Experience of a Close Reading of "Spring and Fall"

       While going to the process of breaking down, paraphrasing, and interpreting the poem "Spring and Fall", I noticed a cool thing relating to how an achieved meaning can change depending on your current situation. My interpretation of the poem relates to my current situation. Since I'll be going off to college soon, I felt as if Margaret represents my mother, I am the Goldengrove, and the seasons "Spring and Fall" represent my emotional status. Going from there you can probably get a general idea of what my interpretation was but I won't go in depth about that. Instead, I will go over how I felt while paraphrasing this poem. There were one or two lines I completely couldn't decipher, but I feel that's just because of lack of experience with poetry. I felt like I was giving advice to Margaret, making an argument to convince her or something, and the final line made me believe this even further. "It is you I grieve for" or something along those lines. Margaret broods over the tree losing its leaves (which could also make it so that she is the tree, and she is losing her connections or children, which would be the leaves), and by following this figurative language, we can arrive to the conclusion that the poem is trying to explain that you shouldn't be sad for the things that have left you, but you should feel sorrow because of the holes left in you instead. It's like a relativity thing. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Don't be sad over your losses, be sad for yourself kinda thing. I don't know, it's really complex but I feel like I will be able to talk better about poems once we get deeper into them.

3/25/2015

Three important things I have learned from today's lesson:

• The difference between denotation and connotation, and how to not drift away from formalism.
• There is a very methodological way to writing poetry where every syllable is meaningful and purposely put there. There is rhythm in poetry.
• The plot isn't just the story. It is the manipulation of sequence of events to create a desired effect. Literature has a very scientific and theoretical side to it.

I really need to learn:

• How the rhythm in poetry works (really that blew my mind).
• How humor and comedy affects the readers and how to achieve desired meaning with verbal humor and tone.

I feel confident enough to teach: Figurative language.

=)