Amiri Baraka talks about the notion of language and how words have unique meanings to all of us. The idea that a population can speak the same language yet have so many different interpretations and meanings of the words spoken is fascinating. Baraka says, “Money does not mean the same thing to me it must mean to a rich man.” It’s incredible how accurate that statement really is, the word money probably has a similar definition in each dictionary, yet based on the fashion in which one uses the word we associate different meanings to it. For example, if we see a man get out of a Ferrari and say, “I made so much money today,” we would associate the word money in a very different way then if a waitress said to another, “I made so much money today.” The sentences used are identical, but based on the manner in which these people conduct themselves we make the two sentences strangers to each other. One makes us think of a huge sum in the tens of thousands of dollars while the other seems like a waitress got good tips and probably made a couple of hundred bucks. Baraka uses an example very similar to this one when trying to convey his ideas to the reader. In fact, Asim Lal, a fellow class member touched upon a very interesting idea when analyzing Baraka’s essay. He stated:
However, the mere language is not the important thing; rather, it is the person saying the language that is integral. An example he used which I liked had to do with money. He says that for a poor man, money might mean 70 cents, however for a hotshot like David Rockefeller, money means much more than that. When you say “Where is the money?” to someone like him, you would be talking about a lot of it. I believe that from this, Baraka is trying to show that poetry is different to everyone.
Although my ideas and his were very similar throughout our essays, I found it very interesting that he chose to say, “ Baraka is trying to show that poetry is different to everyone.” I hadn’t though of that, and after having read Asim’s essay I cannot help but to comply with his argument. As I said earlier each word has a different meaning to everyone; just like a poem. An entire class could be reading the same poem, yet when we read their commentaries they will all be unique. This is because we all interpret the words and sentences in the poem differently. It is quite extraordinary how each word has such a drastic change in significance from one person to another even though the language spoken is the same. Furthermore, later on in the essay, Baraka states, “But we still need definitions, even if there already are many.” It’s quite funny really, when I’m in English class and I don’t understand a word I go to the dictionary and look it up (If I don’t forget that is). After having read the definition, I simply memorize the word and move on. The problem with that is, I just let somebody else define this word for me! I should’ve paid more attention to the word and acknowledged its meaning for me. Lastly, Barak talks about the pictures that are associated with each word, and although two words may have the same definition they arise completely different images. For his example he uses the words “Thee” and “Me”. Although both of these words have the same meaning when I hear of them or read them in a text it completely changes the tone and manner in which I analyze what I am studying. Thee makes me think of Shakespeare and an old Englishmen for some reason, yet me makes of an informal conversation between two people. This shows how important word choice is; every word is unique and it’s most certainly not defined by its definition.
This all relates to poetry. Firstly, we talked about how the same sentence can be interpreted in numerous ways. This shows how the same poem can have a completely unique meaning for each person; they interpret it in their own way. Secondly, we talked about definitions, in a poem you must not only think of the write word, but also the way it sounds. Although two words may have the exact same meaning, one may be a far better choice because its syllables fit much better with the poem. Lastly, we talked about the images that one gets from different words; when writing a poem you want the reader to imagine the situation that you have created, and in order to do that successfully you must chose the right word. For every word makes you think of something different. As I said earlier, every word is unique and it’s most certainly not defined by its definition.
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