Poetry is undervalued as a form of communication due to the difficulty in understanding it. However, in the past, people valued poetry for its complexity. To appreciate poetry, try enjoying its rhythm and sound before searching for meaning. To understand it, break it down into smaller parts and analyze them. Poetry is subjective, so there are no wrong answers.
Poetry has long been part of the lore and history of cultures around the world. But as information has become more readily available and more disposable, more and more people are finding poetry difficult not only to write, but to understand. While it has retained its prominence as an art form, it has consequently been undervalued as an effective form of communication and expression of true emotion. Indeed, in many circles, poetry is seen as a tacky and unnecessary form of communication created by the few and enjoyed by the few. But what really makes it difficult for many people to appreciate and understand poetry has less to do with the perceived value of poetry and more to do with how people receive information today.
Individuals have considered poetry to be difficult since it has existed in societies, but in the past, people tended to value poetry due to its complexity rather than avoiding it. The fact that they found poetry difficult meant that the words themselves carried a heavy enough weight to hold meanings they themselves could not otherwise express. This may be why love poetry became so popular: people tried to express their love and felt that their love transcended the word itself, so they found the poem and its construction intricate and complex. This has become the symbol of their emotion.
If you are one of those people who find it difficult to understand or appreciate poetry, try approaching a poem from a different angle. No one will argue that meaning is often hard to find in a poem, but instead of looking for meaning, try enjoying the rhythm of a poem or the sound of the words. Poetry can be musical in a way, but mostly it can be fun to just combine words in a new and different way. Searching for meaning can make poetry difficult, but enjoying poetry for its rhythmic qualities can be less daunting and immediately rewarding.
That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to abandon the search for meaning. There seems to be little reason to write anything unless there is meaning behind it, and therefore a reader of poetry must understand how to make poetry comprehensible. The simplest way to do this is to break down the poem into smaller parts and analyze, line by line, if necessary, the smaller meanings of these parts. This then allows the reader to tie all those smaller themes together to understand the overall meaning behind the text. Start with one line and decipher its meaning. Then move on to the next. And remember: poetry can be very subjective, so often the meaning is what you make of it. There are no wrong answers. While you may still find poetry difficult even after these tips, hopefully you can still recognize the value and pleasure in reading it.
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