Poetry Blog 4

This week I read "The Secret" by Denise Levertov. It initially reminded me of when teachers read something I write and get a deeper meaning out of it than I originally intended. I can never decide if what someone else gets out of my writing is something I said on purpose but subconciously, or if I shouldn't take credit for a simple coincidence. Although I am not much of a poet, I think this is the idea Levertov is trying to convey. Often when reading someone else's poetry, like what happens with my writing sometimes, I pick up on symbolism that I'm not sure is only symbolic to me, or if the author intentionally wrote it that way. I tend to overanalyze poems, so I'm really concious of this when reading poetry. I don't know who the mention of "two girls" is referring to in "The Secret," but I think Levertov is saying that they interpreted a poem she wrote in a different and possibly more insightful way than she even meant it to come across. They didn't tell her what "the secret of life" was though, so maybe the girls just enjoyed it and related it to their lives in a way Levertov hadn't thought of, and she is touched by the fact that her poetry can do that. She then says she's certain that "by now, more than a week/ later, they have forgotten/ the secret," possibly to mean they probably didn't think about the poem beyond reading it and analyzing it. (As we often do in Lit...) But she hopes they will discover it again by re-reading her poem, or even more generally, by reading more poetry. The secret could also be just relating poetry to your own life and finding joy in that, whether the author intended your interpretation or not. No matter what "the secret" is, "The Secret" is definitely an incentive to read more poetry, knowing there is a secret at all.