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One of the reasons for drawing this epitext from poetic sources is that a genuine poem, aside from its commentary on the passing show, what it seems to say about this ostensibly concrete subject or that divertingly pastoral scene, usually has something extra to say, a surplus meaning or an ulterior motive that sets its aim above and beyond the call of beauty, and this is usually something that it ventures to say about the reasons for its own existence, about the endeavor to communicate that goes into its making, and thus about its total ''context of interpretation'' (COI).  In sum, a poem is often meant, at least partly, to address the implicit questions:  Why am I writing this?  And why am I writing this way?

One of the reasons for drawing this epitext from poetic sources is that a genuine poem, aside from its commentary on the passing show, what it seems to say about this ostensibly concrete subject or that divertingly pastoral scene, usually has something extra to say, a surplus meaning or an ulterior motive that sets its aim above and beyond the call of beauty, and this is usually something that it ventures to say about the reasons for its own existence, about the endeavor to communicate that goes into its making, and thus about its total ''context of interpretation'' (COI).  In sum, a poem is often meant, at least partly, to address the implicit questions:  Why am I writing this?  And why am I writing this way?

There's nought but care on ev'ry han',

| colspan="2" | There's nought but care on ev'ry han',

In every hour that passes, O:

What signifies the life o man,

| width="5%"  |   || In every hour that passes, O:

An 'twere na for the lasses, O.

Robert Burns, Green Grow the Rashes, O, [CPW, 81]

| colspan="2" | What signifies the life o man,

| width="5%"  |   || An 'twere na for the lasses, O.

| colspan="2" align="right" | — Robert Burns, ''Green Grow the Rashes, O'', [CPW, 81]

Aside from its apparent subject, its basic theme, and its commentary on diverse idyllic scenes, a genuine poem often has something to say about the reasons for its existence, the very idea that an author can form an intention, and the form of reception that it is aimed or averse to find.  Thus its bits of reflective imagery, properly reconstituted and happily interpreted, make it tantamount to an "implicitly recursive text" (IRT).

Aside from its apparent subject, its basic theme, and its commentary on diverse idyllic scenes, a genuine poem often has something to say about the reasons for its existence, the very idea that an author can form an intention, and the form of reception that it is aimed or averse to find.  Thus its bits of reflective imagery, properly reconstituted and happily interpreted, make it tantamount to an ''implicitly recursive text'' (IRT).

What is it that forces a text to bear an immense variety of meanings, a few of them obvious, the bulk of them less so, if not the desire of its author to capture an image of a huge reality in an utterly tiny space, and to convey a fragment of a thicker truth along invisibly thin lines?  A task like this can only be achieved through the use of multifaceted symbols and mirrored expressions, the results of multiple and repeated reflections.  And a text like this can only be understood by means of an imaginative interpretation.  Altogether, this mode of communication is comprehended by establishing a relation between writer and reader, one that is imprisioned at either end by the capacity at that terminus for imagination and reflection.

What is it that forces a text to bear an immense variety of meanings, a few of them obvious, the bulk of them less so, if not the desire of its author to capture an image of a huge reality in an utterly tiny space, and to convey a fragment of a thicker truth along invisibly thin lines?  A task like this can only be achieved through the use of multifaceted symbols and mirrored expressions, the results of multiple and repeated reflections.  And a text like this can only be understood by means of an imaginative interpretation.  Altogether, this mode of communication is comprehended by establishing a relation between writer and reader, one that is imprisioned at either end by the capacity at that terminus for imagination and reflection.

What is it that makes a text able to hold a wealth of meanings within it, if not the complementary desires of a writer and a reader to capture a huge reality between them?

What is it that makes a text able to hold a wealth of meanings within it, if not the complementary desires of a writer and a reader to capture a huge reality between them?

The living creature, in its drive to write itself irreplaceably into the text of the universe and in its essay to render itself indispensible to the task of reading this text with any measure of understanding, ...  

The living creature, in its drive to write itself irreplacwably into the text of the universe and in its essay to render itself indispensable to the task of reading this text with any measure of understanding, ...  

 

The war'ly race may riches chase,

The war'ly race may riches chase,

An riches still may fly them, O;

An riches still may fly them, O;