Inquiry-Based Paradigm in the Interpretation of Poetry

Various semantic capacities of poetry are shaped by its linguistic system and its diverse roles. Accordingly, various interpretations of a text should be in line with respective semantic systems. As reader plays an active role in discovering the latent meanings of the poetry, the poetry itself constrains the perception of the reader. But reading a poem on the basis of a single literary theory does not express its various dimensions. A more comprehensive approach is required to reveal various latent dimensions of poetry with use of intratextual and intertextual pieces of evidence (linguistic or metalinguistic context). The paradigm proposed in this paper reviews poetry in 5 levels: descriptive, linguistic, thoughts, aesthetics, and interpretative. The main characteristic of this paradigm is studying and analyzing all the dimensions of a poem in relation with its totality. This paradigm is text-based, but also relies on meta-text to the extent it can be semantically beneficial for the analysis. Basic questions relative to each level have been designated to read and analyze poetry in the same level. These questions have been designated in such ways that eventually result in a coherent understanding of poem. Put differently, an accurate reading of poetry along with the analysis of all of its relevant components in terms of linguistics, rhetoric, aesthetics and thoughts will yield a coherent all-inclusive interpretation of the poetry.