The Semasiology of Poetry

The search for meaning.

The Semasiology of Poetry

We are slaves to semantics

as we search each poem

seeking signifiers.

Words, phrases,

signs and symbols

and their denotation.

We look for meaning

and reference as we

try to work out the representation

of each linguistic unit.

What does the poet intend to convey

in his words, and phrases

and stanzas?

Parsing becomes our goal

as we decompose each sentence

into the meanings of its parts.

Incomplete truth-values,

reliant on context,

fail us

as inborn notions constrain

our understanding,

where novel concepts lie dormant

and the metaphor escapes

our mental rotation.

But the words we ponder

are incomplete

without elements of context

and no word has a value

independent of the

wider discourse

within which it is implanted.

And the fuzzy boundaries of semantics

fall to the slippages in fixed meanings,

as such subjectivity

is not an objective truth.

Context, aye there’s the rub,

serves as the input,

but each interpreted utterance modifies the context,

so is also the output

Snow is white,

if and only if snow is white.

 

27/11/14

Author's Note

Reviews

[The Black Warrior]

Ohhh I like this a lot...very interesting John!

Thank you for sharing...:)

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Thank you Suk

[Lyn Anderson]

I love it. Yes, it is interesting, as people often see older works through the lens of today. Or something that means something entirely different is interpreted in a new way ... I get it. I puzzled over the word semasisology - I think I get it now.
One thing -- I would be tempted to say deconstruct as opposed to decompose, but maybe that is just me.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

I think that is what we call a semantic argument lol. Many thanks 'M'

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"snow is white, only if it is white"
and what we see is only what we see if we see it...if the words give us context, meaning...sytax of life.

yours do for me...

i like the title of this...i live right on the faultline...there is often movement...
and the words move within me, so i relate to this very much....trying to clarify those fuzzy boundaries.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Let them be fuzzy as we all see things differently Jacob and to have clarity is to have delusions. We might be better off just accepting blurring. Many thanks.