Poetry is a struggle.. TF this ninja Talking about????
Added 2025-04-03 12:42:04 +0000 UTCFinished “When Life Gives You Tangerines” — great Kdrama.
Resumed reading poetry again (I already tried and gave up before). I gave it a shot a few months ago, but I kinda struggle with “abstract” wording — not sure how else to describe it.
Basically, I summarize each sentence as I read it (which is also why I repeat words out loud), but if I can’t summarize it… I either start overthinking or just disregard the info almost instantly, lol.
Which is why y’all are like, “How did you miss that? The character literally said it—shd dhsjd fhshd.”
If I’m overthinking, I’m not actually remembering what I read and what I’m thinking at the same time, lol.
My wife be asking me what I felt… and I’m like… nothing? LMAO. Hahahaha.
Anyway, gonna try and power through it this time.
Starting with my ninja Poe.
Comments
True that, I feel like when someone figures out a meaning of a poem and it resonates with them thats when it becomes a favorite. 2 of the most "cliche" poems are "Hope" by Emily Dickinson and "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. Both are not too difficult to understand but you can see why they'd get brought up often.
pachinko
2025-04-03 21:09:28 +0000 UTCI appreciate the value you provided to my poetry experience
Rock Lee
2025-04-03 21:01:36 +0000 UTCThat is a good explanation. It seems like some of these good poems are meant to be digested a few times rather than a quick read and move on. This is probably why people quote poems or mention their favorite poems because it’s something that they’ve read a few times
Rock Lee
2025-04-03 21:01:07 +0000 UTCI feel a little better you guys let me know how normal this is for me ha ha
Rock Lee
2025-04-03 21:00:26 +0000 UTCi recommend this too. using some guide to explain some poems helps train yourself to understanding better. idk about sparknotes anymore but even chatgpt might be able to pull up some summary of famous poems
pachinko
2025-04-03 20:25:59 +0000 UTCthe thing about poetry is it can be very literal to extremely abstract depending on the author. Poe tends to be abstract and also the older language doesnt help. one thing ive found to make it easier is to just shut the brain off and read the entire thing once through without trying to figure out "what it means" on the first pass. trying to go line by line first without some frame of reference will just make you confused if youre not used to abstract writing if you do this, your brain should form some general rough "idea" of the poem based on key words (is it happy, sad, about despair, hope, someone else, the past?) Even if this initial idea isnt correct it at least gives a reference point to start picking it apart. then you can go line by line or verse by verse figuring out what it MIGHT mean. thats the thing, a lot of times we dont know what it literally means unless the author ever said. and thats okay. poetry is very much left up to interpretation much like song lyrics. in that way, whatever you personally think it means isnt necessarily wrong either TLDR: read it once completely without trying to understand just to get an initial "feeling" then use that idea to try to understand the individual lines. think of it like song lyrics or rap lyrics, its all up to interpretation and theres no true right or wrong really.
pachinko
2025-04-03 20:23:13 +0000 UTCI used sparknotes .com when I needed to understand Shakespeare. They had explanations of what was going on etc. (That's how I found out that a character I thought survived actually did not😅) It might help making it feel less abstract Though, it's been years since I used it so I don't know how the site is now
Menmjau
2025-04-03 17:48:41 +0000 UTC
