Poetry as Semantic Construct
Tue, 2003-12-30 14:53
#1
Poetry as Semantic Construct
For Organizing and Even perfecting the functions of thought, intuition, feeling, sensation, and the last function... the "transcendental" function or the function of pure being...
is the way that I view poetry.
Our lack of understanding poetic utterance and our utter 100% dependence on facts, the reading of all things in life as referring to facts has deconstructed meaning and turned our world into a nightmare of signs, symbols, and logical sadisms/ masochisms.
I suppose this is one way of introducing Foucault to an audience.
If one makes the poetic utterance: "the reeds do read silver wells," it means a rhythm, a notion, a continuity, and a homonymous epononomy.
neil_the_auditor
I do so agree Steve; poetic utterance is an aesthetic epidural, an anonymous homonymous eponymous pantechnicon of pure transcendent being.
Do the reeds read silver wells? Or cockleshells? Or H.G. Wells? Or pretty maids all in a row? What a notion.
But I am in bondage to logical sadisms/masochisms; only my Mistress Muse can perfect my functions. There's semantics there, believe me!
There again, I'm mainly a short-story writer and really I know Foucault about poetry.
[%sig%]
Steve
fantastical. IF I'm e'er in need of an auditor, I will request you Neil.
Hen
So you reject deconstruction/reductionism of poetry, preferring the intuitive, emotional response?
The problem with this is that interpretation of poetry as relating to 'facts' can often increase its emotional power (ie. understanding that Celan's 'Death Fugue' relates to the Holocaust.)
Also, engaging purely with language is impossible, because language has no meaning without repetition. What you want is music.
Liana
The best way to understand and or appreciate poetry is to take the two approaches and run with them. The initial hit of the rhythm or the visual verbal dance can be breathtaking, but deconstructing and then reconstructing is a joy to the reader / scholar. To deny one completely in preference to another is to ultimately lose.
So yeah, I guess I agree with Hen.