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/lit/ - Literature

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1473268 No.1473268 [Reply] [Original]

How does one interpret poetry? I'm not very good at it. I can do plays and novels and short stories, just not poetry.

Any thoughts?

>> No.1473274

if you think you can "do" plays, novels, and short stories, you can't.

>> No.1473275

Shuddup

>> No.1473277

http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.php

try the section on poetry

>> No.1473282

Any specific type of poetry, or a particular historical period?
I'd argue that reading experimental contemporary poetry requires a different approach to reading Elizabethan love poetry, for instance.

>> No.1473286
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1473286

>>1473274
Also, you're a fucking presumptuous asshole, dude. Anyone can "do" an interpretation.

>> No.1473302

>>1473286
op can't do an interpretation for poetry.

case solved.

>> No.1473320

>>1473282

Anything really.

>>1473274

How pretentious.

>>1473277

Tysm.

>> No.1473321

>>1473302
That has nothing to do with what you said. You're still a presumptous fucking asshole who jumped the gun and got called.

>> No.1473327

is that robin or spiderman?

>> No.1473330

>>1473321
my problem was that op thought he could do all those things without being able to do poetry. it doesn't make sense.

>> No.1473338

>>1473330

Obviously it does if that's the reality of the situation. With textual analysis of novels, short stories and plays I do very well. With poetry, I do badly because I just can't understand their meaning very well.

I know you're quite stupid, but please try to understand me.

>> No.1473341
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1473341

>>1473327
looks like kid flash to me.

>> No.1473349

>>1473320
>Anything really.
Ok, well I'll try giving some general advice for appreciating poetry.

Firstly, don't approach poems like they're always a kind of riddle that the reader solves to produce an interpretation. Like any piece of language, poems can always be read in multiple ways; you don't have to be thinking "what did the author mean by this?"; you don't have to "do" reductive psychoanalytical stuff like "the oak tree must be a metaphor for the poet's childhood". Similarly, poetry does not have to be metaphorical - if you read poets who constantly use metaphors that seem meaningless, and make you puzzle over some hidden meaning, maybe they're not good poets, or not right for you.

More advice to come....