Help me understand this poem! :)

Question

My friend has written this poem, could you please give me the line by line meaning of this poem. I tried my best to understand, but my friend told me that I interpret it in a wrong way

Please help! Thanks in advance

Poem:

Blissful Oblivion…!

When a kite soars high up in the sky,

I have always been daunted

By the candid effort it makes to kiss the clouds

And feel at home and accepted.

Caught in contradiction which makes sense or not

My mind strives to bond with the kite.

And flutter away liberally to the uncharted worlds,

Where there are lesser qualms left to fight.

Denial creeps in, flanking the surge

Is the kite aware if it is still being wedged?

The clouds might never be attained

Nothing could be contented that were once pledged.

Is this just an episode? The turmoil, the restlessness;

When another page turns, I hope all this would be shun;

And maybe I could fly like the kite – grounded or not –

In peace… into a blissful oblivion…

Agarista · Accepted Answer

Hi kelinkp,
your friend wrote a nice poem.
Look, I am not a native speaker of English, but decided to give it a try anyway.

Here is my interpretation, let me know if I have understood it correctly.

blissful oblivion -happy oblivion; meaning that he/ she is happy to forget, to feel disconnected( probably from reality)

when a kite soars up in the sky- when a kite flies up in the sky

I have always been daunted-I have always felt afraid,

by the candid effort it made to kiss the clouds- by its genuine (naive) attempt to kiss the clouds

and feel at home and accepted-and feel accepted, comfortable, among its own kind

caught in contradiction, which makes sense or not- torn in contradiction that may make sense or not

my mind strives to bond the kite-my mind struggles to join the kite (in its journey)

and flutter away liberally to uncharted worlds-and fly away freely (without being limited) to unknown worlds (uncharted worlds may also mean worlds that don't physically exist)

where there are lesser qualms left to fight- where there are less anxieties, doubts to fight

denial creeps in flanking the surge- but slowly I am filled with disbelief, (cornering) suppressing my rush (I feel discouraged)

is the kite still aware if it still being wedged?- is the kite aware that it is not free, that is held, that it is not free to do as it pleases

the clouds might never be attained- maybe it is not possible to reach the clouds

nothing can be contended the way we once pledged- we cannot confront anything the way we once promised that we would (it is not easy to fight for the things that don't seem possible)

is this just an episode; the turmoil, the restlessness- is this feeling just a temporary feeling of restlessness (caused by the desire to attain the unattainable)

when another page turns I hope all this will be shun- hopefully all this will be forgotten (put aside)in a moment (I wonder if he wants to forget his desire to follow the kite or the fact that he was full of doubts that at the thought of it. The following line suggests the latter)

and maybe I can fly with the kite; grounded or not-and maybe I can fly with kite regardless of whether I fall or not.

in piece... into a blissful oblivion...- in piece (I believe with himself) into a blissful oblivion (forgetting reality and logical reasoning; not thinking of whether or not he can really reach the sky or fall, just flying...)

Anonymous · Answer

A line-by-line interpretation would not really be helpful in understanding this poem, rather, a more general type of analysis, with quotes from the poem, is better for this.

Your friend, like many people in this life, seems to be very troubled, and he longs for the "blissful oblivion", that is, freedom from all the trouble and pain caused by life. Thus, a soaring kite has captured your friend's imagination, because it seems to try to escape from the earth and to figuratively reach for "the clouds", where presumably bliss exists, and he can "feel at home and accepted", which he apparently does not feel in his life here on earth.

But a soaring kite is tied to the earth with a string, which is readily apparent to your friend, and thus he sees he is "caught in contradiction [the kite soars for the clouds, yet is restrained by the string]". So, although his "mind strives to bond with the [soaring] kite", and "flutter away...[together with it into] uncharted worlds", yet, because he realizes the kite is not really free to soar to unlimited heights (the string), "Denial creeps in, flanking [hemming in] the [emotional] surge" he initially got by observing the soaring kite. He knows the kite is not free to soar to the clouds - is the kite (figuratively) "aware if it is still being wedged [restrained]?" And he knows he is not free to escape from this life, and perhaps such an escape "might never be attained", and he might never be "contented" since he is "pledged" to this life on earth.

But then he thinks: "The turmoil, the restlessness" he now feels in this life might just be "an episode" in his life. and "When another page [of his life figuratively] turns", to the next episode in this life, he could "shun" "all this" pain "And maybe...could [then figuratively] fly like the kite - grounded [tied to life by his obligations] or not - in peace...into a blissful oblivion..."

Kelinkp · Answer

Thank you so much Agarista! You truly have taken a lot of time & effort to pump up the meaning

Thanks once again!

Kelinkp · Answer

Hey! Thanks a ton!! Now i get the whole meaning of the poem!!

Thanks once again!

Agarista · Answer

Oh, no worries! It's good practice for me. I usually check English forums when I need a break from work; believe it or not it is truly relaxing for me. I should have taken more time though, but it is so hard to write in English well; I wish one day I will be able to write in it fluently. So how come you weren't able to understand the poem? You are a native speaker I believe.
Anyway, post more poems when you can.

Kelinkp · Answer

My native language is not english! I live in India. English is quite a predominant language here in India. With more than 300 million english literates, it's one of the largest. Every urban school's medium of instruction is english. English language as such is not a problem in terms of understanding or usage, we are quite fluent & eloquent! But for me, personally, poetry has never been my cup of tea. My strength lies in grammar, usage and comprehension!
I am very new to this website. It feels really warm to see people really take time to help everyone here! Really thankful to this website

Good luck with your journey towards eloquence of english language. I will post more soon

Does this website function like social networking site? Can we add friends as such? because i want to add you

Agarista · Answer

Yes, this forum is great.

Can we add friends as such?

To be honest I have no idea, let me know if you find out.

Help me understand this poem! :)

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