11-15-2017, 05:40 AM
there’s a difference between writing a poem and writing a thesis on gophers.
If poets knew their own minds well enough to understand what they were writing, they’d just write a note with fifteen bullet points.
Poetry is therapy for the writer, like free association writing, but with rules to give it the semblance of useful work. When the poet writes, he only half knows what his subconscious is trying to see.
Hence the poetry of Eliot and Dylan Thomas, and Hopkins, which seems to have layers of meaning.
So in summary, there is no intent.
If poets knew their own minds well enough to understand what they were writing, they’d just write a note with fifteen bullet points.
Poetry is therapy for the writer, like free association writing, but with rules to give it the semblance of useful work. When the poet writes, he only half knows what his subconscious is trying to see.
Hence the poetry of Eliot and Dylan Thomas, and Hopkins, which seems to have layers of meaning.
So in summary, there is no intent.
~ I think I just quoted myself - Achebe