Week 13 Discussion

The three prior assumptions I made during and after reading the poem, “The Mother”, I assumed that it was going to be a simple poem that I can easily understand and know exactly what I am reading about. ” Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get, ” Through this sentence I knew what I would be reading and thought to myself “I have a clear vision and explanation about what the meaning of this poem would be.” However as I continued to read I fell off track and thought to deeply and assumed that maybe it won’t be a simple poem that I would understand and that there could be another meaning that I was unaware about. However as the lines as the poem continued, ” If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths, Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate. Though why should I whine, Whine that the crime was other than mine?— Since anyhow you are dead.” After reading I understood this poem clear after not overthinking and reading with a clear mind with deep understanding because I struggle with interpreting poems.

Most readers make three false assumptions when addressing an unfamiliar poem,” writes Edward Hirsch in his article “How to Read a Poem” (Activity 1) Which of the three prior assumptions did you make with respect to one of the poems read this week? Be sure to refer to specific lines or phrasing in your discussion.   The First assumption that I made while reading the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” on the Poets.org website, while reading t the line “And live alone in the bee-loud glade,” the phrase “bee-loud glade” I though that the speaker wants to live a free and simple life which is close to nature, but after doing some research it the lines meant that the speaker is referring to the sound of bees buzzing and is trying to create a peaceful environment. The Second assumption i made was that in the line “There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow” I thought that the speaker is talking about the different colors of the sky at night or during different times at night, but then i realized that by the word “glimmer of midnight ”  and “noon a purple glow “the speaker was talking about different mood swings and the color purple meant to convey a sense of warmth and comfort The third assumption that i made was in the line “While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey” I thought that the speaker is physically standing on the road or on the sidewalk but it turned out be that the speaker is using a metaphor to explain its mental and emotional state, it could also mean that the speaker is trying to tell us about. his daily routine and hustle in his everyday life.

When I read “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W. B. Yeats, the assumption I made was assuming that the poem was a code. For example, throughout the poem, Yeats is talking about the lake house at the Innisfree Lake and when he was describing the scenery, I thought it was symbolic for something else. The entire time I was reading the poem, I was trying to decipher what was the meaning of Lake Innisfree and why it was important for the author to write about it. Yeats says, “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow” (Yeats line 10) and to me this was a reflection of the poets’ need to find peace and serenity. Usually this is my issue while reading poems, I never really understand it because I feel like there’s a hidden message.

I honestly could never “read between the lines” or think of the bigger picture when reading poems. When reading “We Real Cool” By Gwendolyn Brooks I assumed the poem was obvious when I fully read it. This is the prior assumption I made from “How to read a poem”. I read the poem very easily and didn’t make any “think outside the box” assumptions when reading it. I didn’t think of the bigger picture. To me the poem is about kids being kids. Having all the freedom in the world to be a kid. To ditch school sometimes or maybe even underage drink wouldn’t kill you. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. Most people will say the bigger picture is young kids with destructive behavior. Like I said, Its kids being kids. However the line “we left school” is confusing me as it ditching school? or dropping out of school? if it is dropping out of school and all you are doing is drinking alcohol and singing, That is destuctive behavior that can have a early demise.  

While reading poems I always have a problem which is I always think I will understand it on the first reading and feel like there’s something wrong with me since I never understand what it means immediately. This is the prior assumption I made, of the three mentioned in “how to read a poem.” While reading “White lies” by Natasha Trethewey I started reading so confidently and thought I could understand it at first reading just by reading its title. When I was done I noticed I didn’t get its meaning or what was really behind it and had to go back, read it slowly, and analyze it. At first, I thought it was just about a little girl lying, but after reading it back, word by word, I understood it had something to do with color and race. “I could even keep quiet, quiet as kept, like the time a white girl said (squeezing my hand), Now we have three of us in this class.” The girl felt like lying was the only way white people would be nice to her. She would lie about where she lived, and also about being African American. 

One of the poems I read was “White Lies’ by Natasha Trethewey. While I first starting reading the poem, I couldn’t fully grasp what exactly it was that I was reading. This is when I had encounter with the first assumption, which is that readers think they should understand what it is that they are reading on the first read, which is not true. We all read and interpret things differently. Eventually, I had to read the poem over a few times to really get a feel about what I was reading, and the story behind it. The speaker in the poem appears to be a young black female, who lives on the poorer side of town, but says she can get away with telling the white people that she lives in a better area. I was feeling a sense of shame from the speaker’s point of view. Her mother had punished her for lying about who she was. Overall, I’d say the meaning behind this story is all about the difference in racial dynamics.

