Only a couple more blogs left

I have had a lot of fun doing my previous two blogs, where I took different poems and tried to get an understanding of what the author was trying to get across. So I decided to keep going on the same idea as my previous blogs and take a new poem and try to see what understanding I can get from it. The poem I chose was “Fast rode the knight” by the poet Stephen Crane.

Fast rode the knight

Fast rode the knight
With spurs, hot and reeking,
Ever waving an eager sword,
"To save my lady!"
Fast rode the knIght,
And leaped from saddle to war.
Men of steel flickered and gleamed
Like riot of silver lights,
And the gold of the knight's good banner
Still waved on a castle wall
.. . . . .
A horse,
Blowing, staggering, bloody thing,
Forgotten at foot of castle wall.
A horse
Dead at foot of castle wall.

I found this poem to be very interesting and an easy read compared to the ones we are given to read in class. I say that not just because it is a very short poem, but to say that the poet doesn’t try to be confusing with the way he talks in the poem like most other poets. This is nice for me the reader because not every poem should be confusing and tough to understand. I like to be able to read a poem and right away get what the poet is trying to say to the reader of this poem.

My understanding of this poem may be wrong but it is what I comprehended when I first read and then after the many times of rereading. What I think the poet is trying to say is that the knight is the hero, but what about the horse. The horse is the reason why the knight was able to ride fast into battle. So the poet is trying to say that the horse is important just as the knight, but doesn’t get the credit like the knight. By the author saying forgotten at foot of castle wall, as if trying to say that not enough credit is given to the little guys of this world.

This was my understanding of the poem “Fast rode the knight”. This shows that poems don’t have to contain such tough wording and be so hard to understand to still have a great meaning behind it.