Friday, March 5, 2010
Guest Blogger - Emilie T.
This week in class we have been analyzing poetry to prepare for the AP Literature test. The analysis techniques, TPCASTT and SOAPSTone, are meant to help us dig into the poem so that we have enough to write about in our essay. But once we tear into the poem, what is left? All of the words on the page become examples of literary devices. All of the beauty is destroyed in our quest to analyze the poem. We have been reading poems about poetry in class, so I found one online that agrees with my view that meaning is often forced from a poem. The poem can be found at http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/apple.html. Poetry is a form of literature that is supposed to be smooth and beautiful, even if the beauty is eerie or dark. We all read “To Paint a Water Lily” from a book by Ted Hughes. The poem talks about a green pond, which is the home to flies and dragonflies that rocket through the air. The poem is beautiful and abundant in imagery and literary devices, but what is left once we analyze it? Lines 22-26 say, “Now paint the long-necked lily-flower which, deep in both worlds, can be still as a painting, trembling hardly at all though the dragonfly alight, whatever horror nudge her root.” These lines personify the lily so that the reader can almost see or touch the lily itself. However, once the label is put on the quote, some of the magic of the imagery is lost. In our quest to label, categorize, and analyze the poetry, the beauty of the poem is set aside. We will be able to write an essay about the author’s use of personification to make the lily seem more real, but can you still see the dew on the lily? Can you see the colors? Can you smell the delicate scent of the lily? Can you feel the dragonfly as it lands? The poem becomes an assignment, the wonder is forgotten, and the poem is set aside because the magic can no longer be felt. Poetry should be read so that we can enjoy it. The poems that I remember are never the ones that we dissect and dismember in class. What do you think? Does the poem preserve its essence after it is analyzed, or have we uprooted the very soul of the poem, which becomes only words on a page?
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I feel like a very delicate balance must be struck when reading poetry. In my personal opinion, a single, simple read leaves much of the poem's meaning beyond the obvious obscured. One must pry, and ask questions, to truly feel the meaning of the poem. But in my opinion, we must ask the right questions. The questions are different for every poem, and following a rigid structure like SOAPStone or TPCASTT only is akin to trying to fit different objects into the same square holes by shaving them down to the right shape and size. Whether you just give a poem a cursory read or attempt to categorize it into your neat and comfortable boxes, the author's original intent can be thrown out the window.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ihab. Your first read through a poem can leave you confused. I personally have to read a poem twice to even begin to understand what the author was saying. Also understanding some of the literary devices can actually help the reader grasp what is truely going on. But looking at every word, comma, and device makes you dread looking at another poem and can ruin its beauty.
ReplyDeletei agree with emilie. every poem that i remember has been one that we have not studied in class. I'm a severely right brained thinker, and because of this, i remember the kind of poem that has the unique ability of painting a picture in my head. to this day, the most vivid picture a poem has put into my head, is a picture of a dragon. This dragon comes from a poem that i read in 1st grade. i don't remember the title or author of the poem, but i remember the dragon. The enormous wings that made the ground move when they flapped, the spiny scales that glistened in the sun, it's long neck that curled so perfectly when it slept; i could go on and on. poems that make use of such beautiful imagery have the tendency to stick in my head longer, and in the long run, i end up thinking about them for a longer amount of time. i mean, every once in a while when i daydream in class i think what else the poem about the dragon could mean. I truly think that tearing these poems apart looking for answers, is the equivalent of tearing the beauty itself out of the poems.
ReplyDeleteI am in the middle with this idea, because i believe that poems should be interpreted how everyone as an individual sees it, however if you want to get the deeper meaning behind what the writer was trying to get across, then analyzing the poem will help achieve that. When you look at a poem in the first read, it usually leaves you confused about every line, however the TPcast, and SOAPSTone techniques help us figure out a start point to analyze and figure out the true meaning behind the poem and the author's perspective.
ReplyDeleteWhen you read a poem, you should read it with two different mindsets. I usually try and look for the symbols, diction, and other literary techniques first which then helps me to understand the actual meaning behind the poem. The author of the poem put those elements in it for a reason and they probably want people to recognize them. However, I do agree that we often forget to do the second part and simply think that because we've picked out the educational lessons from it, we know what the poem is about. We need to read it through again and apply those techniques to our understanding of it.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this post, I never really thought about the topics you brought up. However, I've come to realize that the analysis of poetry does contradict how I often view it. Although these strategies will be useful to use while taking the AP test, I would never analize a poem in order to enjoy it. I've always considered poetry something that should be pondered; something without correct answers or exact meanings. Analysis completely destroys that and forces the reader to dig for exact answers to questions that don't have them.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you. Poetry is suppose to be a work of art that will stick with you and give you a deeper meaning to something. When using one of the analysis methods to tear them about you lose the beauty of the poem. I do believe that for the class and for the big test these methods will help in the long run. They are a bit of a pain but it does help in understanding what the author of the poem is really trying to say.
ReplyDeleteI never realized this but now after reading this I definatly agree with you! I remember the fun exciting poems that was not homework. You make the point that poems should not get dissected. I disagree a little with you on that. I think all poems should be dissected to a certain limit to see if there is another meaning behind the poem that we are not seeing which is what the SOAPSTone and TPCASTTing does or it does for me.
ReplyDelete