Reading Poem and its Effects on the
Readers
By: M. Shabir
When
I first read a poem, my focus was to look for meaning. What was the poem about? Was it about something? Or did it simply
evoke a mood, or an emotion, or a vivid atmosphere? The questions might seem so
strange for many whose have been able to flash out a poem. But for me, it is
not simple to find what a poem is about. To find a meaning in a poem is still
puzzling since this literary work has not been familiar to my mind; I have just
started to enjoy and learn to find meaning what a poem says.
Having
attended last week class, the questions I have mentioned earlier have now found
their answers. There are some important points which I have formulized in terms
of finding meaning when reading a poem. These points were concluded from what
had been elaborated by Bachrudin Mustafa while he was trying to teach class
members how to find meaning or message contained in a poem.
The
first point is that when we read a poem, we are just simply to gain a feeling
for atmosphere or emotion. In other words, we don’t need to try hard to make to
‘make sense’ of the poem. Just let our mind flow to follow what the poem text
says. To me, this is kind of exercising how to familiarize our selves to the
reading of poem before we become familiar with catching the meaning behind the poem
text. The second point is that when we read a poem, try to analyse if there is
something happening in the poem.
In Perjamuan
discussed last week for example, we can just simply think that the poet is
telling us something; he is trying tells us a story of someone’s family life. By
analysing such characters, it will make us able to understand and catch the
meaning or messages contained in the poem.
The
third or last is, on our reading of the poem, we start to look the poem deeper. Does the poet create a metaphor? Is the poem really about something else? Sometimes,
a poem is not always metaphoric; it oftentimes tells a story of the poem owner using
simple language which is easy, but oftentimes difficult digest for beginner.
However,
being considered as part of art, a good poem is oftentimes metaphoric; it uses
vivid images and descriptive language to ‘paint’ a picture in the reader’s mind;
it cuts out all the excess words that we might find in prose and creates its
magic with a limited amount of text.
In order to catch its meaning, looking deeper
into a poem is required since only this way we can know the power of the poem
or its effect to us the readers of which will be discussed to conclude this discussion.
One
big question ton answer: what the effect might be resulted from reading poem to
its readers? I posed this question because of being inspired by last week
discussion where a poem was read by Bachrudin Mustafa. Applying the three steps
mentioned earlier in connection with reading a poem, I easily can mention here
that a poem has a huge and extraordinary effect which is as huge as this world.
How come?
A
friend of mine has proved how a poem Perjamuan has been able to open his
‘blind eyes’ and turn him conscious of what he has done to his wife for many
years. Perjamuan has made him think contemplatively. He said the poem was so touching
and he felt so sorry for being not good husband to his beloved wife. What I can
say from this friend’s confession is that a poem sometimes also functions as one
of sources of divine guidance or hidayah ilahi for those who still have heart.
Whatever the effect is, it will depend on how deep the readers’ can get into the
poem.
Based
on my searching on
internet, I found a few approaches which may prove useful or in order for us be
able to go deep into a poem to find its meaning. These approaches seem to have
much similarity with the steps which I have mentioned earlier: the first is after
a first reading, we try to find out the overall emotional effect we feel when
we read the poem. Second, try to find out what particular images or phrases in
the poem stand out for us. Third, ask ourselves what ideas and emotions the
poets suggest in the poem. And than we try to fit these into any kind of
overall sense of what the poem might mean.
However, going deeper into a poem is
not simple work since it involves sensitivity of its readers. It doest not mean
that reading poetry is exclusively for certain group of people; what I am
telling is that a poem is not usual reading, and therefore, to read it
meaningfully will need an exercise to sharpen our sensitivity. Only those who have high
sensitivity who will be able to grasp what a poem means even the meaning is
deep as the sea or as high as the sky.
