Interpreting a Poem - Part 2

Another glorious photo by Michael Nichols.
There is such a dichotomy between the tigers - proud and calm -
and Aunt Jennifer.

In the last post, I showed you a poem by Adrienne Rich - "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers."

Yesterday at the Tutoring Center, where I work part-time to assist beginning level students in everything from grammar and punctuation to literature and essay organization, I had the chance to help an older man, retired military after 30 years, find his way into this poem.

This poor student was completely lost in the words and symbolism. He had no idea where to start. And he was so worried about finding 600 words to say about a 12-line poem that he had gotten a little bit frantic. He told me it was impossible.

He was in a hurry to understand it. And I don't think poems work that way.

I asked him questions, wanted to break it down simply for him…what is Aunt Jennifer doing? He said she was painting. I asked him how he knew that. Well, he didn't. 

I pointed to the word "needle" and asked him to imagine that beautiful ivory needle. Then, he noticed the word "wool." He decided she was making a quilt.

Little by little, we broke the poem apart into bits he could chew on. We talked and talked about the meanings, or possible meanings, of the words. I told him poems take time; they take multiple readings. They take a willingness to suspend your fully conscious, normal mind sometimes.

And, after an hour's conversation about this very poem, the symbolism and word choice, he blithely asked: "But what should I write about?"