Shadow Dancers- The Revealing of Evil?

[Pete]

Attached below is a screenshot of a poem, written by a person that I know.

The poem is titled "Shadow Dancers", and was written 11th January 2006. That date is critical, take note of that.


I ask everyone to read the poem, taking note of particular stanzas, and then thinking about the poem overall.

Then, please state what your perception is of the writer, along with opinions, discussions, thoughts, feedback etc.

Is the writer the victim? Or is the writer the Shadow Dancer?

[Deepak]

Pete, I was never really that good at interperting poems. For I believe that every person would repsond to words differently because of who they are and what they want to believe. "People only see what they choose to see. "

But after reading this poem twice I personally believe that this poem is from a victims point of view. This person whoever wrote it keeps talking about deciet, truth, lies and the overall feelig that I get from this piece is that the person who wrote it has some how suffered deciet and has believed someone who had some sort of a secret that could be the deciding factor in their relationship. I say relationship because love is a broad word and although it does seem like its a bf gf relationship I cant say that for sure.

It seems as though she has found the secret and now does not know what to do about it and where to go. Again making an assumption that it is a girl. The biggest thing about secrets is that they are hidden and sometimes when they come out prematurly they seem to cause a lot of pain for some of the people involved. This is what seems to have occured here.

This seems to be the situation where you ask yourself if love is everything and whether love even exists without having trust. As trust is a very important thing and it can cause many relationships is fail even though there is much love between the couple. Its a very confusing stage where you wonder and ponder if loving someone is just loving them or trusting them. In the savage garden song it says it quite well. "trust is more important then managomy " ( dont mind the spelling).

The last line of the poem is to me the most important and a couple of lines that struck out are these ones

"Im glad to be the casualty" suggesting that she was the one that got hurt.

5th stanza seems to be a warning to those reading it. As though suggesting "learn from my experience"

Thats my view anyway man. Hope it helps.

[AYHJA]

Deep, I agree w/you almost completely...

To me, there is only the self interpretation of poetry...No one person can tell you what a poem means...

Like Deepak said, if I had to guess, its from the position of a victim...To me, it seemed somewhat aggressive, to the point of it maybe even being a bit hypocritical...

The first stanza talks of the moon rising...Exposing what lies below it...But the moon is not the true source of light, its the sun...Being exposed by moonlight would indicate to me that the person observing is not far removed from the subjects they observe...

I would say that this is a person who has hurt, been hurt...And maybe feels that whatever pain they have now is simply karma or something like that...

[Skinny Bastard]

my first impression was: Victim
...but I believe it could also be another option... Observer

Not the "deceiver" nor the "deceived" but a third party that, like the moon above shedding it's dim light, sees all but only reveals some. Is not the interested third party also a victim of sorts?

The more I read, the more I lean towards my "third party" theory...

Oh, and welcome back! Now go post a playmate.... LOL

[Pete]

All three of you make very interesting points, which are all very helpful.


I have presented the question to other people as well, and received different perceptions (which I shall post later). But there has been some particularly interesting observations made here.



I do not want to divulge much information, otherwise it will cloud the perceptions made by other people who are yet to interpret the poem.

I am trying to find out the psychology behind what makes people behave in certain ways, what inspires them, what triggers them, what influences them...

But also what may already be inherent, what may be already there, but is spurred on by outside actions...


But, again I will repeat, take note of the date of the poem, and the fact that I am talking about the poem now, over a year and a half later.


And also again take note that the naive indeed do suffer the hardest...... :sick:

[Pete]

Here is the answer I received from another person.





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I think the speaker in the poem believes him/herself to be a victim, but there is a shift when the speaker mentions needing to keep silent and that secrets are cowardly. I think the final question 'Can you love a liar?' is in reference to him/herself while throughout the poem the 'they' is indicating the other shadow dancers, the ones the speaker perceives. I think if you read the poem in this manner, recognizing the shift around the 6th stanza, you can see where the speaker changes from criticizing these shadow dancers to realizing he/she is one of them as well.
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[raum]

My interpretation is best illustrated in a few points expressed as "statements."

She is saying:

"Only those of us who are not afraid of pain can accept that the Truth hurts."

"I need to lie to people because they can't accept the truth, and for that, I would resent them if i did not I pity them so much."

"As I have seen them deny a single truth, I can see, more and more, their illusions falling apart. This calls my attention to my own crumbing deception."

This is further illustrated in the fact that this was a piece she was writing, and then, she stopped and began another piece. Finally, she looses the little flow she had, and finishes with a question... that usually implies a "the time for words has passed." mental state, or resignation to "put up or shut up." Not all actions done in that state are very good ideas...

[Pete]

Thank you very much for your input, Charlie. I really appreciate it. :)



I'll speak more about this later on in the week. Meanwhile I encourage everyone else to also give their input and thought, thanks.

[Pete]

I REALLY want to speak up on this, but it is still too hard. I am waiting for certain things to occur, and then I will speak.


But, I will say one thing. Take note of what I recently said in another thread in this forum.......