Getting Meaning Out of a Puzzle

Just as not everyone has a sense of humor, not everyone understands poetry. In poetry exist the great gems, clever poems, corny rhymes, and perhaps blahs, which are only attempts at poetry and failures. In my blogs you have seen─and I trust, read─not great ones, but at least some clever ones. But let me explain where trouble might lie, if you don’t understand poetry. If it is any good at all, poetry is about two different things, something actually stated on the page, and then the real thing the poem is about. Take a look back at last Sunday’s blog. You had no trouble, I assume, recognizing a piece of furniture in Chinese design. But with the last line added, we have a metaphor. Without that last line, there would hardly be a poem. What does the poet say here? You have to know what the poet means before you get a poem out of the whole thing. Why not read it again? Understanding brings appreciation.

♥