Over the past two weeks, my ability to read, understand and interpret poetry has improved. I feel more confident in understanding the deeper meanings poets convey through metaphor, symbolism, and imagery. This experience has taught me to read carefully and multiple times, while looking for subtle cues that reveal more complex emotions or ideas.
When reading Oedipus the King, these skills are valuable. In Emily Dickinson’s, “The Wife”, the metaphor of the sea developing “pearl and weed” shows how emotions can be hidden. This insight could help me understand similar symbolism in Oedipus the King, blindness as that can be representing ignorance or the search for truth. It also makes me more sensitive and aware to the emotional depth of characters, and encouraging me to read beyond the words in order to find the underlying tensions.
Understanding the structure and form of poetry has prepared me for analyzing the structure of the story which can help me understand better the connection between subtle and complex ideas to the flow and more visible ideas.
One thought on “Week 7 Discussion”
Elad, please include your name in the title of your post. I think it’s true that discerning metaphors in the Dickinson poem might help an understanding of metaphors in Oedipus. What metaphors in the play did you notice? I don’t really know what you mean when you say about the structure and form of poetry helping you understand “the connection between subtle and complex ideas.” Can you explain this, maybe with an example?