Without taking into account the metaphorical reading of Sports Field, The dominant reading would suggest exactly what the title implies being an account of a sports carnival. From this literal view we see that the poem takes into account the day's proceedings of a sports carnival, for example running races. "Its lanes and tapes are set;"(Second stanza, fourth line), on a literal level this refers to the lanes being measured and set out for the children to run in a race but metaphorically this refers to an entirely different setting. By only taking the literal meaning in this poem it can be interpreted as dull and very lifeless in comparison to many other poems with more emphasis on literal meaning.

Sports Field was more than likely written to be left up to the reader in what it means on

The dominant reading of this poem would suggest that the ideal of a children's sports carnival is used as a symbol for life. "The great gold ball of day, sprang up from the dark hill" (First stanza, 3rd & 4th line), the great golden ball is a representation for the sun and is also referred to in the 7th stanza. The text refers to the balls as rising over a dark hill which is used as a symbol for the start of life. This meaning can be found by the common association between light and the giving of life. Ever since the start of life light has been associated with life because without the sun and the light and heat it gives there would be no life at all. The 'dark hill' as referred to in the quote can be viewed as the mother womb during pregnancy. This metaphor arises because essentially a baby is first started of in the womb and there would be no life without it.

The imagery of a text can be used in many ways to get the reader thinking about the hidden meanings and sub textual messages hidden by many of the world's great authors. This is used to convey greater meaning and add a different aspect to texts. Although I found the poem quite boring it still has many hidden meaning that many people may never get and will remain hidden only because there are as many different meaning as there are people.

a metaphorical level. Different reader may see the poem as just another boring piece of writing about a child's sports carnival but another may interpret it as a symbol of life

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sports Field, , sports carnival, sports field, run race, symbol life, hidden meaning people, stanza 3rd 4th, 3rd 4th line, children's sports carnival, dominant reading, running race, start equal, children's sports, reading poem, dominant perception,
Approximate Word count = 998
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)