In Obscuritas, Veritas
In my opinion, most poetry is, well, rather annoying. Poets write in obtuse metaphorical language which obscures the meaning of their poems. The reader is then expected to reflect on the poem and ponder its meaning. Of course, the reader usually has no basis for judging the soundness of their guesses. One often wonders whether any hidden kernel of meaning actually exists in a poem.
I am going to start writing better poetry. Or rather, poetry which does not toss the reader into an epistemic void. Each poem will come with
- My assurances that a uniquely correct interpretation does exist for the poem, and
- A prize for the first person to decipher it.
Poetic riddles! With prizes!! Woo!!! Anyway, here’s the first one:
Oh shining angel, your face is alike those of your sisters;
But your fate?
To fall to the earth?
Or to spread your six-fold wings and lift an ape six orbits upward?
…if you understand the poem you will immediately know what you have won. Go.
Apollo!