But I think it really encapsulates all the things we've been mulling over and discussing and illustrating. So we'll end with it. You can read it here.
Discussion Questions:
1. Which of these activities in this poem do you feel you've kind of participated in this semester?
2. What is Collins saying about people who analyze or criticize poetry?
1. The one about feeling for a light switch, because sometimes I'll sit there forever staring at a poem trying to analyze it. (I get stuck all the time trying to figure something out, so if I was waterskiing I'd be the most thoroughly wet person in the history of poetry classes o(*￣▽￣*)ブ)
ReplyDeleteHaha XD Yeah, I definitely understand that! I've got to say, that one about science by Poe was probably one of the hardest for me! I remember just sitting there, staring at the screen thinking what? :P
DeleteYeah, that one was hard. I feel like there were a couple others I just sat there and stared at too, but I can't remember which ones.
DeleteHaha! I dig that. Groping for a light switch is a perfectly good way to try to understand poetry. Much better than setting it on fire and then trying to read the words quick before they turn to ash.
Delete2. That they try to brute-force their way through analyzation, instead of actually reading it carefully. I think it's interesting that he talks about it visually, like it's a solid object, instead of just something you read. That way all the things about 'watching' it work. I think it does help to imagine the poem too, and not just read the words.
ReplyDeleteYes! I like that he considers a poem is a solid object. Not some blobs of ink scattered on a sheet of paper. Like a story in a book is more than just dead trees ground up and squished together and something black and sticky smeared on it.
DeleteI think he's also talking about people who insist a poem has to Be Significant In Some Abstract Way. Like, sometimes a poem about a pretty flower IS literally talking about a pretty flower... but it might not be. But we don't have to pick everything apart trying to find Deeper Meaning always.
1. Definitely the last part, forcing a confession out of it to understand what it really means. Also the first part where he talks about the color slide. I don't know why, but that one made me think immediately about how we illustrated two poems. And the part about waving to the author on shore I thought was really cool. I think definitely you use knowledge about an author to better determine what they're saying. I mean, that's how I wrote my paper 😅
ReplyDeleteYes! Reading anything should involve waving hi to the author from a distance, in a way. When you read a book, whether it was published yesterday by someone alive or two hundred years ago by someone long dead, you still meet the author inside it, sort of.
Delete2. That they can't just sit down, read a poem, enjoy it, think about maybe a little, but mostly just let the words work a first impression on them. That instead, they rip apart viciously something not meant to be something you know everything about. Just something to be somewhat interpreted.
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY. Kind of mean, really.
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