Re: Stacks by Bon Iver

[aerynn]

Once again, a poetry major listens to a song.

Re: Stacks :

This my excavation and today is kumran

The line as a whole suggests that the song is an attempt for him to get to the heart of what he has lost and what meaning he has left. Kumran is the place where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, so there is a suggestion of the holy about this "excavation

Comments

[aerynn]

I think it is a learned skill, like most of "art appreciation." Poetry is about packing as much as possible into as few words as possible. For example, the fountain image. By using the image of a rusted out fountain, he can capture a lot of things that fountains represent, and then the loss of those things: fountains represent an unending flow of water. Water can mean life, consciousness, cleanliness, renewal. Fountains can grant wishes, if you toss a penny in them, and so can represent hope. Fountains can be a source of youth and vitality. But by having it be rusted out, you get the sense that water used to flow there, but now it is dry and unused. Those things are all gone. To say that in prose or more clearly would take a lot of words and wouldn't be as individual to each listener's idea of what a fountain represents

[aerynn]

Even my take is just a guide to what i think the symbols are and how I approach something like this. I'll do it too and we'll see if our stories come out the same. :-P