MYP5 English 10

Reading Knowledge and the Arts changed the way I think about poetry. Before, when I read poems in class, I would always try to figure out exactly what they meant, like there was one correct answer I had to find. If I didn’t understand it right away, I would feel confused or like I was doing it wrong. But this reading made me realize that poetry is not really about finding one meaning, but more about how it makes you feel and what you think about while reading it.

One idea that stood out to me is that instead of only asking what a poem means, we should also think about what it makes us feel and think. This made me understand that my personal reaction actually matters, and that there isn’t just one way to understand a poem. Two people can read the same poem and have completely different interpretations, and both can still be valid. I think this makes poetry more interesting, because it becomes more personal instead of something you just try to solve.

Another thing I found interesting is that poetry can express emotions and ideas that are hard to explain with normal words. Sometimes when I read a poem, I don’t fully understand it, but I still feel something from it, like a certain mood or emotion. Before, I thought that meant I didn’t understand it, but now I see that feeling something is actually part of understanding it.

In my opinion, this reading helped me feel less stressed about reading poetry. Instead of worrying about being right or wrong, I can focus more on my own thoughts and reactions. 

Knowledge & the Arts make me think a lot about how we use art in our daily lives. Before I read Knowledge & the Arts, I thought that art was just something people use or make as a hobby or as a distraction, but I never completely understood why art is so important and how we use it in our daily lives. As we were reading this text, I realized that thanks to art, we can understand others’ opinions or thoughts more deeply. This activity made people like me understand life, emotions, and different aspects of experiences that we live. One quote that I really liked and made me realize the importance of art is, because it clearly showed me how art can create meaning, inspire reflection, and connect people emotionally.

“What does it mean?” I should ask,

“What does this work make me feel and think?” (p. 5).

This quote makes me realize that art is not just a simple piece of paper with a drawing on it; it is also about what the drawing means to the artist and what he or she is trying to transmit to us with it. Another thing that I liked about the text was that it explained and showed us that art is not just entertainment, it is something that can make people think and reflect about different aspects of life. This reading made me reflect on how I can use art to show my feelings and express ideas that are hard to explain with words. It also helped me appreciate creativity in a deeper way. Now I understand that every artwork can have a message, emotion, or story behind it that helps people connect with each other and see the world differently.

I enjoyed reading this piece. The writing was very good and it helped clear a lot of things up for me. When I was reading poetry in class I often did not understand what it was supposed to mean. After reading Knowledge and the Arts I feel that most of my questions are answered. The part in this document, Asking the Wrong Question, I found to be very helpful. It helped me change the questions I think of when reading things I don’t fully understand. Instead of asking “what does this mean?” like I would for anything else in school it’s important to remember arts can mean whatever we want it to mean. As well while reading this I noticed that it is very much questioning a lot of things in life. That’s what makes it interesting, that it questions ideas and things in life that you don’t normally think of. I also liked the part about what knowledge art produces. It produces technical and historical knowledge. While reading Knowledge and the Arts I thought it was a very good document to refer to whenever you need a question answered for yourself or are just interested in learning new things through art.

The main point which I found most interesting in The Knowledge and the Arts showed me that art creates new knowledge instead of merely demonstrating existing knowledge. My understanding of artistic expression changed because of this new information. I have always viewed musical compositions and literary works and visual artworks as methods which people use to communicate their existing understanding and emotions. The text showed me that artists gain complete understanding of their work only after they complete their artistic creation. The knowledge that people acquire exists in two different forms which include logical knowledge and emotional knowledge that includes disorganized and vague elements.

The artwork demonstrated to me that it could express thoughts which language does not have the capacity to express completely. I experienced this because I had occasions when I could not describe my emotional state but music and visual elements managed to express my feelings. I discovered that knowledge extends beyond factual information because it encompasses both recognition and understanding. You understand a word through auditory or visual means without requiring its definition.

The concept which asserts that art can disrupt our existing knowledge of reality captured my attention in a fascinating manner. The text describes how artists use their work to challenge existing beliefs while showcasing different viewpoints (pp. 22–23). The artwork demonstrated to me that it holds great power. The art form extends beyond visual appeal and entertainment value to transform people s perspectives about reality. The art form creates a dual sense of fear because it has the power to shape human beliefs and feelings without people recognizing its impact.

This situation makes me question whether people can trust artistic knowledge as a reliable resource. The existence of different artistic interpretations by people makes it impossible to consider art as a reliable form of knowledge. The personal interpretation of individuals acts as the main factor which determines their comprehension of knowledge. The text fails to present a definite answer according to my understanding.

I found reading Knowledge and the Arts to be very interesting. I had never really thought about the ways that people might see the same piece of art in a different way, which is ironic because my mom is an abstract artist and thats kind of the whole point of abstract art. I had head her talking about the ways that people understand abstract art differently but I have definitely never thought about poetry in that way. I find it interesting that looking at art and reading poetry makes us ask questions about the work but also questions about ourselves. I enjoyed reading The Ice Cream Story section of the handout because it reminded me of times when I have been hanging out with a friend and we go to get food or something and I already know that it’s processed garbage but then my friend tells me what it’s really made of and I did not need to know that right before I take a bite! The beginning of the package briefly mentions judging art which made me wonder about the different things that should be considered when judging art. Should we judge art by comparing it to other similar pieces? And if so, how do we decide which pieces are similar to each other? Is it the ones that look like? Or the ones that are made to tell similar stories? Should we consider how long it took to make the artwork? And should we judge it based on how we see it, or how the artist meant for it to be seen? How do we know what a piece art is supposed to represent unless the artist tells us? But, that leads back to one of the poems that we read a couple of weeks ago. It was Introduction to Poetry that talked about people just wanted to tear up poems and just get inside of them to find out what they mean instead of taking the time to ask questions about them and appreciate them for a minute. I think that the same thing can be said about art. We shouldn’t try to rush and find out what the art is supposed to mean, we should take a second to let ourselves ask the questions that we should ask and appreciate the art for what it is.

I think Knowledge and the Arts was a very interesting piece. I really enjoyed the writing and the examples given, and i think it also helped me put a lot of my own thoughts into clearer words. Before reading this, I already thought that art had depth and meaning beyond just looking nice, but I think this piece gave me a lot of tools to understand and connect with it better. For example, when it talked about shifting away from always asking “What does this mean?”  I really liked this idea because it made me realize how this question can  limit how i understand something. I sometimes find myself getting stuck when I try too hard to find one clear meaning, but this piece showed me that understanding can come from connecting and reflecting instead of just forcing an answer,  It also helped me understand why whenever someone asks the meaning of something in a poem, Mr. MacKnight rephrases it to ask how it makes you feel. Before, I didn’t really understand why he did that, but now I see that it gives a deeper and more personal response and that It kind of also shifts the focus from trying to be “right” to actually thinking and connecting with the what you are looking at.

I also really liked the idea that art is an interaction between the piece and the person experiencing it. I am someone who naturally tries to connect with things, whether it’s a painting, music, or a story, and I often try to analyze my thoughts and opinions and think about why I like something or why I don’t and This piece helped me see that this habit is actually meaningful and also gave me tools to take that thinking even further and deeper! One of the parts I really enjoyed was the part about the distinction between taste and quality, i think The ice cream example made this idea very clear in a simple but effective way, and I really enjoyed reading it. It reminded me that just because I enjoy something does not automatically make it high quality, and just because I do not enjoy something does not mean it lacks value. whenever I dislike something, I still try to acknowledge its strengths, and when I do like something, I also try to recognize its flaws so This part helped me see that this way of thinking is worth continuing

Overall, I really enjoyed this piece because it didn’t just give me answers, but it also gave me a better way of thinking and helped me refine how I ask questions. I feel like i sometimes get frustrated with myself when I don’t understand something immediately, but this writing made me realize that meaning is not always something you find right away and that it is something you build over time, and also that understanding art is not about finding one correct answer, but more about being open to multiple interpretations and also how you personally connect to it.

After reading the Knowledge and the Arts, I was able to understand the thoughts and struggles I was experiencing while reading poems during this unit. Art can mean whatever we want it to mean (p.5). From this quote, I realized that I was trying too hard to understand exactly what the artist intended. It also made me realize how a poem’s meaning can change depending on who the reader is, since we do not all share the same experience and the same perspective. ” What does it mean?” is the wrong question to ask about a tree (p.6). From this, I learned that it is important to first understand and appreciate an artwork before focusing only on finding its meaning and intentions. I learned that asking the right questions is also very important.  Judgments of quality are different from judgments of taste (p.8). This quote made me think that not everything we personally like is automatically high quality, and not everything high quality will match our personal taste. It’s based on personal preference. From this, I realized that this is the same with poetry. If a poem has a different style or unusual use of language, it does not make the poetry low quality. It can still be powerful to some people. Additionally, it made me reflect on how personal experience or aspects can shape the value of poetry. Reading the Knowledge and the Arts was challenging. However, it really made me think deeply about art, what value art holds and how art changed during different time periods.

At first when we received the paper, I saw how much pages it was and the amount of writing it had and it had me thinking that it would be just another paper full of poems from different artists on trying to explain to people how the saw the world or understood about a topic, but after I take a look over it and read the title I saw it wasn’t.Before reading Knowledge and the Arts, I used to see arts as something that people did as a hobby or to express themselves, just as something extra that didn’t have a powerful meaning. 

However after reading I saw that my idea was kinda wrong. One part that really changed how I thinked was the tree one in pg.6 because it showed me that not always you need to find what that thing means, and yes other things, like the text says: “We sum up our interaction with the tree, it comes down to this:

1-We observe and experience the tree, and

2- We ask questions about what sort of thing the tree is, and 

3- We respond to the tree. 

This is a good model for how we ought to interact with a work of art if we want to learn from it —in other words, if we want to discover whatever knowledge it might hold for us. To put it another way, this is how to find the value of a work of art.”pg.6

I personally really enjoyed reading Knowledge and the arts by Eric T. MacKnight I thought the poem was very interesting with a lot of depth and strong opinions. Reading this really made me think more about how I see art in everyday life. At the start I kinda agreed with idea that things like math science feel more important however this text really makes me realize how much value art has. It really makes me think how art is nor just something you look at but also a way to express emotions and ideas that can be hard to put in words. Another part I found very interesting is the Romantic theory this is because it shows that art can connect people through emotions even if they don’t know the artist personally. The text really shows how personal art can be and how much of an effect it can have on us. Another thing I found in this text was that art truthfully can mean anything in a way everything is a form of art. One of my favourites quotes which is not in this text is ” what is this world without art just a rock” This really relates to the message the text is saying. Another thing that I found interesting was The ice creme story which really stuck with me because it’s really funny on the surface but deep down it shows something real about how we make choices. Sometimes we go for the ” Mr Softee option”e.g., (p.7) easy familiar comfortable even when we know it’s not the highest quality. However other times we want something richer something that asks more of us. Overall reading this text made me appreciate that art is not just entertainment but part of how we understand ourselves.

Reading Knowledge and the Arts changed how I think about poetry more than I expected. Before this, whenever I read a poem, my first thought was always, “What’s this supposed to mean?” If I couldn’t figure it out, I’d just tell myself it could mean anything I wanted. That answer felt kind of easy to such a complex question at the time, but also a bit frustrating because it didn’t really help me understand the poem any better. The essay talks about this, saying that people sometimes “Grasp at a wonderful possibility: Art can mean whatever we want it to mean” (p. 5). That honestly felt really accurate to my experience. The part that stood out the most to me was the tree analogy. Instead of immediately asking what something means, it says we should “Observe and experience the tree and ask questions about what kind of thing it is and how we respond to it” (p. 6). That made a lot more sense to me than the way I was approaching poetry before. I realized I’ve been skipping over the actual experience of reading and going straight to trying to find a meaning. If I saw a tree, I wouldn’t immediately ask what it represents, I’d notice how it looks, what it reminds me of, or even how it makes me feel. Applying that to poetry makes it feel less stressful and more interesting. It’s actually paying attention to the details and forming a response based on that. Instead of just making up meaning, I think it’s more about building meaning from what I notice. Overall, this reading made poetry feel less confusing and more approachable. I don’t feel like I need to “get the right answer” right away anymore. Instead, I think it’s more about building meaning from what I notice.

Reading “knowledge and the arts” really imposed a mix of different emotions. From confusion, to interest, this piece of writing was really packed with writing techniques, text styles and patterns that really added to its ability to keep the reader on their toes for the next parts of the writing.

At first, I was a bit spooked by the amount of writing that was on the paper given to us in class, but after some time of reading, it began to get interesting and it became a bit less of a chore to read it. the more we read, the less the words seemed to look less like something that would stress me out.

The text really made me think of sentimental, deep questions. It made me question the meaning of life, who we really are and our real purposes on this earth. Thinking of these sentimental questions really added another dimension to the reading, and me use more of my brain to think and really make fitting connections. connections relating the writing to the real world and real life feelings and situations.

All-in-all, i really enjoyed this reading as it really made me use my brain, and it made me think of really interesting life-related, intellectual questions. The fact that reading this made me actually enjoy a piece of writing means a lot, because I don’t really like reading a lot, and the writing kept me hooked for the whole duration. I commend the writer for being able to do this – i’m pretty sure it was Mr. Macknight that wrote it, so it is even more impressive. I would recommend this piece for people coming in the next years as it will also make them think of sentimental questions and it will show them what good writing looks like earlier on.

After reading this “Essay” I was more than before and I also kind of disagree with some of the things said in there. For example the paragraph where it goes like knowledge is power and power is value so if something doesn’t produce knowledge it has no value. I disagree because if you write it like that it seems like  ONLY knowledge is power and therefore ONLY power is value but that implies that things that we just do to have fun also have no value since they not always produce knowledge. Okay that didn’t have to do anything with art but I just wanted to write that down anyways. The second thing I disagree with is the part where it says “Asking the Wrong Question” and then there are like things stated where you can ask the question “What does it mean” for like mathematical equations or economic data but I personally don’t think that that question would be appropriate for any of those just like for the art things. For the economic data would should better ask things like “What is shown in there” of “When was this data collected”. Overall I came to the conclusion that “What does it mean is a really inappropriate question unless it is asked for foreign languages. Then there was the part with “Art can mean whatever we want it to mean” and I agree with that ,even though I am not really sure what the word mean actually means after reading this essay. And right after that it said that that is only possible in a range of responses but I think that you can interpret art any way you want, that doesn’t need to be what it means(while writing this I got really confused about what it actually means to mean). I liked that Amy Winehouse was mentioned just because she is amazing and I agree with basically all the rest and what I don’t agree with I am too lazy to write about. But yes art can make us wiser but it can also just be fun to look at, to listen to, to eat.

Before I read “Knowledge and the Arts” my thought on the role of art was very clear. A form to express feelings, but in a more entertainment form. However, in the handbook argues and shows that art plays a much more important role in how we understand ourselves and the world.

One part that stood out to me was when the author explains that art comes from both technical skill and personal experience (p. 1). I think this is important because it shows that art is not random. there is effort and knowledge behind it, but it also involves emotions and individuality. This made me think about how artists use their own lives and feelings to create something meaningful, which is a big reason of why people connect so much with art in so many different ways.

I also found the discussion about asking the wrong question interesting. The text challenges the idea that instead of asking “What does it mean?” we should focus more on how we experience the artwork (pp. 4-6). I honestly agree with this, because sometimes trying to find one meaning that is “correct” it takes away from the personal connection. Like for example, when I listen to music, I do not always think about the message but instead I focus on how it makes me feel, and how I personally connect with it.

The final section really made me think. The text battles about how art helps us reflect on who we are and what life means. (p.11). I think this is true, especially today when people are constantly distracted by technology. Art gives us a way to slow down and actually think. it can also help people understand other’s experiences, which is important.

Overall, this text changed how I see art. I not only think it’s about people expressing themselves, but as something that helps others think more deeply and understand life better. Even if it is not always practical, it is stills essential in its own way.

I really like Knowledge And The Arts, here’s why.

First of all, when reading Knowledge and the arts I found a lot of humour snuck into lines and explanations. I’ll be honest, when I was given the package during class I assumed reading the whole thing would be a daunting task, but it was surprisingly…pleasant. Refreshing even. Adding humour to the papers made it feel more like an activity than homework as well which I really like, and it made it easier to understand too. One thing I noticed about Knowledge and the Arts is it’s kind of wordy…Now I know this is Mr. MacKnight we’re talking about here, so of course the package isn’t full of colourful illustrations and glitter, but despite the humour and amusing anecdotes, I did find it difficult to read on occasion, and I found myself looking up a lot of words because of this. Like “logical syllogism” or “bohemian” like what? But personally I like challenges, so I felt proud of myself for actually reading the whole thing. One important idea that made me think about the package a bit differently about emotions. Specifically, that emotions can be caused by art. I went to Italy recently and I visited what felt like a million art galleries and churches, and although I was tired at the end of the trip, I really enjoyed the art. Each piece had a story inside of it, and sometimes when the tour guide was speaking about the pieces of art I would plug my ears (discreetly obviously) and just look at the painting and feel how it made me feel. Poetry for me is kind of like that too, it can give me certain emotions if I look at it a certain way. Overall, it wasn’t exactly easy to read vocabulary wise, however Knowledge of the Arts made up for it by telling stories, making jokes, and also showing occasional illustrations to keep my picture obsessed brain awake.

That’s it.

Knowledge and Arts packet made me think a lot about how much art is used in the everyday, the amount its been used and how long we’ve been using art as an expression. The packet made me think about how much art and the kind of questions it can bring up, the way people have been using it for centuries and how important it has been for people. The very first page of the packet and the section “The Artists Knowledge and Beauty (aesthetics)” caught my eye and i remembered the most throught the rest of the packet.

Beauty (aesthedics) made alot of sense to me and things i can almost actively see happening. It mentions that western culture always believe that the whole purpose of art was to create beauty, but within the last century that art no longer needs to create beauty to be art. That now we have these disturbing, ugly images in art, strong distored sounds in music and violence, poverty and perversion in literature that are all claiming to be art. While philosophers speciulated on the importance of beauty. How at the “low end” beauty pervides a decoration to make life fell more pleasant and at the “high end the experience of beauty was thought to elivate the soul towards the heights of purity, wisdom and (sometimes) religious exaltation”, (p.1). I do feel like alot of this is the reality and the truth when it comes to art or todays beauty standards onto people.

The packet made me think more about the person who may have been behind the art peice and how not only that art might be pretty but also the meaning, the questions, why they made it with those intentions or storys behind it and the process it may have gone through. How art can come in many ways and how to activly judge someones work and ask related questions and how to judge the value and quality of someones work. I thought a lot about how art seemed simple and was basically like a free block in out day to day but how it takes alot of time, effort and thought into the product.

 

Reading Knowledge and the Arts changed how I see art and myself. Before reading this package, I viewed art as a fun break from “real” subjects like math and science—nice, but not essential (p. 2). I thought knowledge was only facts, formulas, and proven answers. This essay made me realize I was asking the wrong question about art. Instead of always asking, “What does it mean?” I should ask, “What does this work make me feel and think?” (p. 5). That small shift opened a whole new way of understanding. The ice cream analogy hit me hardest. It shows that taste is not the same as quality (p. 7). I often not listen to classical music or watching serious paintings just because I don’t immediately like them, as if my personal preference decides their value. Now I understand that liking something doesn’t make it good, and disliking it doesn’t make it bad. Expertise in technical skill matters, and so do the deep questions a work raises (p. 8). This idea humbles me; it reminds me to listen and observe before judging. Most importantly, the essay taught me that art gives us wisdom, not just information. Through art, we explore “who we are, where we are, and what we are doing” (p. 9). These are not questions science or history can fully answer. When we engage with art deeply, we learn about human emotion, values, and existence (p. 10). That is knowledge of the highest kind.

I liked reading “Knowledge & the Arts” because I found it interesting and I learned more about art from a different perspective with deeper thinking. Before reading this, I thought art was just art that it wasn’t something that special. I never really understood why people found it so interesting or important. But now my point of view has changed because I didn’t think that art had this much deeper meaning to know what it means to be human. 

The text also made me think more deeply. I found it interesting on page 10 about the three questions in religious art. I personally really liked the line from page 10 “And if we learn about who we are, where we are, and how we are, and how best to live, then we gain the highest form of knowledge, which is traditionally called wisdom” (p. 10). I liked it because it made me think more about what actually knowledge means. I also liked it because it sounds very wise and I also think it is . Before this, I thought knowledge was just information you learn in school, like history or math. But now I see that knowing so much of history or math isn’t the same as knowing how to live. You can be really smart in biology but still make bad choices if you don’t have wisdom. 

I liked the last line about how we need the arts today more than ever. I think this is true because if scientists don’t have wisdom, they are likely to make mistakes. Wisdom is very important, and we need to know how important wisdom is in our lives. Science can tell us how to cure diseases, but it doesn’t always tell us if we should. That is where art and wisdom come in. Art helps us think about what matters and how to live better, and that is why we need it. 

 

When we started  reading this “Knowledge and the Arts,” one thing I kept thinking about mostly was about how quick we are to judge things without really thinking deeply about them. Like for example, the part where the author talks about ice cream made everything easier to understand (p. 8). It shows that people can have different opinions and that doesn’t mean someone is right or wrong. That made me realize that a lot of the time, when we talk about art, we treat our opinion like it’s a fact, when really it’s just what we personally like and we can’t change like everyones ideas to match with yours you know.

Another idea I understood well was that something can be made really well, but that doesn’t always mean it has an important meaning (p. 9). That made me think about things like songs or movies and different types of likes. Sometimes they are really well produced, but after you watch or listen to them, you don’t really remember anything important. That helped me see that art is not just about how good it looks or sounds.

Some questions  like

“Who are we?” and “What are we doing?” (p. 9)

also caught my attention. At first, they seemed kind of random, but then I understood that those questions are about life, not just about art. It made me realize that art can make people think about themselves and their decisions, which is something I  actually didn’t really connect before.

I also liked the idea that art can still teach something even if it’s not real (p. 10). That made me think about how some fictional stories can feel very real because of the emotions they show. Even if the situation is not true, the feelings are, and that’s what makes it important and more kind like unique.

In general, this reading made me change in some way  how I see art. Before, I just thought it was about what you like or don’t like, but now I understand that it can also help you think more deeply about things and stuff. Even if some parts were confusing, the examples helped me understand the main message better.

Before we stared reading Knowledge and the Arts, I mostly thought of art as something people create that looks pretty or for entertainment, but this paper made me think about how art can actually teach us how to live. I was really interested in the idea that great art does not just show technical skill, but also raises “the most profound questions about human existence” (p. 10). That made me realize that art is valuable because it makes people reflect on who they are and what matters to them. I had never really thought of art as a form of knowledge before, but after reading this, I can see how music, writing, and paintings can help us understand emotions, identity, and even morality.

One part that stood out to me was when Mr. McKnight argues that the arts are not just decoration or entertainment, but something essential because they help us think about “who we are, where we are, and what life is for” (p. 11). I found that very strong because it made me think about how certain songs or books have changed how I see the things. Sometimes art can express feelings that are hard to explain in words, and that can help people feel understood. I also liked the parts about Romanticism and how art can develop emotional intelligence (p. 3). I agree with that because art often helps people connect with emotions they might ignore.

Another idea that stayed with me was the author’s point that asking “What does it mean?” may be the wrong first question about art (p. 6). I liked the idea that we should first experience art, ask questions, and respond to it personally. That made me think art is not something with one correct answer, but something people interact with differently.  Overall, this essay made me appreciate art in a deeper way. It made me think that arts are not different from knowledge, but another way of understanding life.

I think that Knowledge and the Arts by Eric T. MacKnight is a very insightful essay that helps me understand more about why my current English teacher is always saying that I am asking the wrong questions about the literature that we read. I always find myself asking, “Why is the poet saying that? What is the writer trying to say? What does this all mean? Can you explain this?”. But these are, as MacKnight says in this essay, the wrong questions (p. 4). The right questions are questions that make you think about your personal, emotional, and cognitive response to art, such as “How does this artwork make me think about who I am?”, “How does this artwork make me think about where I am?”, and “How does this artwork make me think about what I am doing, or what I should be doing?” (p. 9). Within all the serious talk about the theory of how art has anything to do with knowledge, MacKnight still finds ways to entertain the reader, ensuring they attend enough to gather the critical thoughts of the essay. One of my favourite examples of this is when he writes “Calm down, and stop shouting. I know what you mean, and I can help. I will put my argument about the value of art on hold for a moment and tell you a story about ice cream” (p.7). Another example is when he claims, though he does not believe this claim, that the meaning of art is in the mind of the beholder.

“Oh, glory be! What a relief! I can say anything at all about any work of art, and I can never be wrong!

(I just decided on a new career: art critic! A job in which I can never be wrong!) (p.5)

I find this essay interesting because it fulfils its purpose of making me think about what art and literature makes me think about. I often “decide” the quality of an artwork based on how I feel about it, but Knowledge and the Arts has reminded me that I alone cannot be the one to determine how good an artwork is, especially considering that I am not a poet or a professional poetry critic and I have no real qualifications to conclude what an artwork is worth. Do I believe that “How does this artwork make you feel?” is a valid and possibly vital question, even after reading MacKnight’s essay? Yes. Does Knowledge and the Arts make me comprehend, finally, that my question is not the most crucial or even reasonable one? Also yes.

Knowledge & the Arts was something I enjoyed, but also didn’t because it made me question a lot of things, and I didn’t always understand what it was saying. I liked the part where it says, “What are we doing, and what should we be doing?” because it asks whether we are spending our time on the right things. How do we know what’s right and what’s wrong? It really had me thinking, and that’s a topic I do think about quite a lot. Why do we live only to die? Questions like that scare me sometimes, but they also raise very valid questions. I still do not fully understand the handout, but it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly I don’t understand. I think it’s true that subjects like math and science can give us important knowledge, but they don’t always answer the bigger questions about life, like who we are or what our purpose is. Art, whether it’s music, movies, or paintings, can make people feel emotions and reflect on their own experiences. I’ve personally noticed that movies or songs can change the way I think or help me understand people’s perspectives better. I also agree that without this kind of reflection, people may make decisions without thinking about human impact. Overall, I believe the arts are important, not just for creativity but for helping people grow and make more thoughtful choices in life. I don’t fully agree with the idea that the arts are not essential. The section about Romanticism helped me see that art is not just about learning facts, but about expressing emotions and developing emotional understanding. This is important because being able to understand our emotions and other people’s emotions can influence how we make decisions and interact with people. An example is movies and how they can make people feel and think in ways that regular school subjects don’t.

Over the last  weeks, we read a lot of poems in English class, but “When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly ” by Oliver Goldsmith was the one I liked the most. This poem mostly shows structure and imagery. It’s divided into two stanzas, and both follow a rhyme form that gives the poem a great flow. For example, the second stanza follows an abab pattern, which makes it feel more organized. In the first stanza, the tone feels more emotional, showing sadness and regret, while in the second stanza it changes to a stronger tone, where the woman starts thinking about revenge. As I said before, the poem also shows a very imaginative side. For example, in the line “What charm can soothe her melancholy, / What art can wash her guilt away?” (lines 3–4), we can clearly see her sadness, which helps us understand her emotions more deeply.

Another poem that impacted me a lot is Daddy, because it mixes different emotions. In this poem, she talks about her relationship with her dead father, and the diction and structure are strong and sometimes hard to understand, which reflects her feelings. The poem also includes sound effects that add more emotion to it. One line that stood out to me was, “There’s a stake in your fat black heart,” which uses very strong language to show the author’s anger. Both poems are different, but I really liked both of them.