𝙼𝙾𝙾𝙽 𝚂𝚃𝚁𝚄𝙲𝙺 (𝙳𝙿𝚂 - 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚎 𝙳𝚊𝚕𝚝𝚘𝚗)

𝙵𝙾𝚄𝚁

✍︎

"𝓖𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓵𝓮𝓶𝓮𝓷 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓵𝓪𝓭𝔂, open your texts to page 21 of the introduction" Keating said sitting at the top of the class, flipping open the book on his desk all of us following in suit. "Mr. Perry, will you read the opening paragraph of the preface, entitled 'understanding poetry'?"

Nodding to Mr. keating, Neil flipped open the book to the right page and began reading "Understanding Poetry, by Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D. To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme, and figures of speech. Then ask two questions: One, how artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered, and two, how important is that objective. Question one rates the poem's perfection, question two rates its importance. And once these questions have been answered, determining a poem's greatest becomes a relatively simple matter." He read while I wrote 'understanding poetry' at the top of the page in my notebook. Mr. Keating stood and grabbed some chalk.

    I lifted my eyes to the figure on my left, when he grabbed his pencil from behind his ear. I shook my head surprised he was writing down what keating was doing before I smiled and turned my attention back to Neil.

     "If the poem's score for perfection is plotted along the horizontal of a graph, and its importance is plotted on the vertical, then calculating the total area of the poem yields the measure of its greatness" Keating drew the graph that Neil was talking about and looked back towards him every few seconds.

     "A sonnet by Byron may score high on the vertical, but only average on the horizontal. A Shakespearean sonnet, on the other hand, would score high both horizontally and vertically, yielding a massive total area, thereby revealing the poem to be truly great." Charlie smirked, leaning back, making me look over at him. He picked up his notebook showing me what he had drawn.

    I gave a disapproving look to him when I saw the two drawings of boobs on his sheet. 'You're a child' I mouthed to him as he pulled his tongue between his teeth smiling.

   "As you proceed through the poetry in this book, practice this rating method. As your ability to evaluate poems in this matter grows, so will - so will your enjoyment and understanding of poetry" Neil finished, taking off his glasses while Mr. Keating turned back to us.

    He stopped for a moment before speaking "excrement" my head shot yo to look up at him with furrowed brows, in my peripheral vision I could see Charlie look up too "that's what I think of Mr. J. Evans Pritchard. We're not laying laying pipe, we're talking about poetry" he told us.

   Knox turned his head back to look at me, a confused look on his face. I shrugged my shoulders and pressed my lips together while he turned back to the front.

     "I mean how can you describe poetry like American bandstand? I like Byron, I give him a 42, but I can't dance to it" he told us as I looked down at the page, laughing a bit "now I want you to rip that page" I looked back up at him, a hint of shock etched across my face. He couldn't be serious could he?

     "Go on, rip out the entire page" I exchanged a look with Charlie. His face broke into a shocked smile, happy that he would be able to damage school property without getting in trouble. "You heard me, rip it out. Rip it out" Keating repeated. I saw Charlie look down at the page he had been doodling on before moving it aside.

     I looked back at my own page contemplating whether or not to rip out the page "Go on, rip it out" Keating said again.

     A ripping sound came from my left as I looked at Charlie who was now holding up his ripped out page proudly, everyone turning to look at him.