Well, firstly I am a physics major and therefore one would think I have not taken many classes along the lines of poetry and writing and such. However I enjoy writing very much, poetry, not the most, but all the same I have had my experience and the grades to show for it, up until now. ;] So I would like to talk about poems that we read that appear to be gibberish and many words strung together with out much meaning or arrangement. Before I jump right in to it I would like to introduce a notion that may seme bizzare to some or hard to uderstand. Now take a look at the sign thats obviously a no smoking sign. Now lets pretend it has nothing to do with smoking and the ciggarete is a small picture of a tree. The small tree is fit in one of the 2 empty spaces right or left of the middle diagonal line going through the circle. Now once you can visualize the tree in its spot now add the word "tree" in the other empty space so both spaces are filled. This is what I will be disscusing to help understand some of these poems. If you think about it what is a word? or a letter for that matter? A symbol that means a sound we make out of our mouths. What if we remove this label for a letter and in doing so un-do a meaning from a word. (mind you this is a crash course on the subject and there is MANY a reeding and papers on this) Now what you are left is a group of symbols ( the word "t r e e") and a picture. Dissassociating our language from words and letters is essential to reach an understanding of where I am going. Now if you take a poem of words that seems to mean nothing, take it word by word. Now say the first word in a poem is "detergent". What is detergent what does it do, how does it work, what feelings are aroused when saying the word. Now lets get away from the meaning, just say the word, look at the letters within now lets say one of the following words was Sergeant. Now think about saying the words after each other. Many times poems can be composed of strung words based upon pretenses that have nothing to do with the meaning or what they really stand for. Now read the poem through. this time hear how the words roll of your tongue, listen to the sounds you are making and draw from that any feelings or moods. Some times poets use a word intentionally to make your mouth move a certain way or create a resonance, ex: " The tree is green" They might also use what appears to be a word completely out of place in a sentence, often times grammatically incorrect. It is our job to read and get away from those meanings and pictures we have been conditioned to see and know when speaking words. I know this seems like B.S. but people have spent their lives studying this including prominent philosophers. I can not explain it very well but I hope this has helped. Any comments would surely help me explain better from your questions or thoughts and I will try and find a link to some reading that do a better job than I. Getting a decent understanding of this will let those who are lost see the beauty in language and understand how emotion and non tangible things can be portrayed through language in ways that at first seem unorthodox.
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ReplyDeleteSome of what you are referring to reminds me of Saussure's theories of linguistics. The idea that a word only means something in context with its surroundings. He uses terms like the sign and the signifier, with the signifier being the sound it makes and the signified being the thought you have when you hear the sound. I am just learning about this myself in another class so by no means an expert. In fact I'm finding it a bit confusing but a quick search of Saussure will bring up links to his work. Pretty interesting stuff. I would equate this with other forms of literature and not to poetry but you are absolutely right in that it can apply. I've found it a good idea to think of some poetry as a conversation that you only hear every other word or phrase in. There are big chunks missing so you are not meant to get the point. Stream of consciousness is another way of thinking about abstract poems. Sometimes we are just meant to enjoy the pleasure of the words/sounds and not think too much on the deeper meaning.
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