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I think it's less that it's a misread poem than it's an unread poem for most people, who only know a few key lines taken out of context.
by Semiapies 8y ago
I think it's less that it's a misread poem than it's an unread poem for most people, who only know a few key lines taken out of context.
- rhacker 8y agoYeah first thing that came to mind was that exactly.
- ghaff 8y agoI do think misread is fair. As far as I remember, the traditional teaching and interpretation of the poem was the heroic individuality one. When a college English professor taught a number of decades ago that, in his view, that was the wrong interpretation that was novel to me and for many people. The meaning is perhaps still ambiguous in that a number of people I've discussed this with stick to the traditional interpretation. But I'm at least convinced that "The poem isn’t a salute to can-do individualism; it’s a commentary on the self-deception we practice when constructing the story of our own lives."
- epicide 8y agoI think it's still fair to say it's mostly unread if all they remember (and think about) are a few selective parts that twist the original meaning. It's kind of like Every Breath You Take by The Police. People hear the full song plenty of times but they only think about the ones that match the happy love song pattern. Everything else is in one ear, out the other. In some ways, the "misinterpretation" bringing about an oppositional meaning is poetic in and of itself. EDIT: also, I'm not really trying to argue whether it's "unread" or "misread" (I could attribute selective memory to either one). It's that I think there's more to it than "misread" often warrants. Maybe everything I've said is what you meant by misread.