I was just wondering what meaning other people got from this poem?
Woods
I wish to grow dumber,
to slip deep into woods that grow blinder
with each step I take,
until the fingers let go of their numbers
and the hands are finally ignorant as paws.
Unable to count the petals,
I will not know who loves me,
who loves me not.
Nothing to remember,
nothing to forgive,
I will stumble into the juice of the berry, the shag of bark,
I will be dense and happy as fur.
-- Noelle Oxenhandler
2007-10-27 08:35:54 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Poetry
Ah! Much better. You want to understand the meaning of the poem.
Much of this poem is exactly what it says and the few metaphors that are here make it stark and vivid. Go line by line and give it a voice. Say it out loud as if you are speaking it from your mind. Try to become the speaker who is able to express her thoughts as these words.
This sounds like someone who wishes to de-evolve, return to the woods, and step by step, her fingers will stop being five digits and her hands will become paws.
Without fingers, she can't play "He loves me, he loves me not" and thus can not be concerned with who she loves and who loves her. She will have no reason to feel hurt by either her feelings or another person.
She will delight in berries and trees and her fur, which is thick.
It's a lovely poem. Most of the best poems require several readings to understand their imagery. This is not because they are difficult, but because they are dense and the human mind needs time take in all of the language and reflect on it. Most of the best poems can be taken literally; they do not hide their meaning behind enigmas. A tree is usually a tree, a rake is usually a rake, and hands that become like paws are usually just that: hands that turn into paws.
2007-10-27 08:49:55 · answer #1 · answered by Nathan D 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well lets think of this in a real basic way. The narrator wants to get dumber. She talks about leaving civilization behind (slip deep in the woods). She talks about losing her ability to count (higher reasoning). She compares her hands to paws (in a sense she is becoming an animal of sorts leaving her humanity behind). Then we get to line 6 and that's the important part. That's the why. Why do you want to be dumber? Why do you want to be like an animal?
Because she will be:
Unable to count the petals,
I will not know who loves me,
who loves me not.
Because loving people is something humans do, and in some way the narrator has been hurt by love (as she shows with the image of plucking the petals from a daisy).
Nothing to remember,
nothing to forgive,
She wants to put this level of reasoning and sophistication behind her. The narrator has been emotionally hurt in some way.
She sees an escape if her emotions were replaced by instincts and she approached life like a simple beast (as we see in these final lines):
will stumble into the juice of the berry, the shag of bark,
I will be dense and happy as fur.
I hope that helps.
Best,
Todd
2007-10-27 15:43:02 · answer #2 · answered by Todd 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He was a young man with a bright future, then he joined the army. They turned him into a real man. He didn't need any of that fancy book learnin'. He was such a real man that he died out on the battle field bruised and worn down. Shot in the head his whole life wasted, so he could fight some politicians war and give him the glory for it.
2016-04-10 21:47:59 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
"to grow dumber" - to stop feeling
"woods that grow blinder" - to stop sensing days and nights passing
"until the fingers let go of their numbers" - to stop thinking about worldly and unimportant things.
"dense and happy as fur" - to only feel the most elemental of pleasures.
this is a poem about forgetting the pain of heartbreak, a desire to become like a creature of the forest and not feel what happens in the human world.
2007-10-27 08:41:36 · answer #4 · answered by jiminyKricket 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
The author wants to ignore everything thats going on around him or inside him. Ignorance is blessed...And he/she would love to not know of the problems and pains of life.
2007-10-27 08:43:28 · answer #5 · answered by Calledonia 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
someone said "the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life" it is a longing for the innocence of the garden of eden, for the (in the moment) freedom of the animals in the forest, they have no worries or cares, no responsibility. IMO
2007-10-27 08:42:23 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
the saying 'ignorance is bliss' seems to sum it up.
2007-10-27 08:40:11 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I don't want to hurt anymore!
2007-10-27 08:39:50 · answer #8 · answered by Andra J 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Hon, This is a sorry piece of writing, I do not even consider it a poem !
2007-10-27 08:42:09 · answer #9 · answered by lonewolf 7 · 0⤊ 5⤋