The Necessity to Speak

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As I was reading the essay, "The Necessity to Speak" by Sam Hammil, I had many mixed emotions.  Hammil explains, “we can’t hear very much reality” (Hammil 546).  Many of us are scared to express how we feel. Our emotions stay quiet or bottled up inside.  Hammil goes on explaining how “the writer” is the battered woman in her growing pain, or a good man with a belt wrapped around his fist.  Poetry makes you feel the same pain, or happiness the writer has felt.  We each have not been taught how to express our feelings. 

Hammil writes, “We think poetry is about emotions. We are dead wrong.  Poetry is not about.  The poet identifies a circumstance in which the poetry reveals itself.  We say the poem touches us, sometimes even deeply. We often say the poet is a bit touched” (Hammil 549-550).  When a poet writes poetry, it means they are ultimately giving you, the reader, a part of themselves.  The poet never asks for anything in return, but just enjoys knowing we are there sharing their experiences.  I agree with Hammil as he says “the poet invents a being, and that being, man or woman, stands before the world, naked a feeling” (Hammil 551).  Poets inspire me. They see things in the world we might look past. They all write the truth and even in a world of pain, they find love and hope to keep aspiring themselves to write. 

Here's a site where I enjoy reading poems from famous poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, or my new favorite E. E. Cummings.

Good Reader

Nabokov believes a good reader should have imagination, memory, a dictionary and somewhat of an artistic sense. A good reader should read more than once to become a major reader. He explains that we all must take the time to read. The books we read will begin to appeal to our minds. I agree with Nabokov for the most part. We all have the opportunity to become good readers. Reading a book twice might change the way you felt or the way you pictured an image in your mind. I think reading a book that makes you happy and excited to read more and more is what makes a good reader. A book does not have to be some kind of work of art, but it can make you imagine a world beyond us. If you enjoy reading and get what you wanted out of the book, than I believe that makes a good reader.

         I would say I am somewhat a good reader. I enjoy reading books that interest me. When I am forced to read some kind of boring book, I start to change my mind about reading all together. It has never been hard for me to find a book that I truly love or enjoy. The stories that make me cry, smile, laugh, or maybe even angry really catch my attention. Once I am emotionally involved in reading something, I can’t stop.