WHAT DOES A POEM MEAN?

WHAT DOES A POEM MEAN?

Suppose you meet this orchid, what experiences (thoughts, feeling, idea, etc.) do you have in mind?

Your experiences might form a poem, because poetry is a kind of language that says experience more and says it more intensely than does ordinary language.

USES OF LANGUAGE
Practical (to provide information) Hortatory (to persuade) Literary (to share experience).
PRACTICAL

What is Love?
Love is a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness; the emotion of sex and romance.

Your Name
I wrote your name in the sky, but the wind blew it away. I wrote your name in the sand, but the waves washed it away. I wrote your name in my heart, and forever it will stay. (Jessica Blade)

SUBJECTS OF POETRY
All life Experiences; Poetry concerns with all kinds of experiencebeautiful or ugly, strange or common, noble or ignoble, actual or imaginary, philosophical or practical, happy or sad

FEATURES OF LANGUAGE LITERARY USE

ENABLE READER TO IMAGINATIVELY PARTICIPATE IN THE COMMUNICATED EXPERIENCES, WHICH, IN TURN, WILL:

Broaden readers experience (by involving in new experiences)

Deepen readers experience, since he/ she is involved in experiences he/ she has gone through.
One of the paradoxes of human existence is that all experienceseven painful experiencewhen transmitted through the medium of art is, for the good reader, enjoyable. In real life, death and pain and suffering are not pleasurable, but in poetry they may be. In actual life, if we cry, usually we are unhappy; but if we cry in a movie, we are manifestly enjoying It.

To appropriately share the experience in a poem, reader should understand and respond by applying five rules:
1. Read the poem more than once to get its full meaning 2. Read the poem aloud, or, if you cant bring yourself to read aloud, at

least sound the poem in your minds ear. The sound might help you understand the poem. 3. Keep a dictionary by you and use it. It is fruitless to try to understand poetry without troubling to learn the meanings of the words of which it is composed. 4. Always pay careful attention to what the poem is saying. 5. Think about the effects of reading the poem on you. Jot down your responses to the following questions: a) Do you find the poem interesting? Why or why not? b) Do some things on it interest you more than others? If so, why? c) Does anything in it puzzle you? If so, what?

General Meaning, Detailed Meaning, & Intention

The general meaning is a kind of summary of what the author expresses in the poem. Thus, it is based on a reading of the whole poem and should be expressed simply in one, or at the most two sentences.

The detailed meaning is the meaning provided in every stanza. It may be written as a continuous or two short paragraph.
The intention of the writer is the feelings the poet is trying to arouse in the reader.

WHAT IS AN EAGLE?
Eagle is any of many large birds of prey belonging to the family Falconidae. It is characterized by imperforate nostrils, legs of medium length, a hooked bill, and the claws roundly curved and sharp. Land eagles are feathered to the toes; their length is about three feet, the extent of wing seven feet. Eagles are monogamous. They mate for life and use the same nest each year. They tend to nest in inaccessible places, incubating a small clutch of eggs for six to eight weeks. The young mature slowly, reaching adult plumage in the third or fourth year. (Encyclopdia Britannica, 2007)

The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watched from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1809-1892)

The Challenge
by Jim Rohn
Let others lead small lives, But not you. Let others argue over small things, But not you. Let others cry over small hurts, But not you. Let others leave their future In someone else's hands, But not you.