{"id":5506,"date":"2022-07-25T15:13:10","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T19:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/?page_id=5506"},"modified":"2022-07-25T15:27:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T19:27:41","slug":"how-to-read-a-poem","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/poetry-levels-1-4\/how-to-read-a-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Read a Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Sally Thomas<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Always read the poem more than once.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Read it at least once aloud. Copying it out is another good way to make your mind \u201clisten\u201d to it slowly and carefully.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have a dictionary on hand, but don\u2019t use it until you\u2019ve read the poem at least once all the way through.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there unfamiliar words?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are some familiar words used in an unfamiliar way?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If yes to the last two questions, get out a dictionary and LOOK UP all meanings of the words in question. See if you can figure out what meaning (or meanings) is relevant to the context of the poem.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While you read, ask yourself:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How does the poem look on the page?\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a block of text?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in stanzas of a regular length (2 lines, 3 lines, 4 lines, etc., consistently)?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in irregular stanzas? <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\">how many lines in all?<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Short lines or long?\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><b>End-stopped?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> That is, the end of the line is the natural end of, or a natural break in, the sentence?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or <\/span><b>enjambed?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> That is, the line stops, but the sentence keeps going into the next line or lines, breaking at what may seem like unnatural or awkward places?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do some lines seem to move faster, and some slower? What seems to create that effect?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What patterns of sound do you hear, if any?\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there rhymes at the ends of lines?<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Can you discern a regular pattern of end-rhymes?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there rhymes within lines?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are there repetitions of words and\/or sounds? What kind of effect do these repetitions seem to have (repeated liquid sounds? repeated \u201chard\u201d sounds?)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can you hear any regular \u201cbeat\u201d or rhythm in the poem? Read it aloud again, and clap or tap the stressed syllables as you say them, to see whether there is a regular number of stressed syllables per line.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who is speaking in the poem?\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a <\/span><b>first-person<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> speaker (\u201cI\u201d)?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0a <\/span><b>second-person<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> speaker (\u201cyou\u201d)?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0a <\/span><b>third-person<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, possibly omniscient, speaker (\u201che\/she\/it\u201d)?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(When talking about a poem, we usually do refer to the <\/span><b>speaker <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">saying this or that, rather than the poet. The voice that speaks in a poem is more like a character in fiction than like the writer\u2019s own personal voice \u2013 that poetic voice is an artificial construct in the same way and should not be confused with the real-life person of the poet, even if there\u2019s not a huge divide between the two)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is there anyone else in the poem, or is the speaker talking to himself?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does the poem refer to external events (this happened, then this happened, and then I did this other thing), or is it more like following the trajectory of someone\u2019s thought process, or a series of associations with their own kind of logic?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Does time move or stand still?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To what kind of effect do all these things seem to add up?\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you sense a particular mood in the poem? Can you point to specific words and phrases that contribute to that mood?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you sense a larger view of the universe operating in the poem: a kind or unkind universe, a universe in which there is God and mercy and grace, or a universe without those things? Hope or despair? Love or bitterness? Again, what words and phrases hint at these things?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether the poem deals with external events or with internal thoughts and feelings, do you sense <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">why <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">these events or thoughts\/feelings are important? What makes them urgent?\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having read the poem carefully, what about it seems most important, or beautiful, or worth thinking about, <\/span><b><i>to you?\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Sally Thomas Always read the poem more than once.\u00a0 Read it at least once aloud. Copying it out is another good way to make your mind \u201clisten\u201d to it slowly and carefully.\u00a0 Have a dictionary on hand, but don\u2019t use it until you\u2019ve read the poem at least once all the way through.\u00a0 Are &#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/poetry-levels-1-4\/how-to-read-a-poem\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about  How to Read a Poem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4386,"parent":5494,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-5506","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5506"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5508,"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5506\/revisions\/5508"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/materamabilis.org\/ma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}