Poetikat referred me to a new blog recently, Robert Frost's Banjo.
He had an excellent post on the meaning of poetry. I've dabbled in
a bit of poetry myself and I've heard more than once, after reading
one of my pieces, "But what does it mean?" This always annoys me
a bit and I wonder why the reader can't just enjoy the grouping of
the words and the textures of the sounds. Don't you think the
reader should just relax in the poem's mystery without necessarily
completely understanding the poet's intent?
There is an ancient Chinese Proverb that says, "A bird sings not
because he has an answer, but because he has a song."
A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown--
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
*
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind--
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
*
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea--
A poem should not mean
But be.
Ars Poetica, Archibald Macleish, 1926
He had an excellent post on the meaning of poetry. I've dabbled in
a bit of poetry myself and I've heard more than once, after reading
one of my pieces, "But what does it mean?" This always annoys me
a bit and I wonder why the reader can't just enjoy the grouping of
the words and the textures of the sounds. Don't you think the
reader should just relax in the poem's mystery without necessarily
completely understanding the poet's intent?
There is an ancient Chinese Proverb that says, "A bird sings not
because he has an answer, but because he has a song."
A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit,
Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,
Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown--
A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds.
*
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs,
Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,
Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind--
A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs.
*
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea--
A poem should not mean
But be.
Ars Poetica, Archibald Macleish, 1926
.
.
artwork: A Mere Excursion, Flickr
Oh, that's always been my favorite poem! I love that--and I totally agree with you. I taught college English, and did teach students to try to analyze poems, because poems are written to say certain things, but if they "sing" to individuals, in individual ways-- excellent!!
ReplyDeleteI think that there are two types of artists: those who come to you and those you have to go to.
ReplyDeleteThe former are driven by commercialism, hence they need your money and will go out of their way to get it. The latter create a realm to which you are only granted entry once you take leave of your rational sense. Yes, you can smell, hear, taste and talk about their art, but above all, you MUST feel it. If you don't feel it, forgive me for my insolence but it is not art, it is commerce.
Many thanks for a beautiful post and a lovely poem.
Greetings from London.
I always have a bit of a hard time reading poetry...the meter I suppose. Same with Shakespeare. After I've absorbed it for awhile, it flows.
ReplyDeleteLovely poem and image.
Beautiful poem. And I love the Chinese quote you posted so much, I am printing it out and hanging it over my computer.
ReplyDeleteBe well this day!
You can have poem with a meaning and some that are just there for the sheer pleasure of words. Does the wind hold meanings?
ReplyDeleteBesides, it goes for poems as for any other text. The author might put some meaning into it. What the readers hear or read is another thing altogether (and sometimes has nothing to do with the original intention).
ReplyDeleteHello Willow,
ReplyDeleteLovely poem and illustration! I enjoy something for its own sake, not because I 'understand' it. In fact, I never look for inner meaning; if a work moves me, conjures thoughts and/or images, fine but I don't need to know the ins and outs!
Glad you liked the Mozart!
I agree that the words alone are lovely to read and hear without necessarily having to make sense to the reader/listener. Having said that, a lot of my course is analysis of poetry and prose so I am perpetually pulling things apart seeking meaning. It does take some of the beauty away but I gotta do it.
ReplyDeleteI think poetry is little understood or appreciated today. We live in a prosaic world and bring a prosaic understanding to the written word. We read mysteries for the solution the detective supplies for us at the end.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is poetry.
It doesn't fit and it doesn't go away and nobody tells us who done it on the last page.
The delight of poetry I think is that it is short
ReplyDeleteoften small
but sets up so many ripples round it that one can think about it for a long time
its joy is in its infinite economy.
Super choice of poem
Beautiful reason. Gorgeous painting. It's always so fulfilling coming here to your site. Have a wonderful day, Willow.
ReplyDeletePoetry, art ... all are what they are to each individual viewer .. anyone who needs help 'getting' it, likely wont, even with a road map
ReplyDeleteI love the poem!
ReplyDeleteFor me, poetry and painting, sculpture and other forms of art can have many layers. The first is the instinctive reaction, where you 'take leave of your rational sense' as A Cuban in London so beautifully puts it.
