Question. Poetry is said to lend itself various interpretation. discuss According to Tsur (2008) poetry is literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of literature. The interpretation of a poem as distinct from the understanding of separate words or sentences is a complex process of response to all the interrelated aspects and characteristics of the language of the poem. The interpretation may be said to have as constituents our understanding of words, sentences, figures, symbols, and reaction to sound, rhythm, etc. However, it would be misleading to regard the interpretation of a poem as a mere result of independently determined understandings of the linguistic constituents of the poem. Even the simplest poem is a very complicated object for interpretation, the organizing viewpoint from which the poem is responded may be adopted only after a great deal of reflection. Someone have great freedom in interpreting a poem, provided that the assertions are solidly linked to the evidence. Interpretation that does not align with analysis will be invalid. Abrams (1965) is saying that, there is no one, right interpretation of a poem, but there is one which is more right than any of the others. Because different people have different answers, various interpretations of the poem are possible because of the following; To interpret, or understand, the poem as a whole, it is helpful first to interpret its parts. For example, in the first line, what does “This” refer to? Perhaps “This” refers to the speaker’s entire body of writing. It should be remembered that the speaker of a poem is not necessarily the author. Perhaps “This” refers to the poem itself. Perhaps “This” refers to the theme, or message, of this particular poem by Emily Dickinson This is my letter to the world, That never wrote to me, The simple news that Nature told, With tender majesty. Her message is committed To hands I cannot see; For love of her, sweet countrymen, Judge tenderly of me! The use of setting affects the interpretation of the poetry. Setting is when and where a story take place. Setting affect the poetry by engaging the reader and helping them visualize the event and context in which the narrative is being told. Therefore, through visualizing, can bring different interpretation over the same poem and can help explain its purpose. Context or setting is information that helps the message of a literary text make sense. Whether it’s a poetry or other literary work, a piece of writing can be interpreted variably depending on the contextual factors provided by the author. Some context is obviously stated and some requires a close reading of the literary work. So it’s important for every reader to know what context is and how to use it in their own interpreting process. An interpretation is not an opinion; it is an understanding of what is being viewed. For example, someone can make an interpretation that a poem is about love and connect their claim to evidence within the poem. However, if they make the same claim without any way to backup their reasoning, it’s an opinion. Furthermore, an opinion can be as simple as someone being drawn to a particular piece. “In a poem, the evidence is every word. It generally helps to read a poem several times, looking up words or allusions, and then most readers will ‘get’ the poem. For example the word dada can be interpreted as girlfriend or sister depending on the piece. Consider the poem To You Dada by Isack Mruma To you dada. It’s the days that matter, For we are unable to chat In the language we had. When I look at you And see my pay slip In your eyes I feel empty And sapped. Interpreting the poetry depends on the way a person looks at a poem; it can be asked if poetry is meant to “teach or delight.” It’s all depends on the way a person looks at a poem, it could be both. The delight aspect is reading a poem for fun. When a poem teaches something, it can have several meanings. It can use technical forms and allow people to consider all the words, and implied or double meanings, to arrive at a solid interpretation. If a reader overlooks some lines or words and arrives at a misinterpretation. Example a poem by A Freedom Song by Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye (Kenya) Atieno’s sly and jealous Bad example to the kids Since she minds them, like a school girl Wants their dresses, shoes and beads. Atieno ten years old, Atieno yo. The nature of the experience which the poem creates. Poetry should be open for interpretation. As an art form, the main purpose of poetry is to make a person feel something, and individuals’ feelings should not be invalidated. There is a reason why people have differing interpretations of certain art forms. Sometimes they are reminded of what they have experienced, other times they may be based on desires or fears. No one in the world will have the exact same reaction to a poem. There might be a few shared traits between the reactions, but they will always be different. This is because of everyone is owning experiences, opinions, and thoughts. For example: Person A is a happy human being who is living a good life with their family and has a good job. Person B is a depressed human being who has thought about committing suicide. They would both react relatively differently about a poem. Let say the poem is about someone who has gone through a rough life and eventually resorts to suicide. Person B would relate to this poem more than Person A because Person B has gone through the same problems as the character in the story. Also, the process may feel arbitrary when you first become familiar with it. For example you are being guided through it by a teacher whose feelings you cannot know firsthand. You don’t really know your own feelings about it yet, and you don’t know how to clarify what feelings you do have. That comes with practice, and that practice