premalatha balan Wrote:
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> the first thing I feel is that there is a lot more
> inner meaning to it than what it says.

Yes, there are alot of things tucked into this poem. The spider in the poem is sometimes a spider and sometimes, not.
>
> secondly, it just doesn't feel that you were given
> conditional words at all. the flow is very very
> natural, one forgets to remember that there are
> given words knitted within these lines.

That's what surprised my professor as well. She said that it was rare that somebody could do so well in such a situation. I think I just got lucky with the words in that they stimulated something in me.

>
> there is a rythm.

I have never been one to pay much attention to whether or not my poems follow any set rhythm. I simply just write them out and it is very rare for me to alter any of them after the initial writing because they come out with a rhythm on their own.

>
> above all, there is a soul to the poem. it feels
> like as if some one is saying it to me with a
> little bit of sarcasm and telling me that, it is
> time that i stopped and looked at myself to
> realise what I am doing.. I don't know this is
> what you meant, but this is what I felt.

You got it right. The poem is meant to be a reflection upon how we live our daily lives and how oblivious we are to so many things around us. There are points in the poem that are meant to jar the reader awake to things that they may not be seeing happening around them. There's normalcy contrasted with the abnormal and that's life. I think that this was a little of what Hitchcock was doing in his movie, Rear Window. His main character, Jeff, gets his life interrupted by a broken leg and he starts to view the lives of his neighbors around him for the first time.
>
>
> protecting the self with a newspaper, book or a
> broom against an arachnid .. kind of very
> sarcastic at today's human life (or the
> culture/civilisation we have reached today!!)..

Yes, it's very sarcastic. Often, we tend to ignore the troubles that are affecting others around us. People get harmed in many ways--we see it on tv or read it in the newspaper and yet, we go on about our daily lives--normal as usual. They don't become a significant problem to us until we are the victims and caught wholly unprepared. It's not to say that we should all be running around armed to the teeth (on the contrary, I am not fond of guns at all), but the best way to protect ourselves is to become aware and active in helping prevent these minor atrocities from happening.

> I am not very good at english, let alone in
> poems.. so, if my interpretation is wrong it is
> just me. It feels something very deep to me.

No, you did fine. I'm glad it conveyed the things I meant it to when I wrote it.

> You should publish it stephanie.

Thank you. You mentioned that it felt like there is a soul in the poem. That's how I see them as well. All of my poems are part of me. Publishing would mean that not only my poems would be up for view by anybody. Because these poems are part of me, it would be me out there. This poem I am more willing to share with people but I still feel a little exposed afterwards, lol I came very close to having a poem published several years ago but backed out. I'm a bit of a coward, I suppose.

Stephanie




In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.--Ralph Waldo Emerson