FORUM

Welcome home!

At The Poetry Cove Forum, we are dedicated to bringing together poets from all over the world. We believe that poetry can be a powerful tool for connection and community, and we want you to have a place where you can explore your craft in an environment that is friendly, welcoming, and supportive.

We are committed to providing this space for you because we believe that everyone deserves a chance to express themselves creatively and share their work with others who share their interests.

We hope you will join us in creating an open-minded, accepting, and supportive community of people who can help each other grow as poets.

Do you have to understand a poem to enjoy it?

in Poetry Discussion

Here's a question: do you have to understand a poem to enjoy it?

Let me explain: In my head, there are three types of poems. (To be clear, this is my own personal classification system - nothing official!)

'Academic' poems. These are poems that always feel a bit bougie, a bit over the top. They're poems I examined at university that have books and essays written about them, exploring the minutest detail.
'Beginner' poems. No offense to these poems. We all have a starting point. But these are poems which are maybe a bit simple (To be clear: 'simple' poems can be very effective). What I mean is: they're poems that are written by people who maybe don't write that often (or at all). For example, if either of my parents wrote a poem, it would be in this category.
'The middle' poems. These poems are somewhere in the middle. There's definitely discussions and interpretations and layers but they're not over the top.

So back to my original question: do you have to understand every line, every metaphor, every image to enjoy the poem?

I studied English literature at university. I wrote a 12,000 dissertation on Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. And yet, there are times when I read a poem and I don't have a clue what's going on (cue imposter syndrome because how can I be a poet and not understand poetry?) But there are poems where I don't understand but there'll be a line or an image or a phrase that just...sticks with me.

I was in a workshop the other night and someone said they didn't understand my poem but they loved it. I personally don't mind that opinion. If someone enjoys my poem or takes something, however small, from it, that's enough for me.

I wondered what everybody else thought?

2 comments

Comments (2)

Matthew Hutchins

Jun 15, 2021

•

I have no academic background in poetry. I majored in dumb old business. I took a poetry writing course in college, which is the extent of my formal poetry education.

I don’t think you need to “get” or understand the poem to enjoy it. I read lots of poems that I appreciate simply for the language and the images which it conjures. I read these poems like I look at paintings, which I think is fine. if the poem creates an emotional response or triggers memories or sensations for you, who cares whether or not you understand it down to the line?

Sometimes when I’m in a writing slump, I write gibberish. I just go for the most image-laden piece of wild text I can muster. I try to create contrast and tension with just words without a specific idea I’m trying to convey. sometimes those poems that don’t really “make sense” are my favorites.