Poetry Should Be Open For Interpretation

Taylor Posik Staff Writer

Poetry Blocks.

(image courtesy: Insight Puplications)

“Is poetry dead?” It’s one of the most asked questions as mankind moves through the twenty-first century.

People are drifting away from traditional poetry and turning to Instapoetry such as the #1 bestseller of 2017, Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, which had sold millions of copies worldwide within the first three months of being released. While this question can be interesting to ponder, it’s not the only question that should be asked.

Teachers incorporate poetry into their lectures to improve children’s reading and writing skills from an early age. In addition, it can help develop speech, creative skills, understanding of real-life situations and help children to get in touch with their emotions.

However, it has not gone unnoticed that English teachers have a habit of guiding students through a poem while correcting students’ viewpoints. This behavior can be noticed as early as elementary school and persists throughout college, begging the question: is poetry really open for interpretation?

Firstly, an interpretation is not an opinion, it is an understanding of what’s 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 back up 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— unless it’s a very difficult poem,” says English Professor Dr. Allison Cummings.

In a class at SNHU, students were asked if poetry is meant to “teach or delight.” Depending on the way a person looks at a poem, it could be both. The “delight” aspect is as simple as 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, their arrangement (syntax), and implied or double meanings, to arrive at a solid interpretation. If a reader overlooks some lines or words and arrives at a misinterpretation, it’s like a lawyer overlooking a key piece of evidence and losing a case,” says Cummings.

Whether in the classroom or on one’s own, 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 shouldn’t be invalidated. There’s a reason why people have differing interpretations of certain art forms. Sometimes they are reminded of what they’ve experienced, other times they may be based on desires or fears.

Unfortunately, students are hesitant to speak up in class because they don’t want to be told they’re wrong. A teacher can explain a key part of the poem a student may be missing, but they shouldn’t immediately reject the student’s analysis. As long as they’re backed up with evidence, students should be allowed to come to their own conclusions on what the poem represents.

“I think people have fear around poetry because it takes a different level of grammatical understanding (or help from a professor) to feel accomplished enough to analyze and really get the poem. So many people have had experiences where poetry (or the people teaching it to them) has made them feel dumb because of the level of complexity that they avoid studying it further rather than trying again,” says Elaana DePina, ‘21.

The reason behind why teachers incorporate certain poems in the lesson plans may vary. High school teachers may intend to teach about a certain poet or literary form. College professors’ agendas may focus on different eras, such as Modernism, to create an understanding of that period in time. Because of this, poetry can be tainted by a lesson plan in order to teach the students, which can leave little room for interpretation and enjoyment of the piece. Additionally, being asked to analyze the various literary devices and forms is not the same as interpreting the piece as a whole. While it can be helpful to understand the purpose of those aspects of poetry, the big picture and how people see it is much more important.

“A lot of teachers I’ve had in the past, though, especially in high school, tend to push their own meanings on what they’re having their students read, and it takes all the fun out of interpreting the poetry for yourself,” says Rosa Valente, ‘21.

Learning how to decode poetry can take years of practice to master, especially considering how they are written in metaphors or may use juxtaposition to express differing ideas. However, if a student logically backs up their reasoning with evidence, then why are their ideas still being shot down?

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 wouldn’t be room to grow and learn. After all, over time everyone’s viewpoints change as they encounter new experiences. Without having the chance to justify an argument on a subject, the world would be a lot blander. A healthy debate on the meanings behind a poem, along with other various subjects, can prove beneficial to how a person sees themselves and the world.

It’s understandable that there’s always a bigger picture or a personal behind the poetry that teachers want to explain, but teaching students to 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 students should have the free will to share their own interpretation of poetry.

Poetry.

(image courtesy: The Province)