How to Understand Poetry

Christian jargon can be quite confusing to some readers who see some mention of being washed in the Blood of the Lamb or being born again. Saint Paul's words were brilliant, yet sometimes so deep that even the Apostles struggled to gain understanding. Bible translations were reconsidered in modern times and that's how we got a new version called The Living Bible, which a lot of people like, as do some in regard to the New International Version or the New American Version.

How to Read Poetry

I am reminded of a recent point of view that we understand if we read, yet more if we hear or more again if we see. So to view poetry being recited on YouTube or elsewhere is an extra chance at understanding, as it would be if the one reciting had studied the poetry, before stumbling through it, like many of us do. It's that stumbling that leads to fear and less appreciation of anything new in the world of poetry. Change the poem to fit a hymn like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen for syllable style 8, 6, 8, 6 and the reciting is now a singing alternative.

If all fits properly, the sequence continues without a flaw. However, there's less time to absorb that same text. You just go with the flow, rushing through without a pause, the words sung, forgotten, new words sung, forgotten. It's only afterwards that you'd actually want to read the text or try a different hymn tune instead. Love songs may include repeated chorus or verse segments to help us get the jist better than before.

I sometimes use the 1st verse repeated as the last verse as well, that's meant to create a reading reminder for effect. It's rarely done and I'm intrigued by the times it actually pops into my mind to do that. The poem changes immediately into something more eloquent and noble. Imagine if there were a newly-created AI interface with every writer who ever existed.

Just think of how many questions could be answered, whether completely truthfully or not. Even if we spoke to a living writer, would we get a real answer or a smug poet leading us up the garden path with one fancy lie after another? I like reading what others have thought about famous poems, rather than those hardly anybody has read at all. Famous poems being checked line by line, with research here and there and some revelations about the times as well. We often get pearls of wisdom from Google Search results and the various analysis for such works, or the way the poetry had a long term effect upon certain readers.

Rhyming poetry doesn't always work well, as we read certain jumbled-up phrases that the GRAMMARLY program or online website checker would challenge as being way out of the norm. Same with various spellings or Olde Englishe text. But the reader usually scans poetry at a normal reading speed and may glide over such phrases, just to take in the whole poem in one reading.

Teachers encourage students to keep reading and dragging out the deeper meanings and writing devices, the plots and the characters, the way something like a cat is similar to a fastidious young man or woman grooming their hair. All things considered, I would ask, is the poet being playful, or seeking to educate or impress, or is there a cynical downbeat theme going on? Some actors portray a scene by grading it emotionally eg this is a 7 out of 10 scene, I'm not just concerned, I'm livid, but not to the point of violence If we grade poetry like that, are we grading it like that because of the plain text, or the way we decided to read it, or someone else reciting it in a powerful way, just to impress us?

Is the tone a monotone style, without any drama or humour or pathos, perhaps? Also, are there any words in italics or in bold, that would suggest a greater emphasis? Perhaps the reader being drawn in with a phrase like Some of my poetry uses various ways like these to get the reader to a satisfactory conclusion, because we're not reading poetry just for the sake of it.

We want to say we gained from the poetry in some way. And if that's all we can say, even if not understanding every word, then we're better off in that short time than scholars dragging the text to pieces and going on about what that meant ad infinitum. I'd rather write a poem people can get, than get a poem that few can get and then with many rejecting any future poems I wish to share.

After all, poets compete with each other to share their work first not last. It's not just pot luck that gets poems noticed. It's whether the poetry works for most readers, young and old. Once you know a brief background of the poet, usually you will understand what part of their life, the poem is based on. Then you can read up more on that part of their life and then understanding the poem becomes very easy. H Auden is about the German Jews and their plight.

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The poem was written by him in , just as Auden was himself fleeing from the threat of the Second World War and moving to New York. Auden had also married a woman named Erika to help her escape Nazi Germany in and the marriage was never meant to last as neither of them were straight.

Once you know this part of his life, understanding his poem comes naturally. Start by reading poetry out loud. Poets care a good deal about the sound of their poems hence techniques like rhyme, assonance, etc. Does the poem sound nice when you read it? If so, great - you're halfway to understanding it. A lot of literature textbooks spend a lot of time looking for hidden meanings and such; don't worry about that at first.

Read the poem carefully, certainly, but most poets before the s or so wrote largely for a popular audience. Visualise the imagery, the story if there is one, and savour it. Go to your local library and flip through some of the poetry volumes; check out those that look promising. I just want to add to Stanley Chin's already excellent answer that poetry is something that requires time and patience. I recall that it took me hours to understand even one of Elizabeth Bishop's poems when I first started reading poetry seriously. I often underlined alliterative sounds while I was reading it out loud.

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I also read each poem aloud many different times, particularly Dylan Thomas' poems. It's worth taking the time to read different poems by different poets from different periods and different schools. There are so many poets to choose from because poetry has a long history and is written in so many countries. For instance, I know a poet who told me that she didn't find a form a poetry she liked until reading Language poems -- which to many readers are rather opaque, including myself. Also, once you take the time to master a few difficult poems, you will find it easier to understand other poets and poems and be able to expand your reading of this very rewarding category.

It is true that poetry is the most concentrated and layered language arts form, and for that reason is often the most challenging and difficult art to consume and properly enjoy. My recommendation is that you read and heed, that take time to understand and study the following book:. How Does a Poem Mean?: John Ciardi, Miller Williams: This is a wonderful book written by one who is himself a midth century poet of some note, working in American English.

Because of this use, it seems to me to be unconscionably expensive. Find a heavily used copy or borrow it from the library and renew several times— it takes a while to get good at this, but of course it is worth the journey. Thanks for the A2A! Understanding poetry is very similar to understanding most other disciplines: You should go look up analyses online or in books.

