help on idea for poetry major

[UdderMad]

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hi i'm a yr 11 going into yr 12 student and considering ext 2 eng. im really excited (weird i know) and wanting to get a head start. im wishing to do poetry and have an idea for a theme/issue. please tell me what you think..

the theme of change or transformation from teenage to adult. eg wanting to be older to fast, not doing childhood things etc and regreeting that.

i can obviously expand on that but thought i should ask for advice firstly.

do i need to go for something stronger?

[foolish bowie]

Hmm. I think you need to make the idea stronger and perhaps a little less... cliche? No offence but a lot of people do teenage angst style poetry. But if you're passionate about it... and are really, really good at poetry you ight just get away with it.

But perhaps you should make it really different - expand on your idea.

[alex.leon]

First impressions are that the idea screams cliche.

Try and find a conceptual basis before leaping into ideas. What is a particular way of thinking or 'concept' that relates to your idea. Maybe the notion of 'identity' and what it is formed by? Or how age reflects psychological capacity?

Or maybe you could even find a parallel to structure your poetry. Read up on teenagers, and the transition from adolescent to adult. Surround yourself with information. It works magic.

[dianaCharleston]

Trying reading some Freud.

[Asubmarine]

There was something sort of similar in showcase a few years ago, it was like the poet going through different stages of a life poem by poem.. IMO most of the things people are writing about in their HSC are cliched in one way or another. So it's not really fair to shoot down concepts this early.

The major concern i'd have with your theme is that it lends itself to you writing way too personally. Yea poetry is often very sentimental to the poet; however as an inexperienced teen-poet this can easily lead to you misjudging your own writing. ie you end up sacrificing style for what you believe is something really insightful, whereas really our insightfulness only gets as far as a bleeding hearted indie pop-song.

Your idea needs more work but it's not really worth getting stressed about atm. I think that doing poetry your ideas and direction will constantly change, mine did. Yes the stronger your conceptual basis is the stronger your work will be.. but the way you develop that is likely to be non-linear. ie it will help you more to just read widely than narrow down your focus too much.

[catherinet]

Mine was kind of like that in a way...

http://community.boredofstudies.org/...ml#post4558523

(it's about half way down the page)