Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Szilvasy
instead of 'entirely comprehensible,' something more akin to 'easily plumbed.'
|
Even with this I disagree. Poems can successfully operate in many ways; some of those are easily plumbed. I agree about the value of deeper meaning (gone into in your following post); I only disagree that good poetry requires it.
For instance, the first 47 lines of Larkin's "Aubade" (easily findable online, so I won't take the room to post it here) seem to me easily plumbed. That the poem ends with lines that require more interpretation suggests Larkin may have felt that his poem needed to reach for something more, but I don't think the rest of the poem depends on that ending for its power, which derives from the unflinching look at death, and is enhanced by the poem's straightforwardness.