Work Sample Summary #1: Prufrockian Poetry

In my English 3 Honors class, we read a poem titled The Love Song of Alfred J.
Prufrock, which was in the form of a dramatic monologue. It was written from the perspective
of a man attending a party and being apathetic towards the others present for philosophical
reasons. We were then assigned a poem of our own, which would be referred to as our
Prufrockian Poem, where we had to think about current flaws of society and develop a way to
express it in the same manner.
From this project, I utilized the skills of learning and innovation. When creating the
poem, I was able to exemplify creativity from writing in an unorthodox format and discussing a
topic that was both overlooked yet meaningful to me, which I ultimately decided upon it being
on bullying. From there, I needed to possess an innovative mind in order to create a persona by
which I would speak from rather than simply narrating the poem myself, as that would be boring
and seemingly narcissistic. This required the utilization of my critical thinking; I pondered
deeply upon my chosen topic and tried to deduce the current philosophical assumptions that
others and I included have formulated on bullying, then interpreted my beliefs through a fictional
account of someone who has to face it. Problem solving assisted me in figuring out the problems
with bullying and attempting to decipher the best solutions to eradicate it. Lastly, I needed to be
good with communication in order to present my poem to my class and possibly evoke emotions
from them.
During the development of my Prufrockian poem, I displayed my literacy in information,
media, and technology. When getting information on the causes and aftermath of bullying, I
compared it with my own experiences and searched further for the impact it has had on people
around the world and even locally. To perform my initial searches, my familiarity with
technology and media permitted me to use a computer and my smartphone to access databases,
articles, and numerical statistics relevant to my topic. When all my research had been gathered
and transformed into my poem, I once again needed communication literacy to get my message
across to my audience.
The creation of my Prufrockian poem allowed for me to demonstrate my life and career
skills as well. I needed self-direction in order to know how I was going to elucidate my own
personal beliefs while not explicitly stating so, and thereby differentiate myself from the rest of
the people within my class But this called for possession of social skills, as though I was going to
attempt to be unique, I still needed to connect with my fellow classmates while also reading
fluently and passionately as though I was the character myself. Moreover, cross-cultural skills
enabled me to understand the perspective in which I was writing in and be able to personally
relate, making my poem more believable than if I couldnt. I found the topic Id be able to
identify with through initiative of picking something that, like I previously mentioned, had
meaning to me and was often disregarded by others as a small issue. My leadership abilities then
granted me to courage to express my insinuations on bullying and how victims of it go unhelped
or unnoticed frequently.
Despite the possession of all the skills I applied to my task, I found areas in which I could
have improved. To begin with, I could have been more articulate in my writing and wrote my
poem to be longer than it originally was. It was too short and simple for a poem that was
supposed to be revealing the complex thoughts of a troubled person; Those adjectives do not
suffice in the brain of someone whose mind constantly falls back into ambiguity. Subsequently, I
could have elaborated on how bullying is detrimental to society rather than only focusing on how
one person may perceive it, as those who encounter it undergo varying experiences and emotions
with it. In addition to that, I could have made it more personal than it already was in order to
truly write meaningful and deep content, as it would have came from the heart.
However, the outcomes of my poem were quite successful. I did best on conveying my
message of not belittling someone because we all have our own personal demons and struggles
to my audience, as they were in astonishment that I could reveal something so personal while
simultaneously vividly explaining a touchy subject in a comprehensible way. The knowledge
and skills I have gained from this enjoyable poetry project will benefit me as I currently love
writing and only want to get better with it, as I have had dreams of being a poet speaking out on
activism apart from getting a main job.