Tuesday, January 27, 2009

What Does it Mean?


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
.
.
artwork: A Mere Excursion, Flickr

58 comments:

  1. 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!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that there are two types of artists: those who come to you and those you have to go to.

    The 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.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 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.

    Lovely poem and image.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful poem. And I love the Chinese quote you posted so much, I am printing it out and hanging it over my computer.

    Be well this day!

    ReplyDelete
  5. You can have poem with a meaning and some that are just there for the sheer pleasure of words. Does the wind hold meanings?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Besides, 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).

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Willow,

    Lovely 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!

    ReplyDelete
  8. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I 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.

    And 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.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The delight of poetry I think is that it is short
    often 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

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beautiful reason. Gorgeous painting. It's always so fulfilling coming here to your site. Have a wonderful day, Willow.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Poetry, art ... all are what they are to each individual viewer .. anyone who needs help 'getting' it, likely wont, even with a road map

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love the poem!

    For 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!

    ReplyDelete
  14. 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.

    You'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!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I so agree with you and love the poetry

    ReplyDelete
  16. I 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?

    ReplyDelete
  17. My philosophy exactly. A poem doesn't have to be perfect, either. It just has to, in some small way-- touch the soul.

    Kat

    ReplyDelete
  18. Like so much of art; a painting, a photograph, an essay or book. The beauty is in the possibility of what they might be.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I 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.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Lovely post, glad to have found your beautiful blog! "the grouping of
    the 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!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Wonderfully said: As the moon climbs As a flight of birds
    When my heart is touched, then the poem has meaning enough.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Nice...
    The poem, the proverb, and your post point out the substance.

    ReplyDelete
  23. if you are the generative artist/poet, the poem should be you - nothing more or nothing less - love the george tooker on your sidebar

    ReplyDelete
  24. When 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.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I'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.

    Very cool.

    ReplyDelete
  26. What does it all mean?

    Why 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?

    ReplyDelete
  27. Lovely post!

    We 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.

    ReplyDelete
  28. "A poem should not mean/But be."
    Lines 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.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Poetry rests my mind. I take a deep breath and consume.

    I've been reading your blog for a while but have never posted. So hello from cold and sunny Maine today!

    ReplyDelete
  30. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  31. That's a great poem and I love the painting, it's beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thanks 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.

    Thanks again.
    John Hayes

    ReplyDelete
  33. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  34. You and I follow many of the same blogs- I have noticed your comments and have often been intrigued.

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete
  35. 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!!

    ReplyDelete
  36. I so agree with your sentiments Willow. I hate the 'dissection' of poems, it should be banned.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Great post, Willow. I love the painting and the poem.
    "....as the moon releases twig by twig the night-entangled trees"......Beautiful words!

    ReplyDelete
  38. As often as not I don't know what my own poems 'mean'. If they fall out pleasingly then I'll not question why.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I 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.

    Such a well-chosen poem, Willow.

    ReplyDelete
  40. 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...

    ReplyDelete
  41. I love the work of art you're showing here.
    About 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.

    ReplyDelete
  42. I find it really difficult to read poetry, but I like the sound it makes.

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete
  43. I surely couldn't agree more Willow. Well said.

    ReplyDelete
  44. I 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.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Beautiful post... it puts so well what I struggle to put into thoughts, let alone words.

    ReplyDelete
  46. A 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.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Willow dearest, those who have to ask what it means are either without a sense of humour or laking in sensibility, but they are irksome.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Beautiful picture.
    Love 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.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Hi willow,
    I 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!

    ReplyDelete
  50. and ufcourse loved the poem too!

    ReplyDelete
  51. Willow, I love that last line, "A poem should not mean but be" Isn't that the definition of all art?

    ReplyDelete
  52. Super 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.

    ReplyDelete
  53. I 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.
    You have incredible taste.
    I am humbled!

    ReplyDelete
  54. "Don't you think the
    reader 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).

    ReplyDelete
  55. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  56. When I read a good poem it quiets the mind. In an odd way reading a poem makes it exquisitely mute at the same moment.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Love this poem! You shoulc check out the blog I'm making on Archibald for an english project: http://malloryegr5.edublogs.org

    ReplyDelete

Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)