By Ash Moen

Sometimes a writer will write a story or poem and to them it is fairly simple and straightforward. They don’t think much into it. But oftentimes there are underlying meanings we weave into our words unintentionally. Thus, different readers can interpret the work in different ways and find all sorts of hidden meanings that the writer did not intend. It is an amazing part of poetry and writing–the ability to find new meanings in stories and poems. It’s part of what inspires new stories and poems. As an example of this I am going to analyze my own poem that I wrote a few years ago, “I’ll miss you till the end so please visit again”:

When you visit a graveyard
to visit the dead 

The dead come back, not to haunt you
but to greet you instead 

They welcome you with open arms
and ask you how you’ve been 

They say that’s great, and wonderful, and swell
they say that they love you and miss you as well 

But then they get tired, and have to go to bed
they say Farewell, and please visit again

Those bright lights, flying in the sky
are the soul of spirits, waving goodbye 

You look up high, and hold back the tears
as you say good night, to those you hold dear

The poem is simple enough, talking about ghosts in the graveyard. Normally ghosts are thought of as vengeful spirits and scary. The purpose of this poem was to flip that idea and frame ghosts as your dead loved ones coming down to see you. Sticking with the simplicity the poem is broken into a series of couplets, some of which rhyme. Beyond that I did not write it to have any other meaning, nor did I focus on line length or any other aspect of form. It was just a simple idea and a simple poem. However, after rereading this poem years later and looking at it from a reader’s perspective there is a lot more going on that was not intended.

Looking at just the words first, the rhymes emphasize certain key words in the poem. In general in poetry every single word is important. Each word has its own purpose and losing one has the ability to change the whole meaning of the poem–more so than a novel or short story could be affected. That said, even in a poem some words are more important than others. In the case of this poem the more important words seem to be at the end of each line much like the ghosts are past the end of their life. Most of the words rhyme as well bring them even closer together. It really gives them a connection they wouldn’t have if they didn’t rhyme.

For example, the first stanza puts “graveyard” and “dead” at the end of the lines. These two words are the most important words in that stanza as they set the location and put your focus on the dead buried there, while the next stanza focuses on “you” being there. And the poem overall flips the narrative of ghost being evil so the word “instead” is important as well. They have “open arms” and want to catch up with you. They think it’s “swell” and “well.” It seems as if the last words are there for a reason; they are the skeleton of the poem and its meaning. 

Then they have to go to “bed” “again,” which is ironic since they are buried in the ground and look like they are sleeping. In Christanity when you die you are often described as ascending to heaven giving the “sky” a very holy and important meaning as they say “goodbye.” Finally it ends with “tears” and “dear” with a slight slant rhyme since tear and dear rhyme but tear has an s on it. Showing that while it is sweet it is slightly sad, or that while it is sad it is slightly sweet.

Meanwhile the fact that the poem is in couplets at all has a special meaning. The poem is about the “you” character going to the graveyard and visiting their loved ones. There are two groups then–the ghosts and you. A couplet is two lines tied together into one stanza. You and the ghost are two people tied by love that is able to transcend life itself as the ghost is dead. It shows that one’s connection to loved ones isn’t lost when they die. You stay connected with people no matter how far away they are, even in death. This adds onto the bittersweet ending of the poem, as it is sad that you lost them but sweet that they are still connected to you regardless.

The first two stanzas are also shorter than the rest of the poem. The lines themselves generally get longer for the most part as the poem continues. This was not intended to be anything meaningful–simply how the words ended up. But looking at it closer there is a lot of symbolism you can find in just the length of the stanzas. Feelings of loved ones that have died do not go away with time. In fact, the longing for them grows as more time goes on even if you have moved on. You may not be as sad as you were when they first died but as the years go by you still love them all the same. The stanza getting longer not only represents more time passing but also shows that the love for those who have passed does not go away.

The poem overall is pretty straightforward and doesn’t use much imagery. As it goes back and forth between “your” and “they” it lets you imagine yourself what the graveyard and the ghosts look like rather than describe them for the reader. That said, there is one couplet that does have a small amount of imagery that makes you think a bit:

Those bright lights, flying in the sky
are the soul of spirits, waving goodbye 

What are these bright lights that fly in the sky? Are they stars? UFOs? Some magical made up thing? The actual answer is nothing. I had no idea what I meant by this when I wrote it– I just really loved how it sounded when I said it outloud. It sounds melodical and soft. Showing death as a bright light or ghost flying off feeling free as they soar across the sky. But without the knowledge of the author’s intent a reader may find the words confusing. Different people may come to different conclusions of what the lights are. Perhaps they are the sun rays that seep through clouds sometimes when they hit just right and make beams of light in the sky. Maybe they’re the stars so the loved ones can watch over them forever. The poem does not have a specified time of day or night that it takes place so it could be any number of things. 

This gives the poem a little more fluidity and lets the readers find their own meaning and interpretations. Much like how different people find different meanings in death–some finding comfort, sadness, fear, etc–as well as all the different ideas of what might happen after death. While death itself is concrete what happens afterwards is unknown. It is fluid in what other people believe happens after death. Much like how that stanza gives the poem a little more fluidity in meaning and symbolism. It shows how death works in real life. It is a fact of life, it is concrete. And yet, it is surrounded in mystery.

I found I was able to appreciate my poem better after being able to analyze it from a reader perspective. I not only saw how different parts of the poem showed a meaning I had never intended, but also that certain parts I may not have liked really help the poem’s form and overall flow. I believe that analyzing all my poems like this could greatly improve my writing skills and let me figure out which direction to take certain poems or stories. I think as a writer an important skill is being able to step back and see your work from a reader’s perspective. It lets you see the work without bias and can help you pick apart symbols and ideas you didn’t intend to write. If you can identify these hidden messages then you can tie them into the story or poem better when reworking them. 

However, overall I just find it fascinating how much there is in a piece of literature. How much you can dissect and find if you really look–most of which wasn’t written to be dissected like that. It shows how fluid writing really is and literature has been able to branch out into so many different things. You can find so many different meanings in poems that really let you appreciate not only the author but the importance and expressiveness that literature has had on society as a whole.