Like several of the poems this week, I had a difficult time interpreting the poem at first. I listened to Koch read the poem two times, and then I read it aloud to myself. At first I felt like he was just going off on a tangent about things that didn't make much sense, and then I began to put more and more thought into it.
I feel like he is trying to show how things will overshadow one another. His whole poem is full of them, but for example, "One small complaint may hide a great one." To me what it means is that you may be complaining about the tiniest thing, when there are other people who have much more severe problems then the small thing that you are complaining about. I feel like I see this a lot, because where I work, we take in complaints from the people from Town of Hempstead, and I find it so frustrating that people will be calling to complain that there neighbor has too many cars in front of their house, or that a shingle is loose on the top of their neighbors house. Meanwhile, there are so many more issues going on then that one little shingle. I think that this poem is basically just a huge metaphor for life. To take things as they come instead of worrying about little things. People are so quick to judge and get things over with that they aren't looking into what really is there already.
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Meghan, I too found this poem very confusing at first. I agree that Kenneth Koch is trying to show people that some situations overshadow others, so you need to take your time instead of rushing through things. This poem actually hit home with me, I believe that He has such an amazing writing style and ability that he actually gets his feeling through to his readers. His words really get you thinking. I think this is the first poem that I had read that actually made me sit and think about what it has to do with my own life. Good job on your interpretation.
ReplyDeleteRemember, avoid personal pronouns in academic writing, even on a blog.
ReplyDeleteYes, this poem falls into the category of New York School Confusion. The idea of complaining about the little things is right on.