Introduction To Poetry

“Out Beyond Ideas”

1. The title “Out Beyond Ideas” signifies the place beyond anything that contains right or wrong. There is a place outside that of the black and white, a grayscale that places one into a serene and boundless location.
2. The tone is both reflective and contemplative. The author seems to be thinking about an issue that places an audience unto a place that holds neither just “wrongdoing nor rightdoing.” At the same time, the poem seems reflective. It’s not just a literal poem where a literal place that stands alone from the chaos of wrongdoing and rightdoing, but illustrates what seems to be enlightening. Whether there be wrong and right, you will someday be put in a place that allows you to just breathe in deeply. Forget the chaos of the world, pause and reflect, and “when the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.”
3. It feels me with a sense of hope while also making me think and reflect on my life. The idea that, “when the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about,” there is a place in life to just lie down and not think about just the right and wrong in the world fills me with hope to keep going. At the same time, it makes me feel down and has made me reflect on my life because I am continuously worrying about the right and the wrong, never to pause and breathe.
4. The theme is to pause and think, to reflect on your life, because even though the world is full of right and wrong (overwhelming you), it’s okay to stop and to breathe in and out.