Seek help

[wtwt5237]

Though I have tried hard to get started in literature and music, I think I just failed, in comprehending what this work or that work tries to convey to me. It seems I just think in the very wrong way at the very start. For example after reading a poetry, I in most cases cannot tell what it is about.:flare: Could anyone please tell me how to solve my problem?

[Dublo7]

You're not the only one that cannot read poetry. I've tried and failed, over and over again.
I think you have to find an author that really speaks to you.
What kind of stories are you interested in? What specific things have you tried reading?

[Aiculík]

Though I have tried hard to get started in literature and music, I think I just failed, in comprehending what this work or that work tries to convey to me. It seems I just think in the very wrong way at the very start. For example after reading a poetry, I in most cases cannot tell what it is about.:flare: Could anyone please tell me how to solve my problem?

There are many books about "how to read" and many of them were alredy mentiond here, try to browse the forum.

If you don't feel like reading a whole book or two about how to read a book :D try at least this, it contains some basic, but helpful ideas.http://www.brocku.ca/english/jlye/criticalreading.html

[Lyn]

I find that reading poetry, and most other texts, requires finding a 'key' from which to start. It kind of opens the door to understanding the poem. It might be a word, or line, phrase, image, idea. Once I've decided what that key is (there are lots, just depends which one you pick at the time of reading, whatever leaps out at you) then I'll re-read the poem several times with that in mind. Usually helps me understand the poem and discover some of its meanings.

[MaryLupin]

Though I have tried hard to get started in literature and music, I think I just failed, in comprehending what this work or that work tries to convey to me. It seems I just think in the very wrong way at the very start. For example after reading a poetry, I in most cases cannot tell what it is about.:flare: Could anyone please tell me how to solve my problem?

I have an idea. Why don't you get one poem that you have read and let us know what it is. (If it doesn't break the "fair use" rules post it here. If it does see if you can find the text online and post the link.) Then we can all tell you what we think it means and why (using evidence from the poem). Seeing interpretation in action might be the easiest way to learn.

[earthboar]

Though I have tried hard to get started in literature and music, I think I just failed, in comprehending what this work or that work tries to convey to me. It seems I just think in the very wrong way at the very start. For example after reading a poetry, I in most cases cannot tell what it is about.:flare: Could anyone please tell me how to solve my problem?

We don't read in a vacuum. Reading others' reviews puts a second set of eyes on the story, and gives you something to latch onto. This is especially so for me with poets like W.B. Yeats and William Blake. Without reading other interpretations, it is futile to know what they are talking about. I enjoy reading the reviews and comments to a book on Amazon. Also, for instance, autobiographies talk about what the author read, and why he liked it. Understanding what is going on in a book, and perhaps its larger point is something that takes time, not an all at once thing. It takes practice, like exercising a muscle. Don't worry about wrong or right in the beginning, just try it and when something jumps out at you, make a note of it. Try to start predicting what will happen next. You will develop your own style of understanding.

[Bakiryu]

Just read for the sake of reading! you don't have to understand it to enjoy it! It's like chocolate! Do you understand chocolate? do you even want to?! nope! you just eat it and enjoy! *not that you should eat your books*

[PeterL]

Though I have tried hard to get started in literature and music, I think I just failed, in comprehending what this work or that work tries to convey to me. It seems I just think in the very wrong way at the very start. For example after reading a poetry, I in most cases cannot tell what it is about.:flare: Could anyone please tell me how to solve my problem?

Since you specified understanding poetry, I will confine my reply to that genre. Much poetry is written in less than perfectly clear language. If you read and interpret a poem line by line, you might understand it better. While you are reading, figure out who, or what, is the speaker, the point of view character, of the poem. If you have read a poem and thought it meant one thing, and someone else said it meant something else, the other person could be wrong. And some poetry has been written to hide the writer's underlying meaning.

[wtwt5237]

Many many thanks for all of your replies here. I hope I can make progress.
Maybe I can make some interpretations of my own of 'On His Blindness' by John Milton.
When I consider how my light is spent
Er half my dags, in this dark world and wide
And that one Talent which is death to hide,
Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chide,
Doth God exact day-labour,light deny'd
I fondly ask;But patience to prevent
That murmur,soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly, Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and waite.
I think some words are a little confusing. Why does God not need man's work? Is this work confined to work of day-labour in light? 'stand and waite' is what one can do in blindness and what God is looking forward to, while not exact,right? And again, what's this 'own gifts' mean? Does it mean you don't have to give up the life God grants you,if you can not exercise day-labour?
My interpretations may be naive and wrong, I am afraid.And there are really many more points I am not sure. Can you show what you think here?
Thank you again for your replies. Hope this doesn't take too much of your time.

[MaryLupin]

Ok so if I were to interpret this poem the first thing I would do is look at the form. It is a sonnet with a rhyme scheme of abbaabbacdecde. If you look at the scheme it breaks into 4 lines, 4 lines, and 2 sets of 3 lines by sound. So that is one level of thought organization. So you want to look at the first 4 lines as a "thought" and the next four lines as another "thought" etc. Also because this is in the form of an Italian sonnet the first 8 lines traditionally turn at the end of the 8th line with a pause in thought and the last 6 lines culminate a new understanding of what has been presented in the first 8 lines. The rhyming pattern of helps this turn and the sestets add a kind of sound urgency to the culminating thought.

So if we just consider the first four lines:

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent

He is essentially blind by this point and considering how he has used this gift of sight in his service to God in the wide dark world that Milton serves within. In line 3 when he refers "to that one talent" he remarks upon (at least) his poetic talent which will be hidden (an allusion to his the hiddeness/darkness of spiritual blindness?) by death. Also not forgetting that Milton was rather religious, the use of talent must also refer the reader to the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 19:12-28). Talent in this sense is a measure of value. Money. Worth. The parable suggests a proper way to deal with what is given to you. The slave who buries his single talent in the ground is thrown out into "the outer darkness." This is the talent lodg'd with me useless (like the slave who buried his talent). Not a particularly good sense of ego showing here. But whatever, it's Milton so he's forgiven.

To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent

This first thought (first 4 lines) turns at "though my soul more bent" and continues until "I fondly ask." He is saying here (I think) that his blindness has perhaps served to bend him to better serve god and do the best he can in fear (as that slave had right to be) that his master (god for Milton) would "chide" him. The "fondly ask" is a nice touch.

The turn into the sestet starts with "But Patience" and goes through to the end of the poem. So let's recap. Milton is concerned that like the bad slave he has not used his talent to the best of his ability - his whole purpose being to serve god the best he can. To, as it were, add to god's estate by Milton's labor. Then we get another take on this concern with Patience.

That murmur, soon replies: "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

For all Milton's concern Patience (which remember is a virtue) says that god doesn't need your work, what he wants is for you to bear his "mild yoke." And that unlike the parable of the talents one can serve god by standing and waiting as long as they "bear his mild yoke." The key thing in this poem, it seems to me, is that Milton has pushed the idea of how far god is removed from the concerns that humble us. Blindness is not a problem for god, it is only a problem for man. God, for Milton, doesn't judge a man's "gift" or "talent" by how much he earned because god doesn't need what we produce. God judges on another scale altogether one that we may not see. (our blindness).

[wtwt5237]

Thank you, this sonnet makes more sense for me now. I think I will have to learn systematically about rhyme and form. And my Bible study is not finished yet. They will help me understand poems.