Then there is the more analytical layer, which I may choose not to look at, in case it spoils the experience for me!
Beautifully said, Willow. I love the poem and ancient Chinese proverb. I have to read poetry out loud. It's all about how the words feel in my mouth. That's my defintion of good poetry.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, that too many people read poetry assuming there is ultimate truth or significant meaning buried in each symbol, in each syllable. Maybe that's a throwback to those old high school and college courses that involved picking a poem apart to analyze it, thereby draining it off all beauty. Love this post!
I so agree with you and love the poetry
ReplyDeleteI was reading Shel Silverstein poetry to my 3 year old grandson yesterday...the meanings of these poems, which are funny and silly to me, were way over his head but he listened for over 30 minutes...how analogous is this to me reading W.H.Auden and enjoying the cadence although I may not grasp all of his meaning?
ReplyDeleteMy philosophy exactly. A poem doesn't have to be perfect, either. It just has to, in some small way-- touch the soul.
ReplyDeleteKat
Like so much of art; a painting, a photograph, an essay or book. The beauty is in the possibility of what they might be.
ReplyDeleteI do so love the poetry in which the meaning is so viseral, you cannot articulate what it means to you...you just feel it in your soul.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, glad to have found your beautiful blog! "the grouping of
ReplyDeletethe words and the textures of the sounds" - this is precisely why I love language. Thank you for your own artistry in presenting such a beautiful poem!
Wonderfully said: As the moon climbs As a flight of birds
ReplyDeleteWhen my heart is touched, then the poem has meaning enough.
Nice...
ReplyDeleteThe poem, the proverb, and your post point out the substance.
if you are the generative artist/poet, the poem should be you - nothing more or nothing less - love the george tooker on your sidebar
ReplyDeleteWhen writing poetry I love how the words feel on my tongue; I'd rather use a word the bounces and rolls that an appropriate description.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a poetry follower myself...I enjoy this poem though. Thanks for sharing. It gets at the heart of many of my complaints when "analyzing" poetry in my various literature courses.
ReplyDeleteVery cool.
What does it all mean?
ReplyDeleteWhy did s/he choose to use that word? Does s/he mean to lead or use the lead?
Or did they just have an idea, and needed to put it on paper? Who really is the authority on the insight?
Lovely post!
ReplyDeleteWe learn our first poems as nursery rhymes of childhood. Than we go on to high school and college where we are taught to dissect poetry. At this point some poetry loses it's appeal.
Poetry like art and music speaks to each of us in a different way. What moves you to tears might not move anyone else, but it is all of value.
"A poem should not mean/But be."
ReplyDeleteLines often in my head, but I never knew whose they were...without the song, it isn't poetry, is it. But what is the inspiration for the song? I do think that poetry is a striving after meaning, giving voice to the ineffable. At least, the song has meaning for the bird. The rest of us need only listen...
Much food for thought here. Thanks, Willow.
Poetry rests my mind. I take a deep breath and consume.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading your blog for a while but have never posted. So hello from cold and sunny Maine today!
I have never heard or seen that poem before - it is so true and such a beautiful poem. I do so agree that words on their own are so beautiful and combinations of words even more beautiful and they don't necessarily have to mean anything. Think I might do a blot along those lines tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great poem and I love the painting, it's beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the link to Robert Frost's Banjo, & the kind words. Like many other commentors, I like that poem a lot-- first ran across it in high school (too many years ago), & had almost forgotten it in recent years. The picture accompanying the post also is very striking.
ReplyDeleteThanks again.
John Hayes
yup! It's a bit like listening to a lecture delivered by Stephen Hawkings...just have to relax and allow- miraculously without any intellectual effort on the listener's part it all begins to make sense and take the listener to places rarely visited in conscience.
ReplyDeleteYou and I follow many of the same blogs- I have noticed your comments and have often been intrigued.
ReplyDeleteI saw your commeent on Barry's most recent post and thought I would stop by.
I love the poem. I love poetry.
I think that we have been trained to "look for the answer" in today's world. "If a, then b" sort of mentality.
