Reading Poetry

It is true: poems can sometime leave you feeling like this: confused.

First Read, First Impressions Which words do you find most striking/vivid/disturbing/moving, etc.? Which images are powerful or striking? Which senses does the poet particularly appeal to? What are your first impressions of the speaker of the poem? What is the overall impact of this poem on you? This is why poems take several reads to understand. Each read has it’s purpose. The first read focuses on how the poem initially makes you feel. These first impressions can help you make sense of the meaning of the poem in following reads

Close Read: Digging Deeper 1. The poet and the title 2. Keywords 3. Word Order 4. Figurative Language 5. Sound 6. Speaker 7. Time and Setting 8. Symbol 9. Form 10. Ideas and Theme The second read of the poem allows us to examine the poem more closely for the poet’s meaning. As the title suggests, we are looking at all the components that make up the poem in order to understand the work and it’s meaning.

THE POET AND THE TITLE Does the poet or title immediately influence what you are about to read, or does it, at the moment you begin your first reading, remain mysterious or vague? After you have thought about the poem, how do you think the title relates to it? The poet provides CONTEXT for the poem- What do we know about the poet’s life? Values, beliefs, sexual orientation, gender, race, class? What culture did they belong to? What were the values? Did the poet agree with them or not? What was the political/economical climate? The title provides a kind of introduction: what do you know about the subject? What assumptions can you make about the subject?

Keywords and Word Order Familiar/unfamiliar? Repeated? Connections? Certain words, and the order they are put there, can be your way to deciphering the meaning of a poem. Remember: poems are crafted-every word is calculated for maximum impact, so ask yourself: WHY did the poet choose to put these words in this particular place? What were they trying to communicate?

Figurative Language, Sound, Symbol Metaphor? Simile? Effect of sound on meaning Central symbol? Examine the comparisons being made in the poem: what do they reveal about the poet’s beliefs? If you notice the repetition of a sound try and replace some of the words with synonyms-does the poem still have the same effect? If you can identify a symbol, what meaning does it bring to the poem?

Speaker, Time and Setting Poet vs. speaker Past, present, future? Known/unknown Please note that the poet and the speaker are not always the same person! It is very possible that the poet writes from the perspective of another individual! Try and understand WHEN the poem takes place. Is it describing one single time, jumping back and forth? Then and Now? WHERE is also important to understand: is the setting clear? Familiar? Easy to recognize? Is the poet writing about something known or unknown to them? are they speaking from experience, or speculation? CONTEXT helps you answer these questions!

Form, Ideas and Theme Shape The Big Ideas What does the poem LOOK like: sonnet? Haiku? If it is a specific FORM of poetry, what conventions/rules does it have to follow? Does it follow them? Does this form fit with the poet’s context, if not, why might they have chosen it? What themes emerge from reading this poem: what is it about, and what is the poet’s attitude towards it?

More about CONTEXT Image from: AdExchanger.com

The poem does not exist on its own! 1.Writer’s context: values, assumptions, gender, race, class, sexual orientation, SES, culture the poet belonged to, political/economic 2. The Text’s context: what is its publishing history? Versions? Translations? Part of a bigger text? Who was it written for? Who has read it? Where was it meant to be read? What were the reviews at the time it was written? what are people saying about it now? 3. The reader’s context: you, yes you! How does your previous reading experience, values, beliefs, gender, class, political beliefs, SEC, politics and economy of your time, your culture 4. The Readings context: How do critical schools respond? Is the text direct in what it has to say? What is not said/left out by the text? Who’s views are excluded?

Look at the context given to you Pick an appropriate title Get into groups of 4 Read poem twice, record your thoughts for first and second readings to hand in! Look at the context given to you Pick an appropriate title Present to the group: -your first impressions -The name of your poet and their context -analysis of the poem, given the context -the title you chose, and why Now that you have a method for reading poems, we are going to get into groups Each group will have a poem that they will read once, record first reactions,