Narrative Visual Perspective- English

Listener Lyric

A lyrical essay explores the blend of poetry, figurative language, and non-fiction storytelling. In this exploration of the musicality of language, the rules of both poetry and prose are in constant metamorphosis.

In my essay, I explored the various definitions and implications of beauty. I began by asking several classmates about an object, person, or feeling that they felt represented beauty. These answers then composed the starting poem of my essay:

Intention Statement

What is Beauty is a lyrical essay about our generation’s unattainable beauty standards
and the role social media plays in perpetuating these. I chose to write my lyrical essay in the
second point of view because this style allows the reader to experience the story as if it were
their own, and I want whoever reads this piece to truly feel the chaotic despondency that
surrounds our modern-day view of beauty. I was particularly inspired by Ryan Van Meter’s
writing style in If You Knew Then… because the structure of his story sets up the reader to be
deeply engaged and empathetic of his experience, even if it wasn’t personally relatable to them.
This was the sentiment I was trying to emulate in my own work.
I started the essay with an abstract poem about the definition of beauty, which was
composed of quick interviews from my peers, and what they considered to be the most beautiful
aspect of life. I chose to include this in order to display the harsh contrast of our personal
interpretation of beauty, versus the societal outlook of it. I wanted the reader to ponder over the
following question: if we hold beauty to such personal abstract standards, why do we keep
interpreting it as shallow sight? I also structured the poem in a way that makes it seem as if it’s
outlining an hourglass, which was intentionally to show the unrealistic expectations for women
to have “hourglass-shaped” bodies. Next, I divided the body of the essay into three separate
stories, representing a young girl through time as she blossoms into adulthood. The stories are
a mix of personal experiences and research sources. I chose to do this because I didn’t want to
isolate the focus of the essay into a single individual; I wanted to display the global nature of the
problem by incorporating the experiences of different individuals. Each small section was
awarded its own page because I wanted the reader to focus and digest that specific story before
moving on to the next. The partial page also represents a moment of growth for the subject of
the essay, which symbolizes her maturity through the years depicted.
The most helpful feedback I received focused on the poetic stylistic choices of my essay.
While my original work was much more direct and research-heavy, my peer reviewers
recommended that I let my writing flow in a more emotional manner. While this may sound
cheesy, I completely shifted paths and really tried to write from the heart instead of from the
head. I wanted to make my essay raw and vulnerable. It is easy to skim over numbers and
statistics and forget about them shortly after, but it is not easy to forget a piece that truly
touched your soul. That is the kind of art that resonates with you, and the kind of art I want to
create.