Personism….does it really work? Frank O’Hara’s, “Personism: A Manifesto”, approaches poetry from a different angle that most poets would have never thought about. Personally when it comes to reading poems and analyzing them, I struggle. I always seem to just scratch the surface of the deeper meanings of the poem. However, this is not the case in this situation. Frank O’Hara eliminates any confusion for the reader through his “personism” writing style. Rather than writing a poem for the reader, he writes a poem to the reader. While reading this poem I felt as though O’Hara was in front of me explaining his ideas and perspective on poetry.
One idea that caused many questions for me was O’Hara’s point of view on “force feeding” poetry. I have always had difficulties with poetry which is the main reason why I tend to dislike poetry. I wonder if reading poetry because it was assigned to me takes away from me being able to analyze it because I am looking at it as something I have to do rather than want to do. At the same time though, if I was never assigned to read poetry, I would of most likely never read poetry. I think poetry has to be “force fed” while attending High School and College, but afterwards, a reader should be able to choose the style of poetry they enjoy, along with the poet of their choice.
The only part of this poem that confuses me is when O’Hara talks about abstraction. Is the removal of the poet mean the removal of his bias opinions or perspectives? Or does it mean removing yourself from the poem? (Making the poem for the reader rather than yourself)
