Rodney Jones' "Hubris at Zunzal" and Robert Hass' "The Problem of Describing Trees"

The poem "Hubris at Zunzal", by Rodney Jones, is a story of a man who pours his drink into the ocean and then wishes to take it back because he wasn't finished with it. His drink is his writing. Once he releases his writing into the world he can't change it. It becomes part of something larger than life. People can read and interpret writing any way they choose and you do not get a second chance to explain yourself. This can be "a slippery slope" because your writing can be read by a lot of people and interpreted in many ways. Before releasing our writing into the world, we have to be careful that our intentions, hypotheses and opinions are clear. Otherwise, people will interpret and use what they read however they please to, even if they are only misunderstanding the author. 

Robert Hass' poem, "The Problem of Describing Trees", talks about the limitations of language and the written word. There are only so many words that can be used to describe things. The same cliches are used constantly and have lost their emotional meaning. There are many more emotions, sensations  and phenomena than we have words for. Some things cannot be described through language because they are too awesome to put into words. In this case, when describing the tree, Hass feels that he cant accurately convey what he is seeing. The reader can read his words but can only get a very basic understanding of what he wants to say. It is important that you realize that people dont know what you mean when they read your writing. The reader only knows what you explicitly say. Language can be dangerous in this way because it can be interpreted differently from how you meant it or not be understood at all.