Quote:
Originally Posted by Barbara Baig
But, with all respect to Roger, everyone does not read a poem that way. Some of us prefer to surrender to the words and images and music and discover the meaning of the poem that way
Barbara
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And with equal respect, I disagree. I believe that
everyone reads poems that way, whether or not they know it. A poem about trying to decide which road to take, or about pausing one's horse in the snowy woods, would be trivial if the mind did not automatically allow the situation to resonate into other meatier concerns. Frost once said a poem has to mean two (or more) things at once, and I agree. A poem that merely tells us some annoying guy was tailgaiting the speaker has absolutely nothing to say to me unless it also says more, at least at some intuitive level. There's no point surrendering to the images if the images are mundane and lack subtety or resonance. (I see Hilary's related comment, and I naturally agree).