Reading Poetry Responsively
"Perhaps the best way to begin reading poetry responsively is not to allow yourself to be intimidated by it. Come to it, initially at least, the way you might listen to a song on the radio. You probably listen to a song several times before you hear it at all, before you have a sense of how it works, where it’s going, and how it gets there. You don’t worry about analyzing a song when you listen to it, even though after repeated experiences with it you know and anticipate a favorite part and know, on some level, why it works for you. Give yourself a chance to respond to poetry. The hardest work has already been done by the poet, so all you need to do at the start is listen for the pleasure produced by the poet’s arrangement of words."
--Michael Meyer (The Bedford Introduction to Literature)
By the end of the unit, you'll be able to read a poem, explain how it makes you feel, and point to specific reasons why it makes you feel that way.
--Michael Meyer (The Bedford Introduction to Literature)
By the end of the unit, you'll be able to read a poem, explain how it makes you feel, and point to specific reasons why it makes you feel that way.
How to Approach Poetry
- Read the poem more than once. The first time you should try to determine what the poem is about, and in subsequent readings you'll catch more and more.
- After your first read, paraphrase the poem so you know whether or not you understand it.
- Pay attention to the title, year, and poet. The title, for example, often tells you what the poem might be about.
- Don't get tangled up in any confusing lines or words during your first reading.
- Read the poem aloud in a natural voice without exaggerating the natural rhythm.
- Look for punctuation marks; they're used purposefully. Not all lines end with a period, and that means the thought will continue on.
- Figure out the speaker (not always or even usually the poet), setting, and situation.
- Be patient and willing to be challenged.
Helpful Poetry Terms
Diction: Diction means "word choice." The words in a poem create an overall effect, like the ingredients selected for a recipe create a tasty dish.
Words have two levels: denotations and connotations. Denotation is a word's dictionary definition. Connotation is the sensation evoked by a word. You probably know that "chains" are simply metal links that fasten things together (denotation), but you also know that chains are associated with jails, bondage, and suffering (connotation).
Imagery: In poetry, an image is a word picture of any physical sensation. Poets try to make you see, feel, smell, taste, or touch what they're describing.
Figures of Speech:
Sounds:
Words have two levels: denotations and connotations. Denotation is a word's dictionary definition. Connotation is the sensation evoked by a word. You probably know that "chains" are simply metal links that fasten things together (denotation), but you also know that chains are associated with jails, bondage, and suffering (connotation).
Imagery: In poetry, an image is a word picture of any physical sensation. Poets try to make you see, feel, smell, taste, or touch what they're describing.
Figures of Speech:
- Simile: A comparison of two things that are not alike, uses "like" or "as"
- Metaphor: A statement that is a comparison of two things that are not alike.
- Personification: Giving something, nonhuman or an object, human characteristics
- Oxymoron: A contradiction
Sounds:
- Onomatopoeia: The use of a word that resembles the sound it denotes (buzz, quack, etc.)
- Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of nearby words (bloody battle)
- Assonance: Repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words (asleep under a tree OR time and time)
- End rhyme: Rhymes at the end of lines
- Internal rhyme: Rhymes in the middle of lines
- Near rhyme (slant rhyme): Sounds that are almost but not exactly alike
EXAMPLE: "Introduction to Poetry" BY BILLY COLLINS
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Poem Practice
TPCASTT each of these poems, and then answer the questions that follow.
"Dear Basketball" by Kobe Bryant - RL.2.1 (text evidence); RL.3.2 (p.o.v.); RV.3.3 (fig. lang)
dear_basketball.docx | |
File Size: | 15 kb |
File Type: | docx |
"The Road Not taken" by Robert Frost - rl.3.2 (P.o.v.); rv.2.1 (context); rv.3.1 (nuances)
the_road_not_taken.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
"Fat is not a Fairy Tale" by Jane Yolen - Rl.2.1 (Evidence); rl.4.1 (mul. intrp.); rv.2.3 (nuance)
fat_is_not_a_fairy_tale.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
"Hazel Tells Laverne" by Katharyn Machan - RL.2.1 (EVIDENCE); RL.3.1 (STRUCT.); RL.3.2 (P.O.V.)
hazel_tells_laverne.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks - RL.3.2 (P.o.v.) RL.3.1 (structure); RV.2.1 (context)
we_real_cool.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
"Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou - RL.4.2 (significance); RV.2.3 (nuance); RV.2.3 (fig.)
phenomenal_woman.docx | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |