{"id":18777,"date":"2026-04-27T21:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/?p=18777"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T04:41:11","slug":"pr-to-knowledge-the-arts-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/pr-to-knowledge-the-arts-5\/","title":{"rendered":"PR to &#8220;Knowledge &amp; the Arts&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"text-token-text-primary w-full focus:outline-none [--shadow-height:45px] has-data-writing-block:pointer-events-none has-data-writing-block:-mt-(--shadow-height) has-data-writing-block:pt-(--shadow-height) [&amp;:has([data-writing-block])&gt;*]:pointer-events-auto [content-visibility:auto] supports-[content-visibility:auto]:[contain-intrinsic-size:auto_100lvh] R6Vx5W_threadScrollVars scroll-mb-[calc(var(--scroll-root-safe-area-inset-bottom,0px)+var(--thread-response-height))] scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]\" dir=\"auto\" data-turn-id=\"request-WEB:bacb64f0-5af6-4221-b367-4458948cf6da-1\" data-testid=\"conversation-turn-4\" data-scroll-anchor=\"false\" data-turn=\"assistant\">\n<div class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto pb-10 [--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-xs,calc(var(--spacing)*4))] @w-sm\/main:[--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-sm,calc(var(--spacing)*6))] @w-lg\/main:[--thread-content-margin:var(--thread-content-margin-lg,calc(var(--spacing)*16))] px-(--thread-content-margin)\">\n<div class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] @w-lg\/main:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 group\/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\">\n<div class=\"z-0 flex min-h-[46px] justify-start\">\n<p data-pm-slice=\"1 1 []\">Reading <em>Knowledge and the Arts<\/em> changed how I think about poetry more than I expected. Before this, whenever I read a poem, my first thought was always, &#8220;What&#8217;s this supposed to mean?&#8221; If I couldn\u2019t figure it out, I\u2019d just tell myself it could mean anything I wanted. That answer felt kind of easy to such a complex question at the time, but also a bit frustrating because it didn\u2019t really help me understand the poem any better. The essay talks about this, saying that people sometimes \u201cGrasp at a wonderful possibility: Art can mean whatever we want it to mean\u201d (p. 5). That honestly felt really accurate to my experience. The part that stood out the most to me was the tree analogy. Instead of immediately asking what something means, it says we should \u201cObserve and experience the tree and ask questions about what kind of thing it is and how we respond to it&#8221; (p. 6). That made a lot more sense to me than the way I was approaching poetry before. I realized I\u2019ve been skipping over the actual experience of reading and going straight to trying to find a meaning. If I saw a tree, I wouldn\u2019t immediately ask what it represents, I\u2019d notice how it looks, what it reminds me of, or even how it makes me feel. Applying that to poetry makes it feel less stressful and more interesting. It\u2019s actually paying attention to the details and forming a response based on that. Instead of just making up meaning, I think it\u2019s more about building meaning from what I notice. Overall, this reading made poetry feel less confusing and more approachable. I don\u2019t feel like I need to \u201cget the right answer\u201d right away anymore. Instead, I think it\u2019s more about building meaning from what I notice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"pointer-events-none -mt-px h-px translate-y-[calc(var(--scroll-root-safe-area-inset-bottom)-14*var(--spacing))]\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading Knowledge and the Arts changed how I think about poetry more than I expected. Before this, whenever I read a poem, my first thought was always, &#8220;What&#8217;s this supposed to mean?&#8221; If I couldn\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-passion-in-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18802,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18777\/revisions\/18802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericmacknight.com\/english10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}