05-11-2013, 06:01 AM
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.
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.
It could be worse