LaDonna Troullier

Englihs 305

Dr O

April 19 2019

Poetry Should Learn To Write An Essay

One main goal of poetry is to feel what the poet is trying to express through their writing

by using different techniques. In Ruth Forman’s Poem “Poetry Should Ride The Bus” she

strongly expresses to her readers that poetry should be essential in ones life at all stages of life.

Forman presents us with a carefree and feel good poem, that expresses the true beauty of

growing up and seeing the beauty in all stages no matter the circumstances. When I think about

the title I think about a smooth bus ride that makes stops at different stages in life until you make

your final destination, and that is exactly what Forman portrayed in her poem. Forman uses

many elements in her poem to express the importance of poetry being apart of one’s life. She

gives human life qualities as she personifies poetry to the stages of one’s life. She also chooses to

use no punctuation and also provides us with a significant technique in her stanza structure.

Throughout the poem Forman gives poetry life by using personification to compare the

stages of life to poetry. For instance, Forman, gives poetry human life qualities when explaining

what poetry should do if it was a teenage girl “Poetry should wear bright red lipstick / n practice

kisses in the mirror / for all the young men with fades / shooting craps around the corner” (5-8)

Consciously, we know that poetry can’t wear lip stick or practice kisses in the mirror but her

choice to make poetry real is what makes this poem so beautiful and relatable. This specific
stanza can be so relatable to any young woman who is growing up and want to experience their

first kiss. I love how Forman takes small events we go through and make them feel so

significant. Forman personifies poetry as a young woman growing up because this is a beautiful

experience that may seem so small to someone but can end up being someone’s own poetry.

Again, Forman suggest poetry ride a bus by giving it a quality that can not be fulfilled in real

life, but this is her way of expressing that poetry should be essential in life no matter what task is

being done. “Poetry should ride the bus / in a fat woman’s safeway bag / between the greens n

chicken wings.” (13-15) Who would of thought that something as simple as sitting on a bus next

to your dinner could turn out to be such a beautiful poem. She leaves us with the impression that

poetry is with you for life.

In addition, Forman choose to use no punctuation in her poem and that choice presents

us with as easy read that flows well. Poems are mostly meant to be read aloud and poets tend to

use punctuation, such as comas, to help the reader pause and think about what is trying to be

expressed. That is not the case for Forman’s poem, when I read the poem out loud it went really

fast and reminded me of how life can go by so fast and that is exactly what Forman did in her

poem. She took poetry as a child and expressed to us how it would grow up fast. The way the

poem flows is significant to the title because when one rides a bus the bus symbolizes a smooth

ride that flows you to where you are going until you reach your final destination. Forman utilizes

no punctuation when she suggests what poetry should do in one day “Poetry should /drop by a

sweet potato pie / ask about the grandchildren / n sit through a whole potato album / on a orange

plastic covered lazy boy with no place to go” (17-20) Forman uses this approach to express the

excitement and joy poetry should have by doing things as simple as looking at a photo album.

The fact that there was no punctuation in this poem is fine because the beauty of poetry is that

there are no rules!

 In addition, the stanza structure Forman presents us with that had a significant pattern.

Forman started with “Poetry should” in all stanzas excluding the last stanza which starts with

“Yeah” She also seems follow a pattern of each stanza only being 4 sentences longs. I think the

purpose of this was to give readers a chance to reflect on each stage of life poetry should go

through before we move on to the next stage/ stanza. The techniques provided an organized

poem and allowed us to predict what stage of life would be next. Forman chose to use this

approach to suggest that poetry should be apart of one’s life in every stage of their life. For

example, the first stanza is suggesting what poetry should do if poetry was a child. “poetry
should hopscotch in s polka dot dress/ wheel cartwheels / n hold your hand/ when you walk past

the yellow crack house” (1-4) This shows us that poetry should live a carefree life like a child

who just wants to hop scotch and live a life of innocence like a child.

On the other hand, Forman ends her poem with a different approach that doesn’t start

with “poetry should” but instead starts with “yeah” “Yeah/ poetry should whisper electric blue

magic / all the years of your life / never forgettin to look you in the soul / every once in a while/

n smile” (25-30) When Forman starts a stanza with “yeah” it is like she is agreeing with thoughts

out loud that poetry should indeed be apart of one’s life at all times. In addition to Forman

suggesting that even when one’s life is over poetry should still look you in the soul and smile she

also waits until the end of the poem to change her pattern of her stanzas. I think this approach is

significant to the end of the poem because during the whole poem Forman suggest what a poetry

should do as it got older but when life ends things are not the same, like her last stanza was not

the same. It is evident that Forman was not a little girl anymore at the end of this poem and even

as the soul leaves the body poetry is still apart of you.

Furthermore, Forman’s technique with her stanzas helped me enhance the meaning of the

poem and understand the motion of poetry growing up. The break in her stanzas present us with

poetry growing older and suggesting poetry do something different. Forman, uses each stanza
that represents a different stage of life and was able to provides us with a whole life cycle that

poetry should partake in. Overall, the structure of these stanzas created a poem that was easy to

follow and excited to see what poetry should do next.

I could read this poem 100 times and end with a smile on my face each time. “Poetry

Should Ride The Bus” leaves me with a feeling that life can happen so fast and it’s the simple

things in life that we overlook. Poetry can sometimes be overwhelming with no sense of theme

or message but Forman helped me understand that I should enjoy the beauty of life no matter

what stage of life I’ am in. Forman helped me reminisce of my journey of growing up and

realize that a small part of my journey could be my own personal poetry and end up beautiful.

Poetry is everywhere and can be about anything. She genuinely tells us how poetry should be.

Forman did an outstanding job expressing her ideas by using no punctuation, choice of stanza

structure, and using personification.