Regarding Poetry

The words, “poem” and “poetry” are derived from the Greek word “poiein” which means “to create or make” – the idea being that poetry is a created artifact, a structure that develops from the human imagination and that is expressed rhythmically in words.

Poetry and poem describe a wide variety of spoken and written forms, styles and patterns, and also a wide variety of subjects. In the light of this variety, the best way to understand poetry is to experience it – read it, study it, savour it, think about it, dream about it, learn it, memorize it, mull it over, talk about it with others, ask questions about it, enjoy it, love it.

A recipe for enjoying poetry

Ingredients
• Lots of interest
• A keen eye
• A good ear
• A thoughtful, questioning mind
• Memories of your life experience

How then to respond to poetry?
1. Read the whole poem using the first four ingredients.
2. Re-read it, applying your questioning mind especially to the title of the poem. It is usually a sign to tell you what the poet thinks is important about the poem. Take note of the punctuation in the poem and any interesting or unusual words.
3. Now mix in your own memories and experiences. They do not have to be exactly the same experiences – they may be experiences of things you have read about or watched on T.V.
4. Inside your head, trying restating what the lines say. Use your own words. (It is not essential to be able to do this for all words.)
5. Test yourself. Are you ready to respond? Can you say what you think the poet’s main idea is? Can you say what you like or do not like about the poem? Can you tell someone else what it reminds you of?
6. If you cannot respond just yet, repeat steps 1 to 4 of the method.

What is the poet / speaker saying?
The poet is the real person who writes poem.
The poet creates the speaker or the persona who represents the voice.
When we read a poem, we hear the voice speaking to us through the words.
We are able to visualize or imagine or feel about the content of the poem because we can form mental pictures through our understanding of the words we read. Our mind’s eyes help us “see” and understand the poem.

Title
• Does it help you to identify the poet’s purpose?
• Is the title suitable for the poem? Why or why not?

Subject Matter
• The subject matter is the poem’s content.
• What event, situation or experience does the poem describe or record?
• Did you find the content interesting and enjoyable? Why?

Theme
• The theme is the poet’s message to the reader.
• Examples of recurring popular themes are: the futility of war, the beauty of nature and the wonder of love.
• What is the poet’s purpose or motive in writing the poem?
• Do you think that the theme is important? Why or why not?

Feelings and Emotions
• Poetry is OFTEN (some say ALWAYS) concerned with emotions and feelings.
• Poets OFTEN (some say ALWAYS) write about deeply moving experiences – times of joy, fear, or sadness.
• Poets want to convey their feelings through their words and they want their words to enthrall us.
• William Wordsworth once said, “All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling.”
• What are some of the feelings expressed by the poet?
• What emotional response does the poet seek to arouse in you?
• Why did you like or dislike the poem?

Appealing to the sense
• Poets often attempt to create a sensory experience for us – one which involves one or more of our five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.
• Poets rely on their poetic technique to achieve this. Obviously, they cannot really create a smell, a taste or a touch for us. However, by careful selection of words they may stimulate us – our memories or imagination so that reading the poem may be a sensory experience in itself.
• Has the poet attempted to play on some or all of these senses of sight, touch, taste, smell or hearing? How has the poet set about doing this?
• How do you react to the poet’s attempt to play upon your senses?

What techniques does the poet use?

Word choice
• Words are a poet’s tools of trade. It is with words that he or she is able to create emotional responses, change attitudes and bring insight.
• How would you describe the poet’s choice of words? Are they vivid/striking/effective? Why do you think so?
• What words especially affected you?

Imagery
• Poets constantly use comparisons to get their word pictures across to the reader.
• Similes, metaphors, personification and symbols are very important tools of the poet.
• What is the effect of specific similes and metaphors?
• Does the poet use imagery in which objects are given human characteristics? If so, what does the poet achieve by using personification?
• Is there a symbol used in the poem?
• Why has the poet used this symbol?

The sounds of poetry
• Sounds and sound words are very important to poets.
• Poets use poetic devices such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance and rhyme to great effect.
• What are the sounds in the poem? What is the effect of these sounds?
• Has the poet used rhyme? If so, what is its effect?
• What are the effects of alliteration and assonance?

Rhythm and movement
• Rhythm is the regular beat that runs fast or slow, through a song, a dance, a poem or an everyday sound.
• Can you identify a rhythm in the poem?
• What kind of rhythm is it?
• How does the rhythm help the poem?

Structure
• Poets use all kinds of structures.
• Poets want the structure of the poem to be suitable for the images and ideas they are bringing to life.
• Sometimes poets may choose a traditional form such as a sonnet, ballad, limerick, haiku, ode or epic.
• Other times, they may decide to abandon punctuation ( and so you can forget about “end-stopped” or “caesuras” and so on) and normal sentence structure.
• How is the poem structured?
• How does the structure help convey the poet’s images and ideas?