THE LOOK.....

Stephon kissed me in the spring
Robin in the fall
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all

Stephon’s kiss was lost in jest
Robin’s was lost in play
But the kiss in Colin’s eyes
Haunts me night and day

According to English books, Poetry is the oldest form of art long before people learned how to speak and to write. Poetry has two kinds, which is first, the Narrative poetry, which is a poem that tells a story, and the Lyric poetry, which expresses feelings, emotions and ideas. There are several kinds of Lyric poetry but I am not going to focus on the different kinds of poetry. I am trying to understand and interpret the poem above which was written by Sara Teasdale.

To be able to understand the poem, it needs a step-by-step solution just like in solving a mathematical equation or problems. First step is to understand every word in the poem. Second is to find some key words that may be able to help you in understanding a single line. Third, look for elisions where some words are omitted but still have the same meaning. Fourth is to look for allusions that you are not familiar with and last, try to paraphrase if you still do not understand the poem.

Now, I would first define all the unfamiliar words in the poem. The word jest, which is found in the fifth line, means to laugh about. There are no elisions or allusions in the poem as I can see.

As what I have understood in the first paragraph, the author is Sara Teasdale, had three lovers. First was Stephon who had kissed her in the spring then Robin also kissed her in the fall but Colin did not kissed her but only looked and stared at her. The spring and fall may be a symbolism or it may be the season when the two guys kissed her. In the second paragraph, Stephon and Robin’s kisses were all lost but the look of Colin haunted her night and day. The look of Colin haunted her night and day because “A look has several meanings”. She does not know what the look of Colin meant that is why his look cannot get off his mind. She did not know if it was a love, hate, anger or admiration. She could not figure out the meaning of the look so she kept on puzzling the definition of Colin’s look that is why it is not lost in her memories unlike the two guys who just kissed her.

The poem could also mean that the usual things in life like a look would never leave your memory unlike the usual things we do like the kiss in the poem which is like often done. We often neglect the common things in our life but the rare ones are the ones that disturb us the most.

This is how I understood this poem. There is no really an exact meaning of a poem. It depends on how the reader interprets it and how the author conveys the theme of the poem.