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Poetry |
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Most of us have expectations of fiction to be a good story, and when fiction, in turn, makes expectations on us, we might be surprised and even shocked that fiction can turn out to be "difficult" to read. But most of us are not shocked when poetry is tough to read. Perhaps if we read more of it, we would not have this idea, that poetry is necessarily "difficult"--though it often is! While most of us are far more aware that poetry can expect major things of us, at the same time we expect it to provide intense feelings or vivid language. Perhaps this initial challenge to read what can seem difficult is what keeps students or general readers from throwing themselves into reading poetry. Here is a brief discussion of this very idea from Authors on the Web.com <http://www.authorsontheweb.com/features/0204-poet/poet-q6.asp> Here poets wonder about the idea that poetry is essentially difficult, and we can tell they resist the idea that poetry should be perceived this way. Much of how we respond to poetry in general, as well as how we read specific poems, is based on our past experiences (or lack of experiences) with it: our repertoire, our "schema," our ideology. Check out this essay for example, "Why Americans Don't Read Poetry And What to Do About It" by Michael Corbin. <http://www.citypaper.com/2001-04-11/books.html> If you took the LRQ and found that your scores suggested that you are a very "Story Driven" reader, or that you do not (yet) react intensely to imagery (Imagery vividness), or if you scored high in Rejecting Literary Values, suggesting you did not react well to the lessons on metaphors or rhyme schemes in high school English class, you may be puzzled by the fact that people can enjoy reading poetry that does not come clear right away. But with an increasing knowledge of how language and literature work in general, you will come to that understanding, if you give poetry a chance and learn to tolerate a bit your own confusion. Have we learned the reading strategies poetry often expects from us in order to make sense of it and to enjoy it? Perhaps not yet, but if we approach poetry with an open mind and are willing to try new ways to read and listen, poetry can meet our deepest needs, as we meet its. Think about the activity of reading poetry. We are asked to appreciate both its orality and its textuality, to keep in mind that poetry, much more than prose, seems to compel us to give back to it its voice, asking us to hear it aloud, as well as to see it as text. At the same time, we are asked to learn something about the foundations of poetry's intensity (or compression) by learning how its language and structure work, by appreciating the poet's precise choice of words and figures of speech as well as the poet's use of formal patterns of rhythm and rhyme. Full appreciation would take us back in time to appreciate its history as well. A study of poetry today also asks us to learn the ways that poetry is being constantly reborn, by looking at the relationship of poetry to popular media, to new venues for public reading/recitation, to technology, to the Internet, and to hypertext/hypermedia forms. There are many explanations of how to read poetry available. The following list comes from a text book, but there are many others on line and they tend to point out similar things to think about. Click on the links for elaboration.
For an excellent essay on the act of reading poetry, read Edward Hirsch, "How to Read These Poems" <http://www.doubletakemagazine.org/mag/html/backissues/06/hirsch.html> from Doubletake Magazine, Issue 6 (Summer 1996). Some Links for Reading Poetry
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