can feel unproductive and random early on. You may never get it. For example a poem Eat More Eat more fruit!, the slogan say More fish, more beef, more bread But I’m on an employment pay My third year now and wed Also, viewpoint of the reader help to interpret the poetry; having different views on one poem can help others to consider ideas they haven’t thought about before. If everyone agreed on a certain viewpoint, then there would not be room to grow and learn. After all, overtime everyone’s viewpoints change as they encounter new experiences. Specialization of the language or diction; there is a perception that the language and the content of poetry are hard, and this hardness becomes alive in the very idea of poetry itself. Different perspectives on the meaning of interpretation itself require considering the role of language in different ways. Analysis of participants’ interpretations and processes suggests themselves very differently in relation to text or language. Varied approaches to text types predicate different readerly spaces, and these in their turn have implications for readers’ relation to the roles and affordances of language, their responses to language and their willingness or ability to interpret language. In other words, such perceived relations have implications in interpreting the poetry. Sound and rhythm; sound and rhythm are other important elements of poetry. The sound of a poetic text means how a line or what sounds some specific words evokes in readers’ minds. Rhythm is a set pattern that is formed by these sounds. In poetry, rhythm refers to the metrical rhythm that involves the arrangement of syllables into repeating patterns called feet. For example, the following lines from William Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 116’ contain an iambic rhythm with a few variations: Let me/ not to/ the mar/-riage of/ true minds Ad-mit/ im-pe/-di-ments./ Love is/ not love Which al/-ters when/ it al/-te-ra/-tion finds, Or bends/ with the/ re-mo/-ver to/ re-move: Also, subject helps someone to interpret the poetry differently; the subject or content of poetry differs across a variety of forms. A subject is what the poem is about. For instance, the subjects of sonnets include love and admiration for one’s beloved, heartache and separation. Whereas divine sonnets include the subjects of devotions to God, enlightenment, and salvation. Elegies are written in memory of someone who is no more. Therefore, the subject of these poems differs to understanding of a reader in types of poetry. Character or speaker in the poetry; speaker is one who narrates the poem. In poetry, we tend to think that the poet is the speaker himself. However, it is not always the case. Sometimes, poets assume an imaginative character and write the poem from their perspective. Generally, the poem is told from the perspective of a first-person speaker or a third-person speaker. Poets also use the second-person point of view in order to communicate directly with readers. Understanding the speaker helps us to know the poem’s tone and mood which leads to interpret the meaning of the poetry. Figurative Language and Poetic Devices; poetry uses figurative language and different poetic devices to suggest different interpretations of words or to evoke other ideas that are not literally connected with the words. The sound devices such as alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia are used to create musical effects. Elements of poetic diction such as irony, symbolism, and juxtaposition leave a poem open to several interpretations. In the same way, poetic devices such as metaphor and simile are used to build a relationship between different images previously not perceived. Some important poetic devices in poetry include simile words “like” or “as”, metaphor, repetition, enjambment, irony, personification, onomatopoeia and hyperbole. The tone or attitude of a poem’s speaker and the mood affect the poetry interpretation. To understand the speaker’s attitude or tone to the subject, readers have to look for the poet’s choice of words and sound devices. The mood is related to the impression of the text upon readers. It’s understandable that there is always a bigger picture or a personal behind the poetry that poet want to explain, but readers find their own voice and how to find the evidence in the poetry is more valuable than insisting on one interpretation. At the end of the day, everyone has a unique mind and story and readers should have the free will to share their own interpretation of poetry. Therefore, considering the ways in which participants sought to interpret and create meaning from the texts they heard, the extent to which their own use of language was provisional and uncertain became a significant means of identifying this interesting subjunctivising ‘space’ in which readers doubt or struggle with their right to develop personal meaning from text. In some cases, such factors may have reflected participants’ sense that meaning lay somewhere beyond themselves and became somehow disempowering. Works Cited Andrew Green, Viv Ellis & Karen Simecek (2016) Actual Texts, Possible Meanings: The Uses of Poetry and the Subjunctification of Experience, Changing English, 23:4, 351362, DOI: 10.1080/1358684X.2016.1203247 Atherton, C., A. Green, and G. Snapper. 2013. Teaching English Literature, 16– 19. London: Routledge. Barthes, R. 1977. “Death of the Author.” In Text, edited by Music Image, 142–148. New York, NY: Hill and Wang. Bruner, J. 1986. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Hungerland, Isabel C. “The Interpretation of Poetry.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 13, no. 3, 1955, pp. 351–59. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/426435. Accessed 8 Jan. 2023. Tsur, Reuven. Toward a Theory of Cognitive Poetics: Second. Liverpool University Press, 2008.
