What do you do?

Question:

What do you do?

When you read a poem aned don't understand it. What do you do? Do you think that it's a very deep poem? Or think that it's a bad poem? Or read the poem again and again until you make some sense out of it? Do you think that a poem should be written to be understood?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Good question, very good.
I'm reminded of Shakespeare. He was so hard to read, until I read him over and over and over. Now I wonder what the problem was. So, yes, the joy of great works is that they give and give and give, and with each reading, more is gotten.

I can't address a bad or good poem based on its difficulty. Let's assume that you have studied and know that your poet is respected. Besides reading the poem over and over, it's necessary to read others of the same person--to get that person's perspective on life, and to get accumstomed to that person's way of saying things.

Also, it's a good idea to read other's opinions and critiques, especially about classic poets, and to find footnotes for things that are no longer in use. It really helps to surround yourself with as much information regarding the poet, when you are dealing with great poems. (Having said that, though, a great poem will stand on its own and, yes, must be read over and over.)

For example what would you first think of "oh, to be a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floor of ancient seas"? After you read and get the feeling tone of the whole poem, you see that this is a poem about a person lamenting his whole existence, and he does it with metaphors that are unique. He doesn't seem to want to walk into the future. So you ask what "ragged claws" in the ocean don't walk forward, and those are crabs. Crabs walk sideways, and you're tickled by your discovery.

When Shakespeare writes, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments," it's daunting at first. But it's simple on second or third look. If true minds marry--that is come together--Shakespeare doesn't want to think they could have problems. He doesn't even want to think (admit) that possibility; love, to him is forever and always or was never love to begin with.

The marriage of true minds must be forever without problems (impediments). The rest of this sonnet tells you you're on the right track, because the next line is, "Love is not love with alters, when it alteration finds, nor bends with the remover to remove." So, here: There can't be impediments, because love is forever. It doesn't stop just because someone tries to re-shape it or even remove it. It is forever, and will not be impeded! "It is an ever a-fixed mark, which looks on tempests and is never shaken" and with the first becoming clear, these lines are clear. It's set, if it's love; no storm can shake it from its set position of truth and eternity. See?
Try it; Sonnet 116, I think. Or google the first line....

Keep doing this with each poem and you'll gain confidence very, very quickly. I promise. (Sometimes it helps to know historical background, but if the poem is great, it isn't necessary for understanding, because a good poet will make his/her message universal--use the history, but write it so that it applies to all at all times.)

AND NEVER THINK BECAUSE A POEM IS DIFFICULT THAT IT IS NOT GOOD. POETRY IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF LITERATURE, AND THE GREATS ARE VERY DIFFICULT, BELIEVE ME, AND MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF NOT ONLY UNDERSTANDING THEM, BUT OF LOVING THEM, WILL ENRICH YOUR LIFE.

Art, like a rich, full life, must be approached and worked with desire and effort, or one may as well watch TV....

Good luck.