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You might go to Genius Annotate the World and check out annotations on the poem: She walks in beauty, like the night. You could go talk to a librarian about resources you could use. You should also find a teacher who has the domain expertise you want. Some school teachers have impressive amounts of knowledge about their various fields; you should seek out every possible resource you can. Learning is not spontaneous.

How to read poetry like a professor

The more mediating factors you have, the easier it will be for you to learn well. You can skip the very long poems but it is fruitful to read in chronological order since poets of each generation have styles in common usually and make references to each other. Older poetry can be hard due to changes in language over time, but modern poetry can be hard due to more abstraction. Cummings as a taste. A good poetry book will give you some help. In my Opinion Poetry is simple, as long as you don't think about what is happing arround you or using your own Opinion do understand it.

But often enough the author tries to describe something, whcih he can't or doesn't want to describe in lines but rather would like you to interpret what he has written. To do this it's very important to read many analysis of Poems or maybe Stories or even Books. It helpes you get into the flow of knowing what is commonly used by author, maybe which metaphors are used to describe actions, feelings or generally things, hence many authors like to be little copy cats, which is good.

But generally for one to understand poetry, one has to be very open, very confident in his opinion and criticism towards it and one has to think outside the Box. You, and everyone else, is unable to be bigger, or smaller, more significant, or less significant, here, or no here. We are unstable combinations of temporary factors that emerge from backgrounds we do not control. When we stop focusing exclusively on what the senses perceive, and the mind processes, and reports on, in language, we enable the wider connectivity to become open to us. When we are tightly focused on the directly perceivable, we ignore everything else.

A simple example is our visual field. It is essential, yet limited. We pay attention to what is in the field,and don't even have awareness of the majority of the universe outside of it. Awareness of ignorance is not thesame as self-deprecation.

We simply accept the limitations ofperception-thought, and the non-knowledge of what is beyond them. It's a little bit likecommunicating on the web. There are touchable, seeable aspects to it, while allthe while, there is no much not seen, yet real, and essential. People have been debating, andstudying this since they had a second away from frantic survival efforts. Somemade much progress; other just remain with their primal drives. You can use mindfulness, and that will help, yet not enable you to dissolve the deeper limitations.

Generally, poems were written for the page. My friends in the community have this mantra, they say it to themselves eight times a day: Every draft needs to get better. But we can do it with a sonnet or any kind of shorter poem. The most important thing to understand in verse is that it is, first and foremost, a sort of experiment in and with language. How can I talk about this thing, how can I say this in a way that is interesting and unique, that will convey my meaning but do more than just convey my meaning?

I think of poetry as a laboratory. What great poets largely have in mind, the thing that makes them hang around, is that they speak to our imagination in some way. Mark down notes on the poem as you read it. You should have a pencil or pen ready as you read the poem out loud and in your head several times.

Underline any words that have a strong meaning or an interesting sound to your ear. Circle any words that you find confusing or that jump out at you as important. You may put a question mark next to a passage or line that strikes you as strange or unique. You may also write a note about the sound of certain lines or drawn arrows connecting certain lines to each other. Consider the title of the poem. You should always start with the title of the poem, as the title can tell you a lot as a reader. Determine what the title is telling you and what expectations the title creates for you as a reader.

You can use the title as a jumping off point for analyzing the rest of the poem. Write down your initial reaction to the title in the margins of the poem or on a piece of paper. What are your thoughts and expectations about the poem based on the title alone?

How to Read Poetry: A Step-by-Step Guide

Identify the main subject of the poem. Once you have read the poem several times, out loud and to yourself, you should try to identify the main subject of the poem. Try to answer the question, what or who is the poem about? Try to be as detailed and precise as possible when you answer this question. Avoid a general statement or a vague impression of the subject of the poem. Determine the key situation in the poem. You should consider the premise or situation of the poem. Determining the situation of the poem will help you get some grounding in the piece and situate yourself as a reader.

Ask yourself several questions, such as, What appears to be going on in the poem? Who is talking and to whom? Where is the poem taking place? Why is the poem being told? Does the poem have a turning point where the tone, focus, or rhyme scheme changes? You may realize that the poem is acting as a testament to the life of the negro, literally and figuratively. Note any references to literary or historical events. You should look for any allusions, or references to literary events or historical events in the poem, as well as known historical or literary figures.

Often, these events or figures are in the poem for a reason. They may help to provide context for the poem and help you better understand the poem as a reader. Research some background on the author of the poem. To get further context on the poem, you should also gather information about the author of the poem, or the poet. You may look up the poet online or at your local library.

You can then use this context to help you determine the themes of the poem. Look up the meaning of words you do not understand. You should focus on analyzing the poem on a deeper level by looking at the word choice in the poem. There may be words you understand and words that are unfamiliar to you, as well as words that have multiple meanings. Look up any words that you do not recognize using a good dictionary. Consider how the meaning of the words fit within the rest of the poem.

Consider the verbs used in the poem. You should also look at the verbs used in the poem. Verbs imply action and they can often tell you what is going on in the poem on a deeper level. Underline the verbs in the poem and consider how they function in each line of the poem. These verbs are a mix of active and passive verbs, where the speaker is doing something actively, like bathing or building, and then becomes more passive, such as looking or hearing.

Note the sound and rhythm of the poem. You should read the poem out loud and consider how certain lines sound. Is there a rhythm or a rhyme to the lines?

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Are certain words emphasized in the poem because of the way the lines are broken up or due to a rhyming pattern? You should also think about the effect created by the sound and rhythm in the poem. Does every other line rhyme or every third line? Is there alliteration, where words start with the same letter in a row in the same line?