midterm english essay Interpretations

By: Lily Salvio-Shaker

Within a Poem there is always controversy about interpretation one may accuse the poet to have made as the significance and purpose. There are some poems which people have an especially hard time analyzing because of vague descriptions or vague plots. By analyzing, I mean coming to terms with the meaning of the poem as an issue or real life situation. Not all analyses are the same, but with no analysis, there is no poem… or is there?

In this essay I will consider three poems by three different poets.  “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke is a poem of which there are many interpretations, as well as plots each of which can be analyzed in different ways. There is “This Is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams which is simple and plain, and doesn’t appear to raise any meaning, issue, or life changing effect. Finally I will discuss “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson, in which there is a plot, including an ending, and not only does it have a plot with an ending, but also raises a real life issue: that appearance and emotion can be completely disconnected. These interpretations leave a mark in your mind, images that not even the poet him or her self can erase with the truth. Then again, what is the truth? What makes an interpretation true of false? What is the purpose of a poem? Is it for you to interpret the poem how you imagine it to be, or is the truth of a poem straight from the poets mind?  This essay is purely based on interpretation: the wording of a poem compared to the images we configure in our mind.

“My Papa’s Waltz” describes a man waltzing with his child, although it is not merely about one thing; it raises many questions. One person may believe that this poem is about a drunken old man abusing his child, while some one else may interpret this as a father who is a little tipsy waltzing with his child, in a pleasant, but exciting way. Consider this stanza.

“The hand that held my wrist

Was battered on one knuckle;

At every step you missed

My right ear scraped a buckle.”

The image of the battered knuckle suggests the possibility of violence, which can lead towards an image of an abusive father. The poem continues.

“We romped until the pans

Slid from the kitchen shelf;”

These two lines show signs of a father playfully dancing with his child. These stanza’s lead to different interpretations that the reader may embrace.

            “This Is Just to Say” is about someone who has “eaten the plums that were in the ice box” and is asking for forgiveness although “they were delicious, so sweet, and so cold.” There is much controversy about whether this is a poem, letter, or statement. Although it flows as do many poems, does it have meaning? Does this poem make the reader feel pain or anguish, happiness or excitement? The interpretation one makes of this poem is much more a question than an image. The question is, is “This Is Just to Say” a poem?  Coleridge wrote, “For poetry is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language.”  

When you read this poem you feel no emotion, just the same feeling with which you started. “This is just to say” shows no passion, no emotion, no intriguing language. Therefore I would not consider “This Is Just to Say a poem, at least not in coleridge’s sense.

            “Richard Cory” is very straight forward and has clear imagery. Edwin Arlington Robinson gives the reader all the information needed to come to a conclusion and a judgment about the characters introduced in the poem. “Richard Cory” shows the reaction people had to his walking down town.

“Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman sole to crown,

Clear favored, and imperially slim.”  

Within this stanza it shows that people were amazed by Richard Cory. He was a gentleman; he was wealthy and good looking. But by the end of the poem there is a whole different light, a whole different view.

“So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.”

This shows that not even the wealthiest, most good looking, gentlemanly people are always happy. Appearance and success are very different from one’s emotional state. This interpretation is very clear and well known to the reader. The language of this poem allows the reader to not only be aware of generalizations, and appearance, but one’s emotion.

Interpretations come from one’s way of analyzing, not only poetry, but from thoughts and situations. Within these three poems, there are different types of interpretations. “My Papa’s Waltz” allows the conflicting interpretations, of happiness, and abuse. “This Is Just to Say” does not provoke much interpretation but rather raises the question whether it is or is not a poem. In “Richard Cory” the description of the man does not require much interpretation, but the significance of the suicide is open to much interpretation.