Peer Evaluation Writing Poetry May Often Prove

Peer Evaluation Writing poetry may often prove to be a difficult task and it is appears as though the writer of this paper struggled in finding her voice and successfully expressing herself. I was initially drawn to this paper/poem because I was interested to see how Lucy Clifton, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman influenced the writer. I found this combination particularly interesting because of the different perspectives of the writers.

As I began to read the poem and explanation, I was left wanting to know more about how and why the writer was influenced. While I was interested to see how these three poets influenced the writer, I found that I lacked a lot of information regarding the connection between poet and writer.

One of the things that left me confused was that the writer did not cite specific poems in the explanation, except for Clifton's "The Lost Baby." While the writer cites Clifton and the poem that inspired her, she does not explain how and why she felt inspired. The writer needs to provide specific examples of lines from the Clifton's poem that inspire her and explain how and why she feels inspired.

Additionally, the writer claims that imagery in the poem influenced her, but she needs to provide examples to make her explanation clearer. Providing examples of these references would help be better understand why the writer considers Clifton, and more specifically, "The Lost Baby" to be so inspirational. Secondly, when referring to Whitman, the writer needs to state what poem she draws inspiration from and why she feels inspired by the poem.

The claim that Whitman's poems advocate compassion for all humanity seems a bit made up because it leads the reader to believe that all of Whitman's poetry have this effect and I am sure that Whitman explored different themes in his works. Furthermore, the writer should stay away from absolutes. For instance, she writes that she "obviously" needed to include Whitman in her poem, however, she does not explain why it is obvious.

Instead, I would recommend that instead of using the word "obvious," the sentence be rewritten to start off, "I chose to use Whitman…" because what is obvious to the writer is not obvious to the reader. The same issues are applicable to the claim about Dickinson's poetry. The writer needs to provide concrete examples the reader can refer to and not assume the reader understands what she is talking about.

Dickinson's poems explore a wide variety of Dickenson's thoughts and emotions and it cannot be assumed that all of Dickinson's poems are emotional. Additionally, the last sentence of the explanation is very confusing.