not understanding
the following from an old interact: Sunset byRahul Malviya-November 13, 2004
Rahul:
you wrote...a few suggestions on improving my understanding of poetry...
...it is you who are very kind in seeking this small time poet's indulgence...there are books and treatises...am sure...on the subject of understanding just about everything...though am not aware of any dummies' guide to poetry yet heck, there is a suggestion for someone;)...understanding is a loaded word when applied to any subject let alone poetry...we can spend a lifetime studying a subject and not understand even a miniscule of its potential worth and meaning...god and woman, for instance;)...
...hence i'd to stay away from applying it to an esoteric subject like poetry...would go more for appreciate...how does one appreciate poetry?...easy answer is to declare majestically... 'either one appreciates it or one doesn't'...there!...end of discussion...but it is a cop out...the proper answer to this query might result in that book!....having led you this far i would make an attempt to give you a very subjective perception...(you are forewarned)...poetry is felt...the degree of this feeling is subjective...
...to live we eat...several times a day if the good lord provides...occasionally if the lords are unkind...but we do eat...the appreciation...the understanding of what is before us on our plate is subjective...some wolf it down, some tinker with it agonizingly, some enjoy every single morsel, some read while eating, some watch tv, concentrate on conversation, listen to music...all the while eating...some care about presentation...some don't...some care about the right warmth, the right ingredients, the right aroma...culture and conditioning also have a lot to do with this understanding of the food we eat...hope you understand this long winded attempt at explaining...a poet might say the same thing as:
each morsel, every grain is me
or less succinctly
food is felt
or to be madisonavish
you are what you eat
and to be a bit graphic
dust to dust, morsel to morsel...
(digression! cliches are the speed-bumpers in prose and verse;))
...and then let the reader whirl his mind over the various possibilities hidden in the phrase...and then the reader`s mind, aided by experience and imagination takes flight...soaring high above…taking in all the possibilities to ascertain and evaluate the relationship between food and us...
...cannot tell you what a good poem is...but i can tell you what it should not be...but even there perhaps i'd be highly subjective...
...a good poem should be felt by the reader…this is a reverberation in a small or large sense of the feeling of a poet with that of the reader...a poet succeeds in measure when s/he is able to convey through words feelings that resonates with the experiences of the reader...the universal soul becomes one at that point...
..let me illustrate this with a short a poem of mine...Am No God...30 words...simple words used effectively...this poem came about when i was horsing around with my son one day...just like that...i scribbled these words on the back of an envelope...
...confession: later tried deliberately to write some poems in this simple way...did not work for me!...poems like these just descend...I think:)...
...now, if you are a sensible person, ignore all of above and just google "understanding english poetry" and in 0.58 seconds it will give you 2,090,000 results ...and you might find this Understanding and Explicating Poetry interesting
Rahul:
you wrote...a few suggestions on improving my understanding of poetry...
...it is you who are very kind in seeking this small time poet's indulgence...there are books and treatises...am sure...on the subject of understanding just about everything...though am not aware of any dummies' guide to poetry yet heck, there is a suggestion for someone;)...understanding is a loaded word when applied to any subject let alone poetry...we can spend a lifetime studying a subject and not understand even a miniscule of its potential worth and meaning...god and woman, for instance;)...
...hence i'd to stay away from applying it to an esoteric subject like poetry...would go more for appreciate...how does one appreciate poetry?...easy answer is to declare majestically... 'either one appreciates it or one doesn't'...there!...end of discussion...but it is a cop out...the proper answer to this query might result in that book!....having led you this far i would make an attempt to give you a very subjective perception...(you are forewarned)...poetry is felt...the degree of this feeling is subjective...
...to live we eat...several times a day if the good lord provides...occasionally if the lords are unkind...but we do eat...the appreciation...the understanding of what is before us on our plate is subjective...some wolf it down, some tinker with it agonizingly, some enjoy every single morsel, some read while eating, some watch tv, concentrate on conversation, listen to music...all the while eating...some care about presentation...some don't...some care about the right warmth, the right ingredients, the right aroma...culture and conditioning also have a lot to do with this understanding of the food we eat...hope you understand this long winded attempt at explaining...a poet might say the same thing as:
each morsel, every grain is me
or less succinctly
food is felt
or to be madisonavish
you are what you eat
and to be a bit graphic
dust to dust, morsel to morsel...
(digression! cliches are the speed-bumpers in prose and verse;))
...and then let the reader whirl his mind over the various possibilities hidden in the phrase...and then the reader`s mind, aided by experience and imagination takes flight...soaring high above…taking in all the possibilities to ascertain and evaluate the relationship between food and us...
...cannot tell you what a good poem is...but i can tell you what it should not be...but even there perhaps i'd be highly subjective...
...a good poem should be felt by the reader…this is a reverberation in a small or large sense of the feeling of a poet with that of the reader...a poet succeeds in measure when s/he is able to convey through words feelings that resonates with the experiences of the reader...the universal soul becomes one at that point...
..let me illustrate this with a short a poem of mine...Am No God...30 words...simple words used effectively...this poem came about when i was horsing around with my son one day...just like that...i scribbled these words on the back of an envelope...
...confession: later tried deliberately to write some poems in this simple way...did not work for me!...poems like these just descend...I think:)...
...now, if you are a sensible person, ignore all of above and just google "understanding english poetry" and in 0.58 seconds it will give you 2,090,000 results ...and you might find this Understanding and Explicating Poetry interesting
posted by temporal at 10/01/2005
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