Advice on understanding poetry better.

[Magpie]

Hi mark
Thanks for posting this. I often feel the same way. I find that a lot of the time I would like to post a comment but then I don't because I just feel that I’m missing something and my suggestions seem so weak compared to the imput of others or I just plain don't get it. And yes it frustrates me also.
I'm not so great on punctuation and tend to leave this to those who seem to revel in being punctuation police.
I guess my advice would be to try and just go for it, regardless of how little you understand or get a particular poem. I have days where my confidence is at zero and I have so much self doubt about my ability to be even remotely poetically competent, that I feel completely locked down...but then everyone is normally so gracious and if I put a comment out there, more often than not I find a jolly message by way of thanks commenting on the helpfulness of whatever it was I said. I guess (for me I have decided) there will always be someone smarter, more insightful or just plain more gifted (etc) than me, but the important thing is to just take pleasure in what you discover and to join in at my own level and to try not to worry or compare myself to others. (Easier said than done).
Sorry if this was not actually the sort of help you felt you needed. I will be watching this space myself to see if anyone has something more specific to offer.

Hi cidermaid,
Thanks for taking the time to reply and indeed it was helpful, firstly to know that it's not just me who worries about punctuation, I'm sure I must of missed that part at school because I can't recall at any time being taught it. But as you have mentioned about the 'punctuation police' (great phrase) and how they like to do that, it makes me feel better about not mentioning it. I also relate to the fact that some days it seems to be easier to understand and therefore comment on poems and at other times I just seem to stare at the screen for a long time without any idea of what to say. But there have been a few poems where I have went back to several times even over a few days and still nothing comes to mind. I suppose deep down inside I know that it is practise and eventually it will get easier. I don't have any great ambitions to be a published writer or anything like that, so I'm not setting myself up for a great fall. I know that poetry is something I really do like and I just want to understand it more. But also you have reminded me to enjoy it, which seems so obvious but at times gets swamped by the desire to be better and understand more.
Thanks again for the reply, it has definitely given me things to think about.

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Quick answer: yes, it becomes easier with practise. That doesn't mean it will ever be entirely easy.

Poetry has been done an almost crippling disservice by schoolteachers over the last 50 years or so, with their insistence on what a poem means, when it can only possibly mean what it says in the textbook that the teacher keeps hidden so students think it's a riddle with only one answer. New -- or rather, revived -- thoughts on meaning are that sure, the poet has an intent (sometimes overt, sometimes hidden even to the poet until after the fact) but it's the reader who truly makes meaning out of a text. In some ways we will be in agreement with the poet, because the patterns of words the poet has chosen build on a mood/ feeling and give us a key into their thoughts. In many other ways, however, a good poem will allow us to learn more about our own feelings and reactions to the world rather than dictating what the poet wants us to know. There is the obvious, agreed-upon meaning (denotation) and a myriad of shades and depth to metaphor and other poetic devices that we can only perceive by drawing on our own prior knowledge and experience (connotation).

An inexperienced poet, however, will often forget that the reader needs that key into the poem, the hint that lets him/her know what the poet wanted to convey. Inexperienced poets will sometimes write a bit of a diary entry instead of a true poem, believing either that the reader can guess what's going on through a series of highly obscure and personal motifs that mean nothing to anyone but the poet and perhaps the poet's immediate circle (a bit like a list of "in-jokes"). And some poets, regardless of their experience level, confuse obscurity with cleverness and will simply link a whole stack of pretty-sounding images together in the hope that the reader can make something of them or will be so impressed by wordplay that it doesn't matter anyway. In this regard, sometimes not being able to figure out meaning is not the reader's fault, but the poet's.

This discussion thread from some time ago might be worth revisiting also.

Hi Leanne,
Thanks for taking the time to reply, you mentioned some very useful points that have made me think about different aspects of poems and poetry. I appreciate what you said about some poetry being a series of personal motifs, and at times it has felt like the "in-jokes" that you mentioned. Also like I mentioned in my reply to cidermaid, I know deep down inside that it must be a matter of practise and looking at things from different angles. In many respects I am still very new to poetry and all the knowledge I have is from what I have read, which I'm sure will be the same for many people on this site. And I think that I need to broaden the types of poetry that I read.
In the short time that I have been here I have learnt a lot and I'm sure that it will continue. I was mostly frustrated on sometimes not being able to comment on certain poems, which I really want to do and think is necessary on a site like this. But you have given me plenty to think about and I have bookmarked the link that you left and will definitely check it out.
Thanks again for the reply, it has been very helpful.