It is nice to get a break and just be.
i for one like mysterious poetry that makes my tongue tickle when i read it out loud. the allure of these poems is the sounds and the images evoked. nothing wrong with a bit of mystery!!
ReplyDeleteI so agree with your sentiments Willow. I hate the 'dissection' of poems, it should be banned.
ReplyDeletePS I love the pic.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Willow. I love the painting and the poem.
ReplyDelete"....as the moon releases twig by twig the night-entangled trees"......Beautiful words!
As often as not I don't know what my own poems 'mean'. If they fall out pleasingly then I'll not question why.
ReplyDeleteI do love that dreamy picture of a bird in flight. Poetic phrases, even if we can't always break them down for meaning easily, have a kind of "flight" and fancy to them, too.
ReplyDeleteSuch a well-chosen poem, Willow.
I thought of you today on the way home from work as I heard John Updike died today! I know you enjoy poetry and I always liked his poems in the New Yorker...sad...
ReplyDeleteI love the work of art you're showing here.
ReplyDeleteAbout poetry, i feel that like an abstract work of art, you sculpt with words, but you leave all the irrelevant stuff out.
Also, a poem may (my own opinion: is supposed to have) have meaning on several levels.
These things make it of course harder to understand, but a work of art leads you into the world of the artist.
If it doesn't, it is common place.
(this is not meant arrogantly at all, but I really think that any work of ART makes you think/ponder.
I find it really difficult to read poetry, but I like the sound it makes.
ReplyDeleteI was discussing this with a taxi driver recently (I will blog this conversation some day) and we came to the conclusion that the purpose of poetry was to make you take the conscious mind off the tramlines so that you could understand without thinking.
I surely couldn't agree more Willow. Well said.
ReplyDeleteI will let you explain poetry to me as I let Lynette reveal Mozart You have so many admirers, it seems superfluous to say it, but thank you.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful post... it puts so well what I struggle to put into thoughts, let alone words.
ReplyDeleteA person has to interpret a poem from the words. Sometimes it is just a passing memory, in others deep thoughts reside to be considered slowly over coffee and a bisquit.
ReplyDeleteWillow dearest, those who have to ask what it means are either without a sense of humour or laking in sensibility, but they are irksome.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful picture.
ReplyDeleteLove the part about what does it mean, it seems to make sense to me. Just enjoy! So I am enjoying your posts very much. I do not always leave a message but do read them and find them very interesting. So glad to find you.
Hi willow,
ReplyDeleteI feel poetry is like a momentary aroma that u like the moment it vanishes from under your nose. You like it...remember a bit....You want to experience it again...read it again....and again understand and absorb a bit more...:)
Don't know if it makes sense but that's how I feel .:)
Love your short and meaningful posts!
and ufcourse loved the poem too!
ReplyDeleteWillow, I love that last line, "A poem should not mean but be" Isn't that the definition of all art?
ReplyDeleteSuper post Willow. Love the picture especially and the poem. I have been guilty of asking 'what does it mean' I'm afraid but I can also enjoy the beauty of the words. I just don't like to appear stupid I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued, partly for am a poet and wholy for a wonderful post. I have looked at poetry and done poetry fairly well to have a fancy for it. In fact, your blog has been a keen interest of mine. I get a few charmers in my life and when I do...it is a favorite sport of mine to engage with them wholly.
ReplyDeleteYou have incredible taste.
I am humbled!
"Don't you think the
ReplyDeletereader should just relax in the poem's mystery without necessarily
completely understanding the poet's intent?"
while i would VERY much like to think this, poetry makes me NERVOUS. so i can never relax in the face of poetry, except for cavafy. and a bit of anna akhmatova. ok, and some alexander blok...but mostly, it just agitates me and makes me feel inadequate when i don't understand...(sigh).
Poetry seems to be whatever it's made to be. Some will and some won't take to it. Just allowing yourself to be free and to experiment with words, that's a gift.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read a good poem it quiets the mind. In an odd way reading a poem makes it exquisitely mute at the same moment.
ReplyDeleteLove this poem! You shoulc check out the blog I'm making on Archibald for an english project: http://malloryegr5.edublogs.org
ReplyDelete