Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Any one can help me please give me example of a poem in which multiple meanings, or polysemy, is used?

Perhaps the easiest way to answer your poem would be to
lead you in the direction of Metaphoric poetry.  Metaphor poems are poems which use
either simple metaphors to compare two typically unlike things or are compounded
metaphors where the entire poem exists as a metaphor for something
else.


One example of a metaphor poem is "The Garden Hose"
by Beatrice Janosco:


readability="11">

In the grey
evening


I see a long green
serpent


With its tail in the
dahlias



It lies in loops across the
grass


And drinks softly at the
faucet.


I can hear it
swallow.



Here, Janosco is
comparing a garden hose to a snake. Therefore, the poem contains a multiple meaning when
looking at the poem with and without the title.


As for
poetry which contains polysemy (characterized when a word alone has multiple meanings),
this is a little more difficult. Given that poetry interpretation is typically left to
the reader, many readers may not agree on the meaning of an entire poem or of the use of
a word within the text of a poem.


To give you one example
of this, examine the poem "The Waste Land" by
T.S.Elliot:



I
have heard the key
Turn in the door once and turn once only
We think
of the key, each in his prison
Thinking of the key, each confirms a
prison



The key spoken of in
the excerpt of the poem can hold two very distinctive
meanings.


First, the key can represent an actual key which
releases one from an actual prison.


Second, the key can
represent a metaphorical key which all must find in order to release them from a mental
or emotional prison which they exist within.


I hope that
this answers your question. Again, it is very hard to pinpoint polysemy in a specific
poem because of personal interpretation.

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