March 4, 2018
Dear Subscriber:
Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of
view. The theme for this week is the artist.
Today’s poem is a set of proverbs about the inadvisability
of explaining what a poem means.
I welcome comments on my poems at
https://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
Yours,
Nick Gordon
POETRY AND EXPLANATION
1. Since poetry is a partnership between poet and reader,
what the poet meant is not what the poem means.
2. The image always means more than the explanation, making
any explanation by the poet reductive.
3. Explanations by those other than the poet, however, may
be enriching because they are not authoritative.
4. What, then, is a reader to do when faced with an
intriguing passage that seems obscure? First, search her own mind and heart;
second, search the minds and hearts of others through reading and conversation;
third, treat the explanation of any poet foolish enough to make one with the
same attention given to that of any informed reader; fourth, always be aware
that the fault may be with the poet and not with the reader.
5. What, then, is a poet to do, having written a passage
that many readers find obscure? First, consider whether the passage is
unnecessarily obscure, and, if so, revise it; second, if the passage is richly
obscure, have faith in your readers; third, if neither of the first two
suggestions works, consider another vocation.
6. The only thing a poet should even consider explaining is
what he never should have written in the first place.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I
chose for it at https://www.poemsforfree.com/poexpl.html.
For more philosophical poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/philosophicalpoems.html
.
This week’s theme: The Artist
February 26: There Is No Better Painting than a Sunrise
February 27: Fifty-Five3
February 28: Forty-Five6
March 1: Fifty-Four3
March 3: Thirty-Eight6
March 4: Poetry and Explanation
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