Meaning in Poetry

I believe that meaning is important in poetry. Even if a writer doesn't intend for a poem to have a meaning, it's impossible that someone could read the poem and not derive some sort of meaning out of it. Meaning can be derived from the poet's choice of words, imagery, the structure of the poem itself, and the rhythm of the poem. I think a poet would have to actively try to make a poem that is meaningless. It would be nearly impossible unless the poet writes a completely literal description of something, in which case it would be more of an article than a poem. The very act of writing a poem means that what is written will be interpreted by the person reading it.

There are some visual arts where I believe it is okay if the creator did not intend a meaning, but left the meaning of it up to interpretation. For example, an abstract painting. However, when it comes to film-making and animation, which are part of my major, I believe having meaning is absolutely essential. If you animate a character without any sort of meaning or thought process in mind, your animation will come out lifeless and confusing. If you create a story that has no meaning, you've given the audience all the heavy lifting of deriving a meaning, or worse, they've left the theater without learning anything about themselves or about humanity.

The point where trying to understand meaning goes too far is when the person trying to understand the meaning is more concerned about sounding smart than learning something new about humanity through the poem.

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