After reading “White Lies” by Natasha Trethewey, I initially didn’t understand the poem’s deeper meaning. This lack of understanding led me to assume that something was wrong with me or the poem itself. However, upon further reflection and analysis, I came to realize that the poem was exploring the idea of lying as a survival mechanism for people of color in a society where white people hold power and privilege. The speaker in the poem, a young Black girl, quotes “I could easily tell the white folks that we lived uptown, not in that pink and green shanty-fled shotgun section along the tracks. I could act like my homemade dresses came straight out the window of Maison Blanche”. tells white people that she lives in a more affluent area, rather than admitting to living in a poorer neighborhood near the train tracks. The poem also touches on the idea of shame and the internalized racism that can lead people to disavow their own cultural roots. The speaker’s mother punishes her daughter for these lies, “Mama found out. She laid her hands on me, then washed out my mouth with Ivory soap”. Revealing the desire for honesty and authenticity in one’s identity. Overall, the poem explores complex themes of identity, race, and power dynamics, and it takes time and reflection to fully appreciate its significance.

I read both We Cool as well as The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks. The reason I read both, other than I was interested by both titles, was because the prior assumption I made when reading We Cool, was that I would understand the piece with the first run through. And full transparency, I felt as if I SHOULD understand because I am a voracious reader of poems, lol. The lines “we sing sin, we thin gin” I didn’t quite understand and I still don’t understand what ‘thin gin’ is. I will look it up after I finish responding to this discussion, but I assumed it has something to do with hanging out and drinking. After reading the poem once again, a little slower and without the assumptions, I gathered the meaning of the poem. I then, liked the writing and Gwendolyn’s writing style. I also learned she does not have one style from reading both pieces.

Three prior assumptions that I made while reading the poem “White Lies” by Natasha Tretheway are assuming that everything in the poem is literal, assuming that the poem has one definitive interpretation, and  that the poem is an expression of the poet’s personal feelings. Even though the poem is definitely personal, it also addresses wider socioeconomic themes. In order to examine more general questions of race and identity, including the ways in which societal pressures can have a negative impact on people, Tretheway draws on her personal experiences. The poem offers comments about the world in which the poet lives in addition to being a personal expression of her sentiments. Lines 3–4 of the poem use the speaker’s description of herself as “light-bright, near-white, high-yellow, red-boned” to show how complex racial identity might be. These descriptions are intended to explore the speaker’s experiences with identity and race instead of to be taken literally.

As Edward Hirsch so aptly put it in his article “How to Read a Poem”, when approaching an unfamiliar poem, readers tend to make three false assumptions and the one I made was to think that the whole poem was a kind of code where every detail corresponds to a single thing and if I wanted to understand it I had to decipher it. I made this mistake when reading the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” written by William Butler Yeats in which the author just expresses his desire to find calm and peace by going to live alone on an island <<And I shall have some peace there, for peace slowly descends>>. For me this poem was hiding an unknown meaning and I started looking for it until I applied the literary techniques explained in Edward Hirsch’s article and then I realized my mistake.

This week, as I was reading “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W. B. Yeats, I made the mistake of assuming that the poem could mean anything readers wanted it to mean. I felt a connection to my own experience and thought that the poem might refer to isolation and escape from the surrounding world. As an example, when reading the lines:“Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;and live alone in the bee-loud glade.”This occurs, in my opinion, when you read a poem and interpret it as being about your own desires and centered on your own perspective.However, as I was reading this line: “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings.”I believe Yeats is expressing his longing for a simpler, more peaceful life in a specific location, which may resonate with different readers in different ways. This made me realize that it can differ in certain ways depending on the mood of each reader, which helped me fully understand the poem’s message and enjoy it.

