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Although this coda is stylistically at a variance with the body of the poem, it is not an arbitrary conclusion. It stands as a summary interpretation of the experience of the poem. The critical question is whether this undisguised generalisation has been "imposed" upon the poem from "outside" or whether we can accept that, at a certain point, the poet's experience has naturally yielded these principles of action. To deny the place of a coda such as this in a poem is, I believe, to uphold the ultimate incompatibility of art and ideas. Adherents of this view, such as I.A.Richards and Northrop Frye, claim that poetry is experience, and not statements about experience. Again, this distinction may be symptomatic of a breakdown in belief generally and a centring on the individual flow of consciousness. Critics of this view, such as Gerald Graff and Dorothy Sayers, assert that our interpretation of experience is inherent in the experience itself and cannot be separated from it without destroying the unity of humanistic knowledge. Art itself, because it deals with common signs and symbols, inevitably invites conceptual mediation. Herein lies its value and significance. Graff continues:
The poet, regardless of what type of poet he is, implicitly reveals some view of experience. He cannot help saying something about the human situation in general, cannot avoid incurring the risks of assertion.[15]
Ideally, perhaps, thought or interpretation should be a meditative act which, though different in nature, conforms to the dominant dramatic action of the poem. In "Visions of the Emerald Beyond," to take an example, the poet's act of self-confession with its especial intimacy allows him to evolve a set of principles and to place them within the scope of a continuing act. They cannot be pared from the poem as mere decorations or ornaments.
Personal experience can offer a fresh understanding of an emotion or state-often to the point of necessitating a new name for that experience. Poems in which aphorism takes the form of definitive statement are frequent in the works of Sri Chinmoy.
