Consensus is a political concept, not a scientific one.
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Introduction to Poetry
---Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
---Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
I think I'd have been ok with Billy. Enjoy the words, explore the content, but if you REALLY want to know what a poem means, you'd have to tie the poet to a chair and beat it out of him/her.
2 comments:
I don't think it's fair for teachers to ask students to analyze poetry. It's a piece of artwork, like a painting, song or dance. I don't think it's fair or right to try to analyze the artistic inspiration behind such. You will not guess, no matter what, nor will you figure it out. And it's the artist's personal interpretation that makes it what it is. There's no reason, EVER, to try to figure out what an artist was thinking when they created a piece. AND, it's going to mean something completely different to every person who reads or sees it. IF it means anything at all to anyone other than it's creator.
Yeah. I think it's ok to analyze the TECHNICAL aspects, the rhythm and use of language that makes it effective. But the meaning is highly personal, both to the author and to the reader/listener, and although you can analyze it, figure out the metaphor(s), there is nothing you can say that's definitive. Only the writer can say that, and often they won't.
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