Review of How Does a Poem Mean (1975) by John Ciardi and Miller Essay

Review of How Does a Poem Mean (1975) by John Ciardi and Miller Williams - Essay Example Learning about music is often considered by the layperson to be little more than learning how to read the notes on a printed page and correlate these to specific buttons, keys or positions upon a particular instrument. Some may also consider that learning about music will include vague discussions of tempo, famous composers or basic trends. For most, this is as far as they are willing to consider and often feel that music, good music, is somehow closed off to them within the meaningless world of academia. In today’s facts and science-driven world, the approach to music, which is often more attuned to imaginative understanding more than logical knowledge, may indeed be too difficult for many to contemplate. However, there is a means by which individuals might be more smoothly introduced to the world of music by first helping them to understand the more logical and mapped out elements of poetry and then comparing this to music. Such a progression can be discovered through Ciardi and Williams’ instructive introduction to poetry followed by Sessions’ explanation of how to ‘read’ music, concluding with Copland’s instruction of how to take what has been read and develop true music appreciation.