For this discussion, I’ve chosen the poem, “We Real Cool,” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Of the three prior assumptions readers tend to make when approaching a poem, I believe I made the mistake of assuming that the poem can mean anything readers want it to mean. I actually read the poem once to myself, read it a second time out loud and then listened to Gwendolyn speak about and then read the poem on my third attempt. I did get the sense that it was about a group of kids who were supposed to be in school, but were instead playing pool, but I questioned the point of the poem. After listening to the audio attached, she explains that the idea for the poem came from her passing a group of schoolboys at the pool hall in her community, and instead of asking why they weren’t in school, she asked herself, “I wonder how they feel about themselves?” With this question, she explained the line in the poem “We Jazz June,” as a representation of the contempt they might feel toward school which also coincides with the lines, “We Real Cool. We Left School.” Also, when listening to her read the poem aloud, she gave it a different kind of energy as opposed to the way I was reading it myself; I ended up very much enjoying this poem, the energy and the meaning behind it.

The assumptions and mistakes when first time reading a poem, as described by Edward Hirsch were very relatable to what I go through when attempting to understand a poem. Throughout this week’s reading, I have found myself making the first wrong assumption. “The first is assuming that they should understand what they encounter on the first reading, and if they don’t, that something is wrong with them or with the poem”. This resonated with me deeply as when I don’t understand something after a few times, I tend to get frustrated. However, with poems I realize and understand that they can be tricky, so I prepare myself to read it many times throughout. In addition, I found myself making the second wrong assumption as well. Thinking that each line connects to each other, or there is some sort of code to figure out. I tend to overthink what the poem is really trying to illustrate. For instance, this week’s poem, “White Lies” by Natasha Trethewey was challenging to understand at the first and second attempt at reading it. This poem is rich in imagery and definition, so therefore I got a little intimidated. I also thought that some lines interconnected ideas to each other. This made paying attention to important or big details difficult and so I skipped over them.

One of the three prior assumptions that I made with respect to the poem “White Lies” by Natasha Tretheway is that the poet is writing about herself or her own experiences. This assumption could potentially limit my understanding of the poem, as it is important to recognize that Tretheway uses a persona or fictional character as the speaker. In the first stanza, the speaker describes her own physical appearance: “Be careful of stones that you throw / Young girl alone in a world / Where race is not a bone in her throat / But a stick in her side.” This sets up the context for the poem and establishes the speaker as a young girl who is not white. However, in the third stanza, the speaker reveals that she has lied about her race: “I could easily tell the white folks / That I am a spic, a mick, a hunky / Jew, a nigger, or even a chink.” This reveals that the speaker is not necessarily the poet herself, but rather a fictional character or persona created by Tretheway. The young girl in the poem, who lies about her race to fit in with her white classmates, is not necessarily a reflection of Tretheway’s own experiences. By assuming that the poet is always writing about themselves or their own experiences, I might miss the broader themes and issues that the poem addresses, such as identity, race, and social conformity. 

In week 13’s reading ” Most reader’s make three false assumptions when addressing an unfamiliar poem” it hits on some valid key points about what many readers myself included tend to do when reading poems as if it’s an involuntary action. I myself am guilty of the latter I fall underneath the second category where in my heart I truly do believe that there is an undercover meaning behind and thus why it was written in such a way. In the poem “White Lies” written by Natasha Trethewey made me think of that poem in such a way and yet I failed to even realize it. Right from the opening line I thought that this short poem was supposed to have a deeper meaning behind it when it stated, ” The lies I could tell, when I was growing up light brown near white high yellow, red boned in a black place were just white lies,” In my head I thought the protagonist past had caught up with them and they would have a sort of epiphany were they would seeing the error of their ways when it came to being a liar.

When I first read W.B. Yeats’ poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” I assumed it was about someone who wants to escape to a remote island and live a peaceful life. However, after reading Edward Hirsch’s article “How to Read a Poem,” I realized that there’s more to the poem. One of the false assumptions I made was that the poem was only about physical escape from the city. Upon closer inspection of the lines “And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings,” I realized that the speaker is seeking not just physical peace, but also emotional and spiritual peace. Another false assumption I made was that the repetition of the line “I will arise and go now” was just a way to emphasize the speaker’s desire to leave the city. However, Hirsch points out that repetition in poetry can often have a deeper meaning, such as emphasizing the speaker’s determination to make a change in their life.  

