of linguistic patterns favored by the students. Preliminarily, it is possible to make a few general statements: 1. College students with limited poetic exposure preferred rhyming and semantically open works.