writing to read

I'm doing something special. I'm reading the last book that Harold Bloom wrote - Take Arms Against a Sea of Trouble: The power of the reader's mind over a universe of death (2020) - and, as is often the case, Bloom quotes at length from various poems in his text. I can't readily understand poetry. I have to read it closely and go through it line by line, thinking about it and writing my insights. It takes more time and thought. 

Ordinarily, when I'm reading Bloom, I understand the prose, but I don't really get the poetry parts, which is not very satisfactory. It's like when I read Villette and there are huge chunks of the text in French, so I don't really understand what I'm reading. I have some comprehension of French, but I'm not fluent. 

I decided to read this book differently.  When I get to the poetry, I'm going to slow right down and really engage with it. I don't know how far I'll get but I'm excited to see.