The Secret – Dialectical Essay Essay, Research Paper

Life is like a constant journey of discovery. As we go through life we take what we experience and we interpret it. For each person there is a Kaleidoscope of different experiences and interpretations. People find meaning in everything. Take for example the What do you see in this blotch of ink methodology used by psychologists. Several interpretations are formed on a blotch of ink; one person may say it represents a dinosaur, while another may say a rabbit.

Within poetry this varying realm of interpretation exists. In Denise Levertovs poem, The Secret, Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of Poetry. (101) The secret, though eminent to the girls, remains blind to the author. It is because of the way people see things so invariably different it is almost impossible to understand the true meaning accrued. There are infinite circumstances that have an effect on the way we see things in our Mind’s Eye .

As a child I buried myself in books of multiple genres. I read mystery, fantasy, science fiction, action, drama and an assortment of others. Reading developed my imagination, I interpreted what I read, began to see things differently and I compared things in life to what I read. The books vividly came to life and were soon part of my world. The sad thing was that rarely was there anyone else that understood why I saw things the way I did sometimes.

In English classes, it is interesting and amusing when students are asked to, find the meaning , of a certain passage in literature. Everyone comes up with such an array of different answers. Some of the answers are so abstract that they pull meanings of their own, and interpretations of those answers have to be made.

Because our lives constantly evolve, sometimes very quickly, the way we see things changes. The events and experiences of our lives constantly mold and shape us. What we see today may not be what we see tomorrow. An answer we find today, we may find may not be an answer tomorrow. When the girls in The Secret discover the secret of life , that secret, the special meaning behind it, may only last for a short period of time. Denise Levertov writes, [n]o doubt by now, more than a week later, they have forgotten the secret, the line, the name of the poem (101). It is quite possible that the answer the girls discovered may have only been temporary. Our Mind s Eye is like the shore at the ocean. While it is still a shore, as a mind is still a mind, there is a process at hand. Think of the grains of sand on this shore as information, the water is the carrier of that information. The larger rocks on the shore are set beliefs, things that are completely a part of us. On the shore the water is constantly moving the sand. It places new sand upon the shore, moves sand around and takes some sand away, the process continues. As the water crashes against the larger rocks, they do not move, for they are too big to be moved. It is true that over time though, as the sand and the water crash against it, slowly over time the rough edges of these rocks are smoothed away. Imagine all this sand swirling around in the water. This sand is like the day-to-day information we have a chance to obtain. The sand that gets placed upon the shore is the knowledge that is obtained. The sand on top is always moving around, mixing with other sand, trying to find a place, find other sand to pair up with. The sand that does pair up is buried. Just like information you have found relevant and you choose to keep. Though, with one large wave, that information can become unburied and reevaluated, then reburied in its relevancy. The larger rocks are information in life that doesn t change. They are the strong, un-faulting beliefs. Over long processes of time they are slowly worked at by the ever-changing array of information.

It is a delightful thing when you can share your interpretations, your knowledge, and it has the ability to positively shape another person s life, whether it was meant to or not. Some people, like a religious figure such as a Priest or a Pastor thrive on sharing knowledge that works optimistically in someone else s life. The feeling that you are helping someone else out is a good one. In The Secret Denise Levertov writes, I love them for finding what I can t find, and for loving me for the line I wrote: and for forgetting it so that a thousand times, till death finds them, they may discover it again, in other lines, in other happenings (101).