How Does a Poem Mean? Review

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(More customer reviews)John Ciardi's How Does a Poem Mean? is an intriguing, unorthodox, and surprisingly effective introduction to poetry. He argues that the question: "What Does a Poem Mean?" is too often a self-destroying approach that results in paraphrasing and misses the point of poetry. A poem is to be experienced, not simply interpreted. Unlike prose, a poem is primarily a performance.
How does a poem build itself into a form out of images, ideas, and rhythms? How do these elements become the meaning? How are they inseparable from the meaning? John Ciardi's remarkable textbook answers these questions, makes enjoyable reading, and is a five star introduction to poetry.
This text, published by Houghton Mifflin, was adopted by many colleges in the 1960s and 1970s. Inexpensive, used, soft cover copies are still fairly easy to find.
The eight chapters are titled How Does a Poem Mean?, A Burble Through the Tulgey Wood, By Rippling Pools, The Words of Poetry, The Sympathetic Contract, The Image and the Poem, The Poem in Motion, and The Poem in Countermotion.
I encountered many familiar poems as well as others new to me. Among the latter, I list several to illustrate the wide range of Ciardi's selections (and to remind me to return to these poets): The Listeners (Walter De la Mare), Mr. Flood's Party (Edwin Arlington Robinson), The Death of a Hired Hand (Robert Frost), Burning Love Letters (Howard Moss), Snake (D. H. Lawrence), Blue Girls (John Crowe Ransom), Medusa (Louise Bogan), A Subterranean City (Thomas Lovell Beddoes), and What the Sonnet Is (Eugene Lee Hamilton).
Also, I especially enjoyed three closely related poems: Departmental (Frost), Heaven (Rupert Brooke), and A Deep Discussion (Richard Moore).
Like most collections of poetry, How Does a Poem Mean? is best enjoyed if read in a leisurely fashion over several months. The overall time commitment may be substantial, but John Ciardi's fascinating text will reward your efforts. Take your time. Enjoy yourself. Remember, poetry is to be experienced, not simply analyzed. Cheers.

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