Poetry

[MichaelM]

In Memoriam

On that stormy night
a top branch broke off
on the biggest tree in my garden.

It's still up there. Though it's leaves
are withered black among the green
The living branches won't
let it fall.

By Norman Macaig

Maybe I have no imagination, but reading that I picture a branch that snapped off in a storm and is still held up by the other branches, but has died.

Does anyone else picture anything different?

What is the symbolism of:

a top branch.
the biggest tree.
the living branches.

To me, they are exactly what they are:

a branch near the top of the tree.
the biggest tree in the garden.
the branches that did not snap off in the storm and still form part of the tree.

Does anyone else see anything different?

I'm not asking you to do my homework with this, - it's a sample question for which I have the answers. I'm wondering whether on not I'm completely alone in being unable to appreciate the symbolism of poetry.

 

[accountantpete]

It's a metaphor for the human condition - man gets old,has a stroke etc etc

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I'm with you on this one, I'm afraid my mind doesn't work in the way that poets' minds work and I always struggle to see any interpretation other than the most literal. I thought Louden Wainright's "Swimming Song":

This summer I went swimming,
This summer I might have drowned
But I held my breath and I kicked my feet
And I moved my arms around, I moved my arms around.

This summer I swam in the ocean,
And I swam in a swimming pool,
Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes,
I'm a self-destructive fool, a self-destructive fool.

This summer I swam in a public place
And a reservoir, to boot,
At the latter I was informal,
At the former I wore my suit, I wore my swimming suit.

This summer I did the backstroke
And you know that's not all
I did the breast stroke and the butterfly
And the old Australian crawl, the old Australian crawl.

This summer I did swan dives
And jackknifes for you all
And once when you weren't looking
I did a cannonball, I did a cannonball.

was actually about swimming, until someone informed me that it's about a very public nervous breakdown. Oh, right.

 

[philipbh]

Someone dies, memories remain

Could be a relative, friend or hero...perhaps

 

[dan_bo]

Maybe, perhaps, the top poem is about the priveliged classes in this country not letting each other fail? eh?

eh?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Someone dies, memories remain

Could be a relative, friend or hero...perhaps

See, you could have sat me down in front of that poem for years and that would never, ever have occurred to me. It was, and remains, a poem about a branch to me.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I'd go along with a relative - biggest branch of the family tree. Maybe.

 

[MichaelM]

Hmmmm, don't be too expressive in your posts will you (not you RT, you are obviously a logical, straight thinking man ).

I know what the sysmolism represtents (have looked at the answers !) To see the intended meaning, do you have to think about it and analyse it? or do you see it as you read the poem? Or are you directed to the meaning by the question?

 

[MichaelM]

See, you could have sat me down in front of that poem for years and that would never, ever have occurred to me. It was, and remains, a poem about a branch to me.

Great minds think alike

Oh - he went swimming in some nice places didn't he !

 

[longers]

I don't know what "the answers" are but the title of the poem made me think along the same lines as Philip and 3BM. But not Dan Bo.

The Swimming Song would be about swimming for me, I usually need big clues.
How he performed it might be a good indication it wasn't as literal as it reads but I've not heard it.

 

[philipbh]

I suppose either a poem will evoke some sense / emotions etc in the reader or it won't.

If it doesn't after much thought and analysis then I can see that the reader might conclude that a poem that mentions swimming a lot is mostly about swimming and just enjoy the word play - e.g. informal / former / suit

Knowing the nervous breakdown bit from RT - I think I can see the connections - but I would't have interpreted that ever, though there the words "self destruction", "wounds" and "nearly drowned" are clear enough.

Cannonball, I presume is the equiv. of "bombing" which might give a further clue

 

[Dayvo]

I suppose either a poem will evoke some sense / emotions etc in the reader or it won't.

One very good reason for me very succesfully failing my English Lit. A-level. That and not having read Middlemarch which conveniently turned up in the paper!

 

[ChrisKH]

One very good reason for me very succesfully failing my English Lit. A-level. That and not having read Middlemarch which conveniently turned up in the paper!

That would have helped

I remember my English Tutor making a big thing of the title "the Wasteland" and its sub-titles and going on and on about it for ages; what a good title it was, wan't Eliot clever, etc. . I then pointed out a manuscript copy of the Wasteland in the college library and Ezra Pound's suggestion it should be called that. She wasn't too happy to be informed it wasn't all Eliot's work.

I think what I'm trying to say is there is no right or wrong answer and often you have to know the poet intimately to know what they specifically meant. The meaning to you can be quite different or have no meaning at all.

 

[philipbh]

One very good reason for me very succesfully failing my English Lit. A-level. That and not having read Middlemarch which conveniently turned up in the paper!

I (astonishngly, now) refused to complete my O Level English Literature and was "awarded" a X for the exam result.

I remember a particular incident discussing Orwells description of Police helicopters "buzzing around like flies".

Our English teacher insisted this meant something dirty and rotten - rather than just the description of their movement - which at the age of 16 I couldn't (or wouldn't) grasp at all

It went all downhill after that

 

[Rhythm Thief]

English Lit, as I remember from my A level in the subject (what a long time ago that seems!) is a good way to make a potentially interesting subject very very dull. I know I never got Shakespeare, despite studying "Macbeth" and "Hamlet" at A level, until I saw three or four of the plays done by the RSC at Ludlow Festival and various other places. Then suddenly it came alive and I understood it. Learning Shakespeare by reading it is a bit like learning about music by reading it, it just doesn't work.