Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[RedRose]

My sister told me that reading poets was an efficient way to learn English. So I visited some poet websites, unfortunately I had a hard time getting any English poetries I read!! English poetries made me hate English! I am not into poets at all! but due to my personality: kind of pushy and aggressive, so the harder the english poet is, the more I wanna figure it out. Now I will copy a poet here that I read yesterday. would you be kind to tell me what the hell it really means? Here you go!

-----------------------------------------------------------
Your heartache, like my solitude
has become a way of life,
and no matter how we dress it up
it still cuts like a knife.

With days of wanton boredom
to nights we've kept at bay,
any way we try to change it all
it still won't go away.

We have asked a higher power
to intervene at last,
but it seems that when we chose this path
this simple die was cast.

A past that we once frowned upon
has become a future we both need,
but unless we cut these ties that bind
we'll never get a chance to plant the seed.
--------------------------------------------------------

Isn't it confusing?

[RedRose]

Here is my conprehension for the damn poet, I hope someone can correct it if my explanation doesn't make any sense. thanks in advance!
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Your heartache, like my solitude
has become a way of life,
and no matter how we dress it up
it still cuts like a knife.

my explanation:
we both always get upset and mopey for no reason,
and you always get a heart attack when I am alone
that has become the only way we live
No matter what fancy clothes we are wearing,
Those clothes always make us feel so uncomfortable that we always wanna cut them out with a knife,
that way we can both be naked.

With days of wanton boredom
to nights we've kept at bay,
any way we try to change it all
it still won't go away.

my explanation:
After fooling around with some lascivious hookers,
I still feel mopey and bored
and to night we sleep together again
We have tried to change our lifestyle,
but it's useless,
we still feel upset and depressed

We have asked a higher power
to intervene at last,
but it seems that when we chose this path
this simple die was cast.

my explanation:
We've tried to talk someone more powerful into our damn life(that would be a nice threesome),
But everytime when the person intervenes into our nameless depression
he just dies unexpectedly, for NO REASON!

A past that we once frowned upon
has become a future we both need,
but unless we cut these ties that bind
we'll never get a chance to plant the seed.

my explanation:
We used to frown on ourselves, because we both sucked
and we have to frown on ourselves in the future
until a sweet death make us apart
I never have any chance to knock you up!
Maybe you are not reproductive at all!~

[beancurdturtle]

It seems that this person and a past love are not together any more, but they can't get each other out of their minds. (heartache and solitude)

Even if they pretend it's not so (dress it up), it still hurts.

They don't do anything, they don't even get together. (boredom, and keeping at bay)

They just can't change.

They prayed to god to help them. (higher power)

Still they can't change and their prayers are not answered.

They really should grow up and let go of each other, but were afraid to in the past. (past frowned upon)

If they don't let go, they'll be screwed up and never have a chance to start a new life. (cut ties that bind, plant a seed)


But your explanation is pretty good anyway. Perhaps better than mine. It turns a lousy poem into a ribald dark comedy.
_________________
Daniel

�Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.�
--Dr. Seuss

[ad-miral]

Maybe it's better for the interpretation if we knew the author, when it's written, and where it's written. Then we can add the historical background of the poem. (Teachers like a good historical background)

my interpretation of the poem without historical background:

Your heartache, like my solitude
has become a way of life,
and no matter how we dress it up
it still cuts like a knife.

Heartache and loneliness are metaphors for describing the relationship. Those metaphors instantly gave a bad impression of the whole poem.
The verb used in the second sentence "dress up" is a characterisation of the heartache and solitude. It makes the relationship sound more human and more closer.
This stanza is for introducing the reader to a problem. It's like talking about the past. "has become" and "still" gives us the impression that the problem has already lasted for a while.

With days of wanton boredom
to nights we've kept at bay,
any way we try to change it all
it still won't go away.

Again the author uses human adjectives for describing the relationship. "wanton boredom". This builds a Pleonasm together with the first stanza and connects them. The Pleonasm is also a rhetorical figure to describe the boringness of the relationship. The same with the metaphors "night" (metaphor) and "bay" (I think they used "bay" to create a picture full of water etc., with water we combine tears etc.)
After so many abstract rhetorical figures (it's used like a fog which covers the relationship), the second sentence covers all the fog up. "we try to change but it won't go away" This directness confronts the reader with the seriousness of this problem and builds closeness between reader and problem. Again with "go away" it's used as a characterisation. So we can be sure that whenever a characterisation is used, it's describing the relationship.
This stanza is for realising the problem from an abstraction to a real thing. We can say it describes the present situation.

We have asked a higher power
to intervene at last,
but it seems that when we chose this path
this simple die was cast.

After showing the seriousness of the problem, now the author talks about the future. Here we can see that the author must be an European guy because otherwise he wouldn't have believed in a "higher power". (The "higher power" signalises "one God", so we are in a monotheismus which is typical for western beliefs.)
In the next sentence there is another characterisation "die". So we can be sure it's telling about the relationship and that the author forecasts that it will end in the future if he and his gf don't change anything.

So this is a nice (lyrical, not sexual) threesome. As a rhetorical figure, we call it: "Climax". Why it's a Climax, and not a Akkumulation, is because the importance of the stanzas is increasing. "knife" (l.4), desperate relationship now, "days of wanton boredom" (l.5) and even a hopeless future, the relationship won't be better ever again "we have asked a higher power but this simple die was cast", even God is against them. (Which means a lot for western guys, see Bush saying: "I believe God speaks through my mouths" when he attacked Iraq)

A past that we once frowned upon
has become a future we both need,
but unless we cut these ties that bind
we'll never get a chance to plant the seed.

The last stanza serves as a fade-out of the whole poems. Here we can see that our interpretation with past, present, future was right. "A bad past will lead to a bad future". The second sentence says the final request of the author. "if we don't fight the bad things in our relationship (ties that "bind", maybe another personification for the relationship) we'll never be able to *beep* with each other.

So at the end, this poem is about a loser who doesn't know how to satisfy his gf.
_________________
If I say "I love you" to someone, then I also have to say "I also love everyone else inside you, I love the whole world because of you, I also love myself inside you." -- Erich Fromm, the Art of Love

[RedRose]

hahahahahhahaahhaahha!!!