How to Read a Poem

This is general advice on how to experience poetry. The more you read, and the further along we get in the course, the easier reading poetry should become.

1. Read through the poem in its entirety without stopping, whether you understand or not.

The problems most people have with poetry, especially with modern poetry, come from thinking they must understand the poem immediately and in its entirety. They puzzle over words, syntax, allusions, and then give up and conclude that, as they expected, poetry isn't for them. The essence of a poem is in its whole, and often poets will be giving you only hints as to their meaning, which will become clearer further along, or when reread, with the ending in mind.

2. Read the poem aloud the second time.

You usually understand better when you hear the words pronounced. Remember that poetry isn't meant to be speed-read; it should be read the way more primitive eras used to read: slowly, word by word, line by line, savoring each sound. Reading aloud helps correct misplaced emphasis, helps prevent you from skipping over misunderstood phrases, and helps you recognize words you might otherwise not register if read silently.

3. Read word by word after reading to get the whole idea.

Look up words you donít know, in dictionaries or encyclopedias or other reference books. Bother librarians. Keep a college or unabridged dictionary nearby. Often a poem will be built around one seldom-used definition of a word. Usually every unnecessary word has been pared from a poem, and each word remaining is there for two or three good reasons; not finding out what such words mean makes reading the poem as much fun as playing tennis without a ball.

4. Read for imagery.

This is probably the most pleasurable step. Cast off your familiar way of looking at the world. Leave your platitudes and clichés at the door. Prepare yourself for a novