There are many things in this world that are disrespected and called names just because everyone says that they are ugly and pointless. For example, some animals and insects such as rats, skunks, spiders and snakes tend to be ignored and looked down upon by many people. However, a poet by the name of Naomi Nye and I disagreed with this madness. We believe that everything has its’ own beauty that should be respected.
The poem, “Valentine for earnest man” by Naomi Nye was written as a reply to a man who gave her his address and asked her to write him a poem. From the poem, I could infer that she was complaining about how the man asked for the poem as if he was ordering a taco. The main part of this poem is about a man who thought that skunks were beautiful and gave them to his wife for Valentine’s Day. There is one phrase that is the most important part of this poem. Ms. Nye writes, “Nothing was ugly just because the world said so,” which suggests her idea of everything having its’ own beauty. Also, she added, “He reinvented them as valentines and they became beautiful.” From the two lines of this poem, I thought that she was trying to say that poems cannot be ordered like tacos, but rather be respected by different people with different tastes.
When Ms. Nye showed her strong belief that “nothing is ugly just because the world says so,” I recollected some of the memory I have that made me think the same thing. When I was spending my time in Korea during summer vacation one year, my dad got back from his golf practice with a little puppy on his arm. My dad really loved animals, so he couldn’t leave the poor thing alone, but he was planning to get him to a care center because he was ugly. The puppy had a crooked tail and one of his legs was deformed quite terribly, but I found his eyes really cute. Therefore, instead of getting rid of him, I suggested that he could go to my grandfather’s farm to be taken care of. Since my grandmother was a severe animal-lover herself and she could not resist my 8-year-old begging eyes, she decided to take care of him. Fortunately, Michi, the puppy, got along well with 11 other dogs that my grandmother already had. Because I found the puppy cute while others did not like him so much, he was able to be loved by a caring family.
There is an ancient saying in China that goes, “Things only seem as beautiful as we want them to be seen beautiful.” It may be impossible to change everyone’s mind about their perspectives on beauty. Even if I think of rats, skunks, spiders, and snakes are beautiful, it probably will not be true for other people. However, if each of us begin try to look at things not only by what the world says, but rather by their own unique beauty, I believe that the world will seem much more beautiful.
Self Assessment:
1. On the first body paragraph, my translation about the meaning of the poem was slightly off from the topic.
2. The second body paragraph's example was a bit too long, so I felt that I didn't say everything that I had to say
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