Honors Theses
Date of Award
2005
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
Beth Ann Fennelly
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This collection contains poetry that I have written during the course of my time at the University of Mississippi. Some of these poems in their first stages were part of my beginning and advanced poetry workshop portfolios. Other poems came from ideas scribbled in my poetry journal that I kept while studying abroad in New Zealand. My advisor and I set a goal of four poems a month for the fall 2005 semester, for a total of sixteen poems. The goal was to have perfected twelve poems for the final collection. I considered trying to conform my poems to a certain pre-determined style or theme, however my advisor encouraged me simply to try to write well. As an unexpected result, my poetry seemed to take on its own structural and thematic tendencies without me having to bend it to match a certain mold. Moreover, at the risk of stating the obvious, I think that much of my poetry stemmed only from bits of actual experience. Many times I found myself taking a feeling and creating a totally foreign situation with the same type of emotion. I noticed some reoccurring ideas in my poetry, among them—relationships and prayer, and scenarios involving the ocean and driving. For me, the title ties these elements together because they all deal with pausing for reflection. I think that my end result is poetry that is tentative at best. During this process I have had a glimpse of how gloriously frustrating it is to write. In the end I have taken from this experience much more than this collection shows in the form of random bits—lines, metaphors, ideas— that were not developed enough to include even in the my very first collection.
Recommended Citation
Stephenson, Elizabeth Davenport, "Divination: A Collection of Poetry" (2005). Honors Theses. 2263.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2263
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