Any advice on how to understand poetry?

Question

I often find it hard to understand poems when I'm reading them. It's as if the poet is just blabbering on without any real meaning.

Do you have any advice or tips on how I can fully understand poetry? I'm currently reading some W.B. Yeats and a lot of his work is hard to properly comprehend.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

William Butler Yeats' poetry is great.

But in understanding modern poetry, consider this comparison:

When you listen to some pop song (which is nothing more that rhyming poetry with music) the songwriter specifically lays the whole simple story out for you. He or she is telling a simple story with simple lyrics, leaving little to the imagination. Basically, the songwriter is telling you what to think, what to feel, when you listen to the song. There are exceptions, of course, to modern lyrics, like the music of Pink Floyd, but the usual pop drivel never expects you to think for yourself. It only asks you to listen and hopefully enjoy the simpleness of the lyrics.

With modern poetry the poet is creating an image through words, an image where a successful and often profound poet is asking, actually expecting, you to create and provide your own interpretations of the images, to filll in the blanks, so to speak.

Like classical lyric-less music it lets your imagination wonder, lets your imagination thrive if you let it.

If you think Yeats is difficult, try reading T.S. Eliot's 'The Waste Land.' That poem will have you thinking about it after wards for quite awhile. After that, dive into some e.e. cummings. Or try American poets like Carl Sandburg or Wallace Stevens or Dylan Thomas (Robert Zimmermen was so fond of the poetry of Dylan Thomas that he changed his name to Bob Dylan when he started writing and singing, by the way).

Answer 2

Blabbering on is accurate to some degree. A poet is suppose to create an emotional tapestry. They usually take a rather small idea or event, than vividly describe how it made them feel. Pages of lessons on life and love can be derived from a bee visiting a flower.

It's like listening to Opera when you're used to Action flicks. Opera is beautiful, but if you're expecting an explosion or plot point every 10 seconds, it will drive you nuts.

The key to poetry is to sit back and relax. Be aware that, in all likelihood, very little will be said, at least in a technical sense. The beauty, and the point of poetry is in the language, imagery and emotion.

This, for example is Yeats saying
"Fanatics cause the problems."

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Answer 3

I agree with all previous posters.

You can actually buy books on Understanding Poetry and although they force you through a step by step process they can help you to become a connoisseur.

Now, of course, there are on-line equivalents.

As for Yeats -
http://www.nadn.navy.mil/EnglishDept/ilv/vision.htm
http://www.csun.edu/~hceng029/yeats/hedayatirad.html
http://www.slashdoc.com/documents/44783

Answer 4

It means that A has to rhyme with A, B has to rhyme with B, C with C and so on. A and B don't have to rhyme with one another, neither do A and C. For example, I found a stick the other day, I stuck it in a rabbit, It tried to turn and run away, But quickly I did stab it. Breathing out his final breaths, He uttered out a curse, "You are an evil murderer The cruelest and the worst" I know this rhyme seems sad, but see you mustn't be offended, He tried to kill my family So his fluffy life I ended. I had to take him out, he couldn't live for love nor money, The moral of the story is to never trust a bunny. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

I wouldn't say Yeats is blabbering. But poetry is supposed to make you feel something. If you don't feel it read something else. Unless you have to do it for school, in which case, just pretend you understand it.

Answer 6

Ask your self what they are feeling as they write it.Then try to feel the same way.Look for metaphorical references in it.I write poetry and I always try to put how I feel in it to were who ever is reading it can feel how I felt when I was in that place at that time.It's not always so literal.They don't always say this is who I'm talking about or I'm talking about me in my past.

Answer 7

www.cliffnotes.com
Also, it is supposed to 'open your mind' if you drink green tea with classical music playing lowly in the backround; I guess that's supposed to make poetry clear to you.