If you've talked to me recently, you know that I am not the biggest fan of poetry. I don't mind some poems, usually ones involving the description of the seasons, but love poems, critical poems, "deep" poems, no. I can't stand them. I can't stand reading them, I can't stand thinking about them, I can't stand analyzing them. Okay I can't stand analyzing any poem. Most people say that when you analyze a poem it adds a deeper meaning. I completely disagree with that. I think that when you analyze a poem it sucks the life out of it. I don't think that all poetry was written to be analyzed. For example:
Rose are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
and so are you.
Arguably, this is a poem. here is what bother me most:
when they're saying sugar is sweet and so are you, it expresses the unconditional love that they have for a person. You can infer, that this means the person who wrote the poem is obsessed with the person it was written for etc.
I cannot stand this. I think that poetry can be taken literally. Some poems may have even been written with that pretense, that people will take them literally. Like I said before, It's like squeezing the life out of it. You know the saying "you can't squeeze water out of a turnip" well some poems are turnips. You can't analyze them because there's nothing to analyze!!!! I really wish that we could all just take a look at poetry literally and not try and beat a dead horse. I think it we'd actually get more out of it!
With some forcing of the brain, I can see whee some people are coming from with the analyzing. I guess some people are just more inquisitive and that's why they want to look deeper into the poems. (correct me if I'm wrong in the comments down below) It blows my mind though, I don't understand it.
This kind of reveals to you that I am a bit of a closed minded person. I'm not one to open up to other peoples opinions, much like a very protective dog.
I personally apologize for this extremely ranty/rambly blog post.
and now back to your previously scheduled programing.
-jordan
I personally feel like there are multiple mindsets to analyzing poetry, specifically, the two most common are.There is the mindset that supports further analysis and finding realizing the deeper meaning of poetry( and art and literature in general). While the other mindset is taking the work of art ,whether it be poetry or a painting, and examining at face value. What you see when you first look at it, is the actual meaning.
ReplyDeletePart of me wants to agree with what Jordan is saying, that we shouldn't look at poetry as something to be analyzed. We should just take it for its initial meaning when you first read it. However, the majority of my brain likes to see poetry and try to derive further meaning from it. I feel as though the author has something they want to say, and poetry helps them express their thoughts in a slightly less conventional and perhaps more expressive way. I think its almost like they are checking to see how perceptive their readers are.