The Meaning of a Poem - Essay Example

What is a Poem? There are different types of literary works that have been existing through time, such as the novel, short stories, and poems, to name a few. Just as literary writers present different perspectives of how they see things and how things are relayed through their writings, an ordinary reader would have different interpretations of the messages being relayed. The meaning of a poem, for instance, has been defined differently by poets and writers and their meanings could be so interesting and profound that these are poetry in general.

From the definitions of poems by selected poets, the definition that best applies to one’s personal point of view is that of Samuel T. Coleridge as he defined poetry as the best words chosen and selected in best order.One’s personal interpretation of poetry is that it is a creative selection of words and figures of speech that have been well-thought of, to form a pattern or a line of thought, which is then effectively put into writing. Take the poem of Charles Bukowski, for instance, entitled “Let It Enfold You”, the poem is a perfect example of a creatively thought of and selected choices of words that conveyed a specific meaning when taken as a unified literary work.

Bukowski’s poem best exemplified Coleridge’s definition of poetry in terms of recognizing that the poet selected the best possible words and situated them in the most effective and appropriate order to convey the intended meaning. For instance, his opening words “either peace or happiness,let it enfold you” [Buk12] are carefully chosen to entice audience appeal and intrigue them to a point that readers would like to continue reading the poem. The poem did not exhibit any evident pattern in number of lines, nor in rhyme.

There was even a wrong spelled word ‘freinds' [Buk12] in the last line – which could obviously be intentional to mean that the narrator was indifferent and haplessly carefree and careless about what life brings. It was as if there was no rules in spelling and in structure as some words were written in lower cases, even at the start of the sentence: “when I was a young man” [Buk12].The poem could actually be considered as some form of free writing where there are no strict adherence to grammatical rules.

However, as the readers would deduce, the meaning is flawless. The poet intended to relay the previous life of being such a bum, an irresponsible immature and indifferent individual who seemed to manifest anger at anything, any one and almost all conventional and traditional activities. Finally, a transformation occurred where the narrator signified having recognized that it was perfectly fine to be embraced by happiness and be enfolded by whatever good things life brings. The poem was an effective example of the embodiment of Coleridge’s definition of poetry.

To reiterate, the poem is actually a perfect example of a creatively thought of and appropriately selected words that conveyed a defined meaning taken as a unified literary work. Poetry could not be poetry if the words were not created and strategically situated in the perfect line and verse it was intended to be in. The beauty of its meaning could be appreciated when the whole poem is understood to be a holistic creation of the best words that form a unified and intended discourse.Work CitedBuk12: , (Bukowski lines 1 & 2), Buk12: , (Bukowski par. 4), Buk12: , (Bukowski line 3),