 “Most readers make three false assumptions when addressing an unfamiliar poem.” While reading “White Lies” by Natasha Tretheway, I made the first assumption- “they should understand what they encounter on the first reading, and if they don’t, that something is wrong with them or with the poem.” This is the assumption I always make while reading poems. “White Lies” was a poem that I reread to make sure I understood it. It is about someone who is of mixed-race and lives in a neighborhood of more colored people, but can pass as a “white girl”. The narrator states that they can say they live “uptown”, which they seem to think is a better area than where they really live. At first, I thought the reading was about a kid lying to fit in, but then I realized it is someone struggling with identity and lying to figure out which race is “more them”. While reading “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, I made the second assumption-“the poem is a kind of code, that each detail corresponds to one, and only one, thing, and unless they can crack this code, they’ve missed the point.” I didn’t understand what the “code” was so I moved onto the next poem. I came back to it and realized it wasn’t so difficult to understand. I believe the poem is about a group of kids who drop out and think they are cool because they do their own thing and defy authority. I think the narrator sees their group as “thugs” because of their comment in the last line “We die soon”. It is a known topic that if you are apart of the “thug-life” you risk losing your life to “the streets”.

The poem “White Lies” by Natasha Trethewey made me fall into the first and second assumptions Edward Hirsch discusses in his article “How to Read a Poem.” From the title, I expected the poem to be about one subject, lies that were not too grandiose. But it is not solely about lying, and each detail does not correspond to only one thing, like I originally thought. It took me three times to read it to understand it is more so about the experience of a young girl of African and European descent than about small fibs. The use of color in the first stanza of the poem is very powerful. “The lies I could tell, when I was growing up light-bright, near-white, high-yellow, red-boned in a black place, were just white lies.” (Trethewey, lines 1-6) I did not immediately understand the perspective of the narrator and it took me multiple times to read to fully digest the true nature of the poem, and the use of color in the first stanza. These exercises are definitely teaching me to read poetry with a more open mind, without expectations, to completely understand the message the author is conveying.

Which of the three prior assumptions did you make with respect to one of the poems read this week? Be sure to refer to specific lines or phrasing in your discussion. The poem that stood out in this week’s reading was “White Lies” by Natasha Tretheway. At first, when reading the poem, I first thought I understood what the narrator was saying. When I read the lines, “I could easily tell the white folks that we lived uptown,” I was assuming only white folks lives uptown, and the narrator’s completion matches with the white folks who live uptown, then yes, the narrator will mix in as well. Then further in the poem, lines “I could act like my homemade dresses came straight out the window of Maison Blanche.” I paused, the narrator portraying to be some lavish person, which is a lie. Then my curiosity came out to question, is the narrator black, with a lighter complexion, but lying about their race, ethnicity, and lavish lifestyle. Then when her mother found out the lies that had been said, she was punished by “purifying and cleansing her mouth with Ivory soap.” I related to the poem “White Lies” because I did similar things as the narrator growing up, and my punishment was the same, my mom washed my mouth out with soap in front of my friends, which was embarrassing, but I learned my lesson.

Speaking about several poems of this week, I can say that “My last duchess” impressed me the most.  So firstly, I want to say that before reading the article I always thought that one reading of the poem is enough to interpret it in an appropriate way. After first reading, I caught the description of the duchess and created an image of the person she was, as far as the poem mostly consists of the description of her personality and appearance. “…too soon made glad, Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”. So it was a kind and openhearted woman. So, after first reading, for me it was a kind of drama about the young and beautiful woman who passed away too early.   However, after several readings, the personality of the narrator (her husband) has started to be disclosed to us on the basis of his words. It becomes clear that he was a strict, cruel person, who was trying to restrict the life of his wife, and probably finally killed her. “Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt, Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped together”.  And after understanding that, I thought that this cruelty and relation of the narrator to his wife could be the unique code, the answer to this poem, with the help of which we can get the message of the author. But with the help of a video lecture about this poem, I learnt that this code “doesn’t feet”, so and  searching for “one universal code” is a mistake of a reader. 

I read Lu Xun’s poem “Swimming,” and my initial assumption was that the poem represented a puzzle that had to be solved. I may have focused on finding a clear interpretation of the poem and ignored the emotions and themes that the poem conveys. However, after reading Hirsch’s essay, I would realize that this assumption would limit my understanding of the poem, which Hirsch suggests should not be “solved” like a puzzle, but should be felt and experienced. In this poem, I would realize that the theme it conveys is not just the technique and skill of swimming, but a deeper sense of being and thinking about the meaning of life. I would realize that there are multiple interpretations of this poem, and that your interpretation is only one possibility.

