Poetry
Introduction to poetry
Higher English students often approach the poetry element of the course with some degree of trepidation. These students’ experience of poetry has not been good. Generally the only poems they’ve ever read are the ones that they’ve had to read for English in school. They often say “I don’t get poetry”. Poetry seems strange to them. This is natural if these students haven’t been reading much poetry. Like all good things in life, poetry is a bit of an acquired taste and it takes time and a degree of maturity to appreciate it. You need to read quite a bit of it before you start making judgements.
In order to re-acquaint yourself with poetry we would advise that you read as much poetry as you can: immerse yourself in it. Let yourself be open to the possibility that you may, in fact, start to like it. A poetry book is a wonderful little text as you can slip it in your bag or coat and read a whole poem in a stolen moment at work or on the bus. Those lines written by someone you’ve never met (or are ever likely to meet) may just strike a chord with you.
The power of poetry is its ability to often seem so relevant to our lives. It seems relevant because it is. Poetry often deals with issues associated with emotions and, despite the fact that we all feel unique, many of us go through the same emotional ups and downs. These emotional experiences become the modelling clay of the poet who fashions it into something beautiful and profound. We then look at it and go, “Oh yeh! That’s exactly how I feel.”
So start finding your own poems and poets that you connect with. There are many interesting anthologies of poetry that you canb browse through both online and in any decent bookshop. If you find a poem that you like find out who wrote it and read more by the same poet. A list of relevant websites is listed on the right-hand-side of this section.
Reading poems
The first thing you need to be aware of when you come to reading a poem is that most poems need to be heard. Find a quiet, private space (lock yourself in the bathroom!) and read the poem out loud. Then read it again. And again. Poems work on different levels. People often find them difficult because they are reading them like they read a newspaper article: they are trying to find out what happened. However, poems aren’t newspaper articles - they're more like paintings and songs. They communicate their meanings in many ways. The may well have some form of story in them that can be worked out. However, they will also have something to say through sound, rhythm, imagery, symbolism, structure and form.
So before anything else, read the poem two or three times. Do not panic if after the first or second reading you’re confused about what it is about. You may even want to forget about it after a few readings and then come back to it. Slowly its meaning will come to you. It may help to ask some questions: what is the theme?; what is the tone?; what is the poet trying to say here? By studying the structure and language of the poem, you will gain an insight into the poem's meaning. The more times you read the poem, the more you will understand the meaning of the poem.
The poet communicates thoughts, emotions and ideas to the reader through a particular choice of words and structure. The objective of the poem can differ. Sometimes a poet wants to celebrate something beautiful through their poetry.
Sometimes the poem might challenge readers' perceptions of how they view things, and help them see things in a different light. In this way, you can learn a lot about life through poetry.
Questions on Duffy and Shakespeare
Kate Clanchy
Eavan Boland
Poetry websites
Link to love poems: http://www.bibliomania.com/0/5/frameset.html
A refreshing poem about love: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-paris-with-you/
http://www.poetryarchive.org (interesting option on this site to browse poems by theme)
http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/poetry/outloud/index.shtml (hear poets read their own work)
http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/
Poetic terms and techniques
As the course progresses you should be able to use the following terms in your discussions (oral and written) about poetry. Of course, you need to know what they mean and why poets use them ..
imagery structure mood tone sound
rhythm characterisation symbolism
word choice contrast setting form
You'll notice, I hope, that these terms do not just apply to poetry. You'll come acroos them in your study of other literary genres and, indeed, your analysis of non-fiction texts for Close Reading.