Sonatina--Thoughts

So, poetry to me is alright. I rarely sit and actually think about it. I will sometimes, but to sit and honestly consider what they are talking about is odd to me. I tend to write, when I do, very straight forward. I have a logical way of thinking. It makes sense to just say what I mean. Poetry though, I feel is trying to fool with you. Nothing means what it seems to mean. It's like listening to a Beatle's song and knowing they were on acid. (Don't believe me listen to Strawberry Fields or I Am the Walrus).

Also, I feel that I will never understand what they are really trying to explain. I'm colour deficient, so I don't see colour like most people. I cannot see the colour teal for example. It's just green to me and I can't tell you what it looks like. I feel like understanding what the poet really means is like that. Only the poet can see all colours and those of us reading are all colour deficient and can't quite agree or fully understand what the poet meant. Gosh darnit, if only they would stick to simple colours (joking of course).

Anyway, Sonatina by Dario. Good poem and fairly straight forward unless you start looking for things. On the surface, the Princess is in her castle very sad and lonely. In the footnotes in our copy, it says he references Sleeping Beauty, but in my opinion, it is more like Rapunzel. She's a princess stuck in her castle and is lonely. Eventually, her fairy godmother shows up and says it's going to be ok.

Now in class, we discussed various meanings. Religion is one of the ones that stuck with me, but that is probably more to do with the fact religion has been pounded into my head for years. Re-reading it, however, I feel that everything but the fairy godmother could happen in real life. There are princesses that don't like life and aren't happy. They have all sorts of servants and things to make her happy. The only part that we don't have factual evidence of is the fairy godmother. To me, that is what is the oddest in the poem.

Now there are a few possible explanations of the fairy godmother. It could be literal, as in magic is occurring and the Princess talks to fairies. At this point, her message may quite honestly be an uplifting one: "Don't worry, Princess. It will be ok soon. You will fulfill your role as a good woman and marrying the nobelman that comes for you." Now, that has some implications of sexism and chauvinism, but I'm not really concerned with that.

The fairy godmother could be, if we are taking this whole thing literally, a hallucination. It was not uncommon for inbreeding to occur within the royal families, because of the want of good royal blood. So the fairy godmother could simply be a sign of her screwed up family history. This line of thought makes sense. If it is a commentary on how not having everything makes you happy, you could take that thought further and argue that not only does it not bring happiness, but it also brings consequences. She has been cursed with schizophrenia perhaps. This would also make sense why the knight has done such outrageous things, such as conquer Death and ride a winged horse.

Well, these aren't things we talked about in class, but they came to me after the discussion and I figured they would make an interesting blog.