As I read through this week’s poems, the main three assumptions referenced in “How to read a poem” popped up in my head many times. The poem that stood out for me was “White Lies” by Natasha Tretheway. The first time I read the poem I felt like it was the easiest to understand out of the list of poems assigned so far. I even went on to read the rest of the other poem thinking I fully understood it. As I finish the remaining poems I go back to “ White Lies” and realize I may have missed some details. When I read lines like “I could act/ like my homemade dresses/ came straight out the window/ of Maison Blanche.”I assumed the poem was about the narrator lying about their financial situation. After rereading the poem and analyzing lines like, “like the time a white girl said/(squeezing my hand), Now/we have three of us in this class.” I start to think maybe the narrator is black and has fair skin and lies about their ethnicity, which is much more of a punishable offense since her mother disciplines them for these lies. Then again, I can be be wrong, maybe there is no right or wrong and it was left to be interpreted by the reader however they please. 

In “How to Read a Poem” by Edward Hirsch the assumptions that are made in this poem are, many readers make the false assumption that they should immediately understand everything in a poem, as seen in this quote: “Most readers make three false assumptions when addressing an unfamiliar poem. The first is assuming that they should understand everything right away.” A second assumption is that readers believe everything in a poem is meant to be taken literally, which is challenged by Hirsch in the following lines “The second is assuming that everything in a poem is literal. But some words refer to a reality outside the poem while others do not.” The third false assumption I would say is that poems have only one interpretation, as Hirsch states: “The third is assuming that poems can be reduced to a single, definitive interpretation. But poems are multivalent; they can mean many things to many different people.” Moral of the story I believe that it encourages readers to challenge these assumptions and approach poetry with an open mind.

When reading the poem “White Lies” I made one mistake which inevitably led to another. I initially believed lines 1 – 6 were some sort of code that would help me understand the poem. This blunder led to my second mistake which was trying to understand the poem on the first read through. Though I quickly realized that there was not code in the mentioning of all these colors, I should have read through the poem completely before I made any assumptions. When I read a poems, I’m looking for the deeper meaning. As I am constantly learning, sometimes the author is being literal, and there is art in that. As I continued through the poem, I realize that this is about a girl that lies to boost her social status, because she’s not proud of where she is actually from. A child telling white lies is something I can relate to, which is something I understood after correcting my aforementioned mistakes.

In his article, “How to Read a Poem,” Edward Hirsch points out that most readers make three false assumptions when addressing an unfamiliar poem. These assumptions can make it difficult for readers to truly appreciate and understand the poem. The first false assumption that readers make when approaching an unfamiliar poem is that they believe that they should be able to understand it on the first read. This assumption is based on the belief that poetry is like any other form of literature, where the meaning is clear and straightforward. However, poetry is often written in a way that is intentionally ambiguous, and it requires the reader to spend time unraveling the layers of meaning. It is important for readers to approach poetry with an open mind and a willingness to spend time with the text. The second false assumption that readers make is that they believe that there is only one correct interpretation of the poem. This assumption is based on the belief that poetry is like a puzzle that has only one correct solution. However, poetry is open to interpretation, and there may be multiple ways to understand a poem. The reader’s interpretation may be influenced by their personal experiences, cultural background, and the historical context in which the poem was written. It is important for readers to recognize that their interpretation of a poem is valid, even if it differs from others.The third false assumption that readers make is that they believe that they need to understand every word and reference in the poem to appreciate it. This assumption is based on the belief that poetry is like a code that needs to be deciphered. However, poetry is not meant to be understood in a literal sense. It is often filled with metaphorical language and symbolism that […]

In “How to Read a Poem,” Edward Hirsch notes that while studying a poem, readers frequently make three incorrect assumptions. I discovered after reading William Butler Yeats’ “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” that I had assumed the poem was straightforward and lacked deeper depth. However, after reading Hirsch’s paper, I realized that this assumption was incorrect. The poem’s simple language and structure can be deceiving, since there are deeper themes at work, such as a desire for isolation and a simpler existence in nature. Overall, reading these poems has taught me the value of not forming preconceptions when approaching a new poem. I was able to better comprehend the speaker’s desire for a simpler existence in nature and the romantic theme present in the poem by paying great attention to the language and imagery used.