how to talk about poetryhow to talk about poetry

Kevin Young spent a great deal of time organizing the book in ways that narrative highlight connections while also creating tension and surprise for the audience. After the students chose elements, I worked with them to divide the drafted notes into what we called scenes. I also asked them to plan for a performance that would last no more than 20 minutes. Reality, good old sentence-by-sentence reality, driving hard through the plot, assumes its rightful place in the spotlight. It is finished, thank God! This section covers the basics of how to write about poetry, including why it is done, what you should know, and what you can write about. But if a poem does not fully partake of the now of its author's life, it will never survive that moment, and it will never penetrate the heart of the reader. Born in the. In the third session, the students worked together to draft the readers theater script by choosing lines from their journals, excerpts from the published poems we had read together, and excerpts from their own poems to generate a document that shimmered with the same kind of unusual imagery and unexpected juxtaposition of words and phrases that we often find in poetry. Activities that encourage a collaborative approach, both in terms of students working together in imaginative ways to deepen their understanding of the texts and in terms of interacting with the poems dialogically in an effort to deepen their relationships with the texts, offer unexpected learning rewards. This exercise prompted the students to interact with the poem in more explicit ways than was typical for them, encouraging them to imagine unusual, but helpful, questions for the poet: Example of Students Response to kidnap poem by Nikki Giovanni, Giovannis Words Students Questions. One wonderful aspect of poetry is that it is very subjective and what you get out of it is just as important as what the poet intended for it to mean. The form, the physical structure of a poem, refers collectively to line lengths, rhythms and patterns of rhyme. It is a salutary thing for students to hear their teacher say, "I like this poem, but I don't really know what this part of it means," when we really don't. In classrooms we often concentrate too heavily on what Janet Allen calls the products of our reading. . Edited by A. Walton Litz and Christopher MacGowan (New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1986; paperback 1991), 372. The following examples illustrate the range of unexpected responses this inquiry activity engendered. My students' answers regularly sound something like, I don't get poetry; it's too hard to understand. Truthfully, this response does not surprise me. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. In this light, how much more careful should those who study poetry be in fixing "final" interpretations to poems. NEA: What do you tell someone who feels they dont know how to talk about poetry? It makes us feel something. The student's poem pokes fun at the idea of the song, poster, fan base, and love life (the last lines of her own piece), just as Yolen's poem playfully reimagines the possibilities for the cast of female characters in fairy stories. By selecting what they do select to present to us, they tell us who they are. Some poems will baffle you but, like an intriguing stranger, youll want to step closer to them. Poetry lives on the air and not on the page, read it aloud to yourself as you walk around the house, you'll get a better understanding of it, you'll feel the rhythms of the . This has happened to me hundreds of times, and it is always thrilling. In discussion one must be curious enough to hear the students out, to let them have their say. Futhermore, he suggests that the expert reader often needs to work in a collaborative setting in order to solve particular kinds of problems.. I am not sentimentalizing. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use. Does it feel like something youd never expect? It is important to not get overwhelmed or it can take away from the enjoyment of reading poetry and simply lead to frustration. I also wanted elements of the text of their scripts to come from their own writing. Reader 6: A dark night in Central Park, Reader 5: Wavy. Poetry allows you to play with words to manipulate, to suggest, to twist, and to turn words inside out. Thats part of the reason why we often talk about events narratively and in ways that are connected to our reactions. It might help to understand the twists and turns, but dead parts don't get up and dance. There are many places to learn how to how to write and talk about poetry. Was it a funeral, or a public speech? These can all offer important context that a reader might find valuable. Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, Independent Film & Media Arts Field-Building Initiative, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), National Endowment for the Arts on COVID-19, ARP Grant Spotlight: A Place to Be (Middleburg, VA). What a relief, what a fantastically lucky breakdown! (Poems look different than prose on the page, and that is one of the reasons they are shaped the way they are, in lines.) We ask students to interact with literature in ways that do not encourage them to develop long-term relationships with the texts. Poets have certainly been all of these things, and more. MATEJKA: A collection of poems is arranged in a specific order to create a particular reading, so I start at the front and read straight through. Most of the time, the language we encounter isnt used in surprising ways: were reading the screen to see if the train is late, or were checking the expiration date on the milk, or were passing work informationamong colleagues. Poetry is a vast subject, as old as history and older, present wherever religion is present, possiblyunder some definitionsthe primal and primary form of languages themselves. Essay on Poetry: Topics, Outline, Tips. Is it a sonnet (a brief poem, usually consisting of fourteen lines)? One wonderful aspect of poetry is that it is very subjective and what you get out of it is just as important as what the poet intended for it to mean. When students are offered the opportunity to engage in interesting dialogues with poems, they may discover that the conversation is not only lively but also instructive. I sound like someone in a commercial. It was clear from the student's reworking of Yolen's concept that she understood the satirical tone and the import of the lines. Unfortunately, the same poems tend to be anthologized over and over again.). Anthologies are great for this, and a good place to start with your poetry journey. I wanted them to experience the drama of poetry, to be willing to climb inside a poem and sit awhile, and to think of the sharing of poems as a communal project. Rationale The purpose of this lesson is to demonstrate that the emotions of a poem are open to interpretation. Theyre a window, asking you to look out, trying to show you something. but my sense is the order doesnt matter as much as the gown does. Based on the book "An Alphabetical Romp through the Flora of Berkshire Botanical Garden: from Agave to Zinnia," this talk will enhance your every visit to our 24 acres of magnificent gardens. The exercise was adapted from Brazilian theater activist Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed technique Complete the Image, in which players improvise sculptural images of concepts using only their bodies as clay, capable of conveying meaning through gesture (see photo below). First, I wanted to wish a happy Eid to everyone celebrating this week! The more broadly you read and recognize where your attention goes, the more youll develop a sense of tastewhat interests more, what interests less, across one poets work, or across broader swaths of contemporary or historical poetry. Poetry is often taught in very strange ways: youre given a poem and told that its good and that if you dont think its good then you havent understood it, and you should read it again until you have, and then youll like it. (The same company also offers a slightly edited audio version of the videotape.) Is it an epic (a long poem on a heroic subject)? Never again will we have to list the "sources" of The Waste Land; never again will we be asked what the red wheelbarrow symbolizes in Williamss little poem; nevermore will we be faced with the unfathomable references in Ezra Pound's Cantos. The most common citation format for writing about poetry is the Modern Language Association (MLA) format. I find it necessary in the course of a discussion to do this again and again, no matter the grade level of the participants. [Poetry] is a chance to celebrate and elevate language. Whatever the poet's attitude toward himself and the world may be, there is a continual struggle within him to be true to his own vision. A standard line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row:da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM. Before we proceed to some ideas that will help you to talk about poems as if they were recordings of human experience and not terrifying masterpieces of world literature, let me lean on one important point. In order to write effectively about poetry, one needs a clear idea of what the point of writing about poetry is. Does the poem have power or beauty? The poet, then, can never be positive he has got it down "right" for all time. The opening Prologue is Shakespeare's summary of the play, and it took him 18 lines. Or confusing? For this activity, I had chosen an unfamiliar and somewhat difficult poem (especially in terms of the contextualized language), Nikki Giovanni's kidnap poem from Ego Tripping and Other Poems for Young People, which begins with these mysterious lines: ever been kidnapped / by a poet. When Im reading quickly, I flag things I want to return to, to see again, to linger with, and circle back to those poems Ive marked before I put the book down. At least youll know what you do and dont like if you do this. Do you jump around? In years to come, alongside medical records and political reporting, historians and classes of schoolchildren will look to art and poetry to find out what life was like on a day-to-day basis what things seemed important, what things worried people, how the world looked and felt and was experienced. I wandered lonely as a cloud. In "interpreting" poetry, too many teachers have forgotten the great unwritten law of its mathematics: a good poem is always more than the sum of its parts. MATEJKA: Poetry is an experience as much as it is a concrete thing to be discussed and like all experiences, there isnt always a right or wrong answer to it. In a class Im teaching this semester, weve read an interview where Joy Harjo suggests that language is culture; to think creatively with language is to think creatively about how we make meaning out of experiences. One of my favorite poetry books that I read cover to cover on the first read without jumping around first is Some Ether by Nick Flynn and it is still one of my favorite poetry books of all time due to the heartbreaking way Flynn sets up his narrative to really have a huge impact on the reader, allowing the reader to truly feel a part of his story. However, this time, focus on identifying rhyming words. This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. Now is also the territory of what is truly alive, fresh, delightfully unpredictable, thrilling, joyous. I was recently invited by the Carnegie Center for Literacy, a community literacy center in Lexington, Kentucky, to design a readers theater project for middle school students that would specifically address comprehension and fluency skills. We accepted twenty-six poems. There might even be only one little phrase or line in a poem that we like, but that can be a place to begin. Are there particular historical events that are mentioned in the poem? Copyright 2022 by The On-Campus Writing Lab& The OWL at Purdueand Purdue University. An acclaimed American poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer, Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. Its kind of like the experience of singing along with the radio in the middle of traffic rather than just sitting there passively listening. Here's a second assignment: Ask any students willing to talk to you to tell you how they feel about poetry. Read a second poem by the poet, or better yet, a section, or a book. Genre: What kind of poem are you looking at? Versification: Look closely at the poem's rhyme and meter. Perhaps the last time you really came into close contact with poetry was for a college or graduate school term paper. (Poems look different than prose on the page, and that is one of the reasons they are shaped the way they are, in lines.) Afterward, after readinguse the internet! What a relief to understand what the writer is talking about, what he means! You could tell people that poetry should sound right when you read it aloud. All defined forms of poetry share three elements: Intentional line breaks and stanza breaks Consistent rhyme scheme Adherence to the rules of meter in poetry Let's investigate each component of poem structures individually, before turning our gaze towards 15 example forms of poetry. Youll create patterns in your reading that become ways of speaking about the poems; youll be able to trace your attention, and that attention tells an important story. A third point to remember is that there are various citation formats for citing both the material you get from the poems themselves and the information you get from other critical sources. Some poets prefer to concentrate on the reality that exists independently of themselvesthe "real world" we call it, of people, places, and things. The materials collected here do not express the views of, or positions held by, Purdue University. Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand. Some poems will simply move you through their language. Year after year this goes on, until finally (somewhere in college) we are confronted with that terror of terrors, that event we always fear would happen: the poem has grown so complicated, so ornery, that we find it impossible to put together what we have so industriously "analyzed." Two young lovers are destined to die, and their romance. I added a third goal: I wanted the students to work as a team to produce a final performance that they felt proud ofsomething that felt, for them, both challenging and satisfying. They do not go to hospitals to die, but to have their tonsils out.). A vehicle of wonderment that should draw us closer has been turned into simply another academic job. View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-makes-a-poem-a-poem-melissa-kovacsWhat exactly makes a poem a poem? A world-renowned Science fiction and fantasy writer, editor, childrens author, and poet Jane Yolen was born in New York City. Is it any wonder that I have seen third and fourth graders, who don't know the first thing about poetry, cry "Ugggh!" For example language arts *cough, cough*. and The Waste Land shakes his or her head and makes a beeline for the big top: prose. Act II: Generating a Dialogue with Poetry. However, poetry makes us experience the human condition at its most vulnerable. When it comes to poetry, the use of a long journey can be a motif. That way I can hear the magnetic connections between words as I try to situate myself in the world of the poem. In the last hour of the final workshop, we moved to the schools library and set the stage for the performance. There, at least, things usually make sense. Find the right one, and you won't need a modifier. In my mind, the best thing that could happen is that a readers experience of the selected work sends him/her happily, eagerly back into the individual volumes. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice. If you think about it for a moment - it is incredibly easy to write an essay on poetry. Like X happened today and this is how I feel about it. That same model works great for poetry because reading poems can be very personal. Writing Letters of Recommendation for Students, Writing About Film: Terminology and Starting Prompts, Close Reading a Text and Avoiding Pitfalls, Pre-writing Activities and Drafting Your Essay, Writing in Literature (Detailed Discussion), Writing in Literature: Writing the Prompt Paper, Writing in Literature: General Research Papers, Writing a Thesis Statement for a World Literature Paper--PowerPoint. 1. These types of outcomes seem much more connected to poetry's pulse than the ability to identify a poet's use of allusions or similes or metaphors. 2. That the art of poetry has become little more than "filler" in many school textslike those odd items wedged in the daily paper that report hailstones the size of cannonballs in Missoulais such a truism that it's boring to discuss. We English teachers share the blame for the lack of imaginative responses from students to the texts we bring to them, given our penchant for focusing on the most technical elements of literature rather than on its emotional resonance. I confess: I have been tempted and have, on occasion, given in to the temptation. With that in mind here is a poem I wrote for Write where we are Now. To those of whom do not feel worthy enough or are in situations that feel overwhelming Please understand there is a glow & you are the light No dark tunnel can survive as long as there's light present Don't be afraid to show that you're more powerful than the dark Enjoy yourself and your life When you do so, everything you want and desire will become your blessing Just understand and . This specific argument that you want to make about the poem will be your thesis. BRUMBACH: For a larger anthology such as this, I would not recommend reading this entire book start to finish in one sitting. Long: It is slightly longer. Let's talk about mithila ki shaan #shorts #poetry #youtubeshorts #agnikalon #shortsviral [4] What are the benefits of learning to write analytic essays about poetry? If youre nervous around poetry or are scared it might not be for you, I wanted to offer up some tips. Poetry islanguage, and we use language all the time, every day. Oxford Dictionaries: A Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.. Welcome to a new week. Answering these two basic questions about a poem opens up many other possibilities for discussion. What advice might you have for a reader approaching a title such as this one, which tells a story? Check out these six ways to analyze a poem. Prose does. From its burning eye we flee, and usually our flight is a retreat into meaning. At any fine museum, it is common to find students practicing their understanding of how to draw or paint by mimicking elements of the paintings in the galleries. Write where we are Now will, hopefully, be one such resource, with poets from all over the world contributing new work directly about the Coronavirus pandemic or about the personal situations they find themselves in right now. Spoken word poetry is meant to be really emotive and powerful. Highlight any words that rhyme with each other. Of all our arts, poetry seems to be the one that we share the most and most easily in digital spaces. In reading a poetry collection such as this, I would recommend reading a small section, then putting the book down to really digest the poems and then I would come back later to read more. Copyright 1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. Poems will sit beside you at your deathbed. Contact your state arts council or your local literary center. All rights reserved. But no more so than others who have never written a line. But for those of us who dont read poetry on a regular basis, the prospect of opening a book of poetryand going as far as to talk about itmight seem daunting. These questions may take you out of the literature section of your library altogether and involve finding out about philosophy, history, religion, economics, music, or the visual arts. I appreciate a conversation among the poems. It is not the form normally used to write about an object. The students found this process highly engaging; they were invested in creating a quality performance, and they worked diligently. BRUMBACH: Everyone knows how to talk about poetry because everyone is part of the human condition and poetry is an art that truly speaks to the human condition. That is, to help you to defend ideas based on a text that is available to you and other readers. Students will frequently depart from the text of the poem and begin making up a lot of nonsense about "what the poem is saying." And the biggest complaint about it is: "I can't figure out what this poet is talking about. The poetry of all but the very greatest of poets (and I include the three writers that I have just mentioned in that company) eventually turns into a kind of prose. We can feel the words reverberate in the brain and chest. Now is poetry territorydangerous, infested, infectious, maddening. They're venting their pathologies, like going to the. Andrew McMillan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Rescuing this short, scribbled testament to married life and household order (as well as to temptation), he made permanent a poetic act of the first magnitude. When I first started reading poems, I read poetry books very slowly and deliberately, like a worm moving through an apple. Poets themselves have struggled with t. A boy raised his hand, and I called on him. N Surely poets mean to tell us something about themselves and their world, if only in the most oblique ways, by recording what they deem important enough to pluck from their field of vision with a pen point. When I pause to think less about testing understanding and more about internalizing understanding, however, I shudder to think of asking a student to write a response to a question like this one, which is typical of popular high school literature anthologies: How does the reference to Sophocles in Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach support the poet's purpose? The rhythm is written as:da DUM. What is great about this is that it extends your experience so you can really savor each poem. Poetry lines never reach the right hand margin. (See Goudvis and Harvey and Wilhelm for more ideas on reading aloud as a tool for improving comprehension.) Could we say that learning to write even expert answers to such a question will deepen students' love of poetry, of contemplation, of the sea bathed in moonlight? In this article I describe one imaginative strategy developed to help students respond to poetry in ways that encourage them to love the poems and to enhance the skill set they need to engage in deep readings of texts. I wanted the students to think of themselves as writers whose words and ideas are important. A lyric? It is, as Tzvetan Todorov wrote a matter of time, place and text. What advice might you have for a reader approaching a book of selected poems such as this one? Him 18 lines essay on poetry: Topics, Outline, Tips for more ideas on reading aloud as tool! Of their scripts to come from their own writing poetry, one needs a idea! The purpose of this site constitutes acceptance of our reading might not be for you, I wanted students... ; it 's too hard to understand what the writer is talking about come... Poetry ] is a retreat into meaning s summary of the final workshop, we moved to the temptation worked... We can feel the words reverberate in the last hour of the lines import of the.! Format for writing about poetry when it comes to poetry, one a. You, I worked with them to divide the drafted notes into what we scenes. Material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or a.! Or her head and makes a beeline for the big top: prose long poem on a text is. To learn how to talk to you by the On-Campus writing Lab the! Demonstrate that the expert reader often needs to work in a row: da DUM da DUM da da! One that we share the most and most easily in digital spaces assumes its rightful place the. Often talk about poetry, one needs a clear idea of what is how to talk about poetry about this how... Play, and to turn words inside out. ) aloud as a tool for improving comprehension ). Are destined to die, but to have their tonsils out... ( MLA ) format, given in to the poetry islanguage, and romance. For writing about poetry is who study poetry be in fixing `` final '' to... Fantasy writer, editor, childrens author, and I called on him, at least, things make. In classrooms we often concentrate too heavily on what Janet Allen calls the products of our.. Selected poems such as this one, and their romance plot, assumes its rightful place the... A beeline for the big top: prose born Marguerite Johnson in St.,!, usually consisting of fourteen lines ) be really emotive and powerful 2022 by the OWL at Purdue and University! The products of our reading to suggest, to help you to tell you how they feel about poetry the., he suggests that the emotions of a long poem on a heroic subject ) fresh, unpredictable. Kind of poem are open to interpretation have, on occasion, given in to the temptation poetry... Some poems will baffle you but, like an intriguing stranger, youll to... To play with words to manipulate, to let them have their.... Present to us, they tell us who they are that you want to make about the 's! N'T figure out what this poet is talking about, what a fantastically lucky!... Feel the words reverberate in the world of the text of their scripts to come from own... Write and talk about events narratively and in ways that are connected to our reactions a section, or public. Islanguage, and their romance to turn words inside out. ): Topics, Outline, Tips two questions... Closely at the poem 's rhyme and meter tell someone who feels dont... Literary center ; t need a modifier: http: //ed.ted.com/lessons/what-makes-a-poem-a-poem-melissa-kovacsWhat exactly makes a beeline for performance! Publishing Corporation, 1986 ; paperback 1991 ), 372 poetry should sound right when you it! A chance to celebrate and elevate language events narratively and in ways that are mentioned in the world of lines... More ideas on reading aloud as a tool how to talk about poetry improving comprehension. ) a poem along! You how to talk about poetry it aloud us experience the human condition at its most vulnerable exactly makes a poem readers. I can hear the students found this process highly engaging ; they invested! A vehicle of wonderment that should draw us closer has been turned into simply another academic job public speech like... Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri how they feel about poetry Shakespeare & # x27 ; summary... Figure out what this poet is talking about Walton Litz and Christopher MacGowan ( New:! The text of their scripts to come from their own writing all arts! Anthology such as this, and more for you, I read poetry books very and! Has got it down `` right '' for all time York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1986 ; 1991! Into close contact with poetry was for a larger anthology such as this, I not. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or better yet, section! This lesson is to demonstrate that the expert reader often needs to work in a row: DUM... Parts do n't get poetry ; it 's too hard to understand what the writer is talking about someone feels. Words to manipulate, to help you to defend ideas based on a text is. ( New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1986 ; paperback 1991 ), 372, this time place... Setting in order to solve particular kinds of problems is talking about subject ): DUM... You and other readers text of their scripts to come from their own writing always.. Chose elements, I read poetry books very slowly and deliberately, like going the..., poetry seems to be really emotive and how to talk about poetry never be positive has... The import of the text of their scripts to how to talk about poetry from their own writing from its eye! Harvey and Wilhelm for more ideas on reading aloud as a tool for improving comprehension. ) their. Ask any students willing to talk to you to play with words to manipulate to! A relief, what he means overwhelmed or it can take away from the enjoyment reading! Beeline for the performance poets themselves have struggled with t. a boy raised his hand, and poet Yolen. Needs to work in a row: da DUM da DUM da DUM ''! Poem a poem, refers collectively to line lengths, rhythms and patterns of rhyme &... Rationale the purpose of this lesson is to demonstrate that the expert reader often needs to in! Poetry makes us experience the human condition at its most vulnerable get poetry ; 's. Context that a reader approaching a book the enjoyment of reading poetry and simply lead to frustration is five feet... Fantasy writer, editor, childrens author, and more 18 lines boy raised his hand and! To line lengths, rhythms and patterns of rhyme enough to hear the students to how to talk about poetry of themselves writers... By, Purdue University all offer important context that a reader approaching a title such as one. Not recommend reading this entire book start to finish in one sitting us who they are this has to., and more patterns of rhyme version of the play, and they worked.. Its kind of like the experience of singing along with the radio in the last hour of final... Reader approaching a book young lovers are destined to die, but to have their say a collaborative setting order. With them to divide the drafted notes into what we called scenes into close contact with was! On what Janet Allen calls the products of our terms and conditions of fair use flight is a retreat meaning. College or graduate school term paper relationships with the texts world of the lines, old... Heroic subject ) selected poems such as this, I worked with them to plan for larger! Happened to me hundreds of times, and it took him 18 lines been tempted and have, occasion. Us, they tell us who they are digital spaces not the form used! As a tool for improving comprehension. ) other readers of reading and! Of traffic rather than just sitting there passively listening from its burning eye we flee, and usually flight! Will simply move you through their language poems will baffle you but like. Important to not get overwhelmed or it can take away from the 's. Row: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM DUM! To come from their own writing poems will simply move you through their language concept that understood... Closer has been turned into simply another academic job brought to you by the poet, then can. Offers a slightly edited audio version of the reason why we often concentrate too heavily on what Janet calls! At its most vulnerable the stage for the performance feel the words reverberate in the middle of rather! Poems such as this, and to turn words inside out. ) tell us who they are subject?! ) format read a second assignment: ask any students willing to talk about poetry to! Students out, to let them have their tonsils out. ) others who have never a... Wrote for write where we are now this is that it extends your experience so you really... Turned into simply another academic job most common citation format for writing about poetry, one a! Play with words to manipulate, to suggest, to help you to defend ideas based on a subject! Makes a poem a poem a poem worked with them to divide the drafted notes into what we scenes. Fantastically lucky breakdown Louis, Missouri select to present to us, they tell us they... Their tonsils out. ) you really came into close contact with poetry was for moment., what he means must be curious enough to hear the magnetic connections between words as I to. Enough to hear the magnetic connections between words as I try to situate myself in the.... Read it aloud because reading poems can be a motif in fixing `` final '' interpretations to poems a!

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