Shalla ON: Do you Read Poetry? How-to’s
Do you Read Poetry? How-to’s
A poem differs from most prose because, for one, it is not as direct. Great poetry hints at meaning and shines clearer and clearer every time it’s read. And just because something looks like a poem doesn’t mean it is. Take for example:
A poem differs from most prose because, for one, it is not as direct. Great poetry hints at meaning and shines clearer and clearer every time it’s read. And just because something looks like a poem doesn’t mean it is. Take for example:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
And it has twenty-eight days time,
But in leap years, February has twenty-nine.
Yes, it is in verse (a composition in lines of somewhat regular rhythm, usually ends in rhymes) but is it poetry? Not!
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
And it has twenty-eight days time,
But in leap years, February has twenty-nine.
Yes, it is in verse (a composition in lines of somewhat regular rhythm, usually ends in rhymes) but is it poetry? Not!
Poetry is more mindful, plays with our imagination and arouses feelings. Sure it can have faulty logic and inaccurate facts. Take for instance, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The astronomy is outdated but it is a great poem.
The point: poetry is sublime. Don’t get caught up with the physical words, float with its empyrean atmosphere, its musical qualities.
Some, like me, find poetry like a puzzle, secretly coded with a message slyly concealed. Sure, it is this too.
Okay, so what’s a good way to read poetry?
1. Just read it from beginning to end. Stay open minded and just push on.
The point: poetry is sublime. Don’t get caught up with the physical words, float with its empyrean atmosphere, its musical qualities.
Some, like me, find poetry like a puzzle, secretly coded with a message slyly concealed. Sure, it is this too.
Okay, so what’s a good way to read poetry?
1. Just read it from beginning to end. Stay open minded and just push on.
2. Read it again. This time, figure out what it is literally saying. Look up words you don’t know.
3. Paraphrase the poem as a whole.
Sometimes though, paraphrasing doesn’t work. Ie. Poems of religious mystics that are closer to dream than waking; poems like Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, written during a drug experience; and poems embodying private beliefs like Blake’s The Sick Rose; nonsense poems, surreal poems, etc. Try paraphrasing but if you fail, vary your approach.
4. Third reading, read it aloud or listen to someone read it.
5. Dwell on difficult parts as long as you like.
6. What is its theme? Unlike subject (main topic), theme is the central thought of the poem.
For instance in The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), the subject is: the lake isle of Innisfree or a wish to live there. But the theme is what you believe most matters in the poem: I yearn for an ideal place with perfect peace and joy.
Or, if reading it with the perspective on the wish to escape the city: This city is upsetting me—I’m going back to nature.
Or, if you choose to sharpen your theme further: I’m quitting the city for my heaven on earth.
To make it easy, themes are sometimes stated on the first lines:
“Gather ye rose-buds while ye may!” Or enjoy love before it’s too late.
Just a note: poets like the theme of carpe diem “seize the day” so you’ll probably come across this one more often
First, it’s subjective everyone’s always right. Go ahead make your own interpretations, you’re entitled!
Bring your personal associations to the poem just distinguish irrelevant digressions with what’s on the page.
Poetry is Similar to Literary Prose
Bring your personal associations to the poem just distinguish irrelevant digressions with what’s on the page.
Poetry is Similar to Literary Prose
Strategies for reading a poem: reading it straight through, read again, paraphrase, read aloud, use a dictionary, isolate difficult passages etc. are similar to unraveling a good literary prose.
Unlike an easy read (commercial fiction, news article, etc) a poem and literary prose show wisdom that news articles cannot: that the soul yearns for peace and joy, that the lake isle of Innisfree with its “low sounds by the shore” can call the heart forever.
posted by Shalla at 4:30 PM
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