« The World of Poetry is Within the "World of Experience" Not Seperate | Main | Literature: Its Own History »
March 10, 2007
Expand Your Mind
Hamilton, Essential Literary Terms (226-246) -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
"Editors also indent blank verse lines that are shared between two or more speakers and number them as one line, to show that the dialogue reflects a close meeting of the character's minds" (239).
From what I have been studying this semester I have come to the conclusion that I should pay more attention to little details like this because things are not as they are by accident. Everything has a reason - even if we can't find it, even if we can't understand it, even if it was unintentional or subconscious. And the great thing about these details is that while the book gives us insight to the possible and even the probable meanings of these details they are just one answer that is not absolute and therefore merits further thought and gives us something new to look at as we read poetry and literature. It really makes us expand our thinking and use the examples to takes things one step beyond what is given to us in order to come up with our own ideas and conclusions and a means for explaining those ideas and conclusions to others.
One question I do have though is whether it is just the editors that organize things this way or of they were organized that way by the original authors. If they weren't I might worry that it alters or influencing the meaning making it less authentic.
Posted by LorinSchumacher at March 10, 2007 11:24 AM