to comment a poem
Still, it's hard (the hardest, may be) for me to give a comment to a poem. I am afraid of justifying one as a good or bad poem (the word 'comment' comes together with 'justification'). A lot of reasons support this inferiority. The biggest thing comes from the lack of my reference either in theories and practices. "How many poems have you read that you can say that?", "is your perspective true?", "have you read between the lines?", "Have you comprehended the intertextuality?", "do you know the style of the writer?", "do you know the writer's background?"
First thing coming into my mind when trying to analyze (that I can give a comment) is the intrinsic elements (rhyme, word-choice, word-composition,image, etc). It, indeed, spends much time. But, sometimes, justification for the 'surface-message' disturbs me, bothering my deeper-analysis attempt. Some other theories appear but they're blur.
Still, I find myself difficult in placing my writing amid all the complexities of a poem..
somebody help me, please..
to be honest, i enjoy personal and subjective comments bases on readers' intuitive perception more than academic-theoretical-criticism kind of comments however shallow the comments of the first kind, still this kind of comments reflect spontaneous yet honest response. it might be just subjective remarks such as "this work is good" or "i don't like the first stanza" with absent arguments, but for me as a writer, the personal-subjective responses is more like an applause and really encouraging. not all of my readers know any theories of literature as their operating lancet and i still find this lowest level of criticism important as first-hand feedback on the piece.
however, theory-based comments offer more academic and systematic analysis on the piece studied. i think, this kind of comments is minority compares to the first kind of comments i've mentioned earlier. yet, the rare opportunity to get such academic feedback either from literature educated readers or academicians becomes very exclusive. therefore, such quality criticisms are a bit hard to find in any (indonesian) literary publication except ones in literary books' forewords or brief reviews. i think it would be very useful if any academic papers on any (indonesian) literary works are to be printed for public so that we don't refer to newspaper-based short essays as the only source of literary information.
still, your comments on my pieces are very much welcome, muji.
to be perfect is impossible...but the trial is possible...so,,no need to hesitate...
its a matter of personaL idea...every judgement is legal...