To continue-
According to the likes of
Robert Frost,
Pablo Neruda, and
William Shakespeare, the basis of a
poem is a metaphor. A
metaphor is a delicious way of saying one thing and meaning a completly different thing. It allows us to be more
vague. This gives many people trouble, because as humans we strive for
certainty and clarity of understanding, ie:
truth, in everything. Poems clash directly with
logic. Most metaphors, logically, do not make sense. They are not
true, in the literal sense of the word. They appeal to our abstract side. There is a good deal of debate floating about (
Carl Sagan and
Jacob Brownkowski epitimize the opposing viewpoints) as to
what makes us human;
what seperates man from beast. Are humans the only beings capable of abstract thought? What
is abstract thought? At any rate, the
beauty of
poetry, and the gift which at the very least we humans posses in understanding it, is found in all the
options presented by poetry and specifically the metaphor.
So often we feel things, or even understand things, that do not fit well into
prose. There are not enough specific words to perfectly express what is inside ourselves. Plus, words are not as concrete things as we give them credit for. Such things as
connotation,
context,
tone,
syntax, and even definitions which shift over time must be taken into account.
Therein lies the rub. Or
the solution. The way you like to
interact with your world, will determine the way you can interact with poetry. But humankind in and of itself is lucky enough to have the choice to be vague, or not. Poetry is as personal as it is broad.
Perception is a key aspect. Each of us are different, obviously. A poem can have a very wide appeal because it can make many people feel many
different things. The more interpertations something has, the more ways there are to relate to it. And the poet never has to tell us what they meant in the first place. That is the
essence of poetry.