How to Interpret a Poem

People who write poetry are expressing their feelings or the fantasys. Poetry some times cannot be shared because the author may feel judged by how the poem is interpreted by those who read it. Take for instance this poem about the events of Nine Eleven. In my interpretation this author is not expressing a fantasy but true feelings about how those events touched him.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• A Poem

1. You start by reading the title of the poem , in this case "A moment of death". Try to determine what the title is implying. It this case it may imply "an instant in which everything ended because nothing else at that moment is bigger than what is currently happening"
2. Now read the entire poem:
   
   (In memory of the people killed on September 11th)
   The moment they died it darkened the sky,
   A rain of tears covered the ground,
   All that was left was a glare of light,
   Flashing, red, blue and white,
   a moment of death..
   Graves were disturbed with hearts full of
   grief.
   Family and friends gone to dirt to
   never return, a moment of death...
   Prayers to the Lord, were heard above
   and cries of disbelief filled the air.
   Sadness made the day a moment of death.
   Flowers for the dead, flags and remains for the living,
   forever reminding us of a moment of death...
3. Now find the key words in the poem that indicate what may be the true feelings and fears of the author:
   
   Darkened sky - Does it mean that the sky got dark due to the dust and smoke from the explosion or was the author referring to the vastness of fear and chaos created at that moment?
   A Rain of tears? Is it referring to the tears of those in the building or of those on the ground or to his own tears?
   Is the Flashing of red, blue and white talking about a flag? or patriotism? or about how the events united a nation in a moment thru grief and fear?
   
   This poem is full of deep thoughts that can be interpreted in many ways if you study each word individually or each phrase or verse.
   
   In this case it seems to reflect how the events of Nine Eleven happened very quickly and provoked feelings of fear, hope, patriotism and sadness that stayed with us.