It's a great pastime of English majors to read poetry and over analyze it. My impression is that generally speaking, the more the poem sort of means something but doesn't really, the more likely the English majors are to love it.
Here's a poem that means something, but not really:
I broke my heart exactly once
Its crumbling left a hollow place
So history remembers me
But someone blotted out your name
If you yourself are (a) such an obscurity-loving English major or (b) are not, but still get a kick out of such poetry (I find myself in both camps)...a pair of early 20th century writers wrote an entire book of symbolism-heavy, meaning-light verse as a sort of protest, and it's pretty funny:
ReplyDeleteTHE piano lives in a dusk
Where rich amber lights
Quiver obscurely.
It exists only at twilight;
And somewhere afar
In the depths of a tropic forest
The sun is now setting, and the phoenix looks
Mysteriously toward the gold.
I think I must have been born in such a forest,
Or in the tangle of a Chinese screen...
This is quality. Bless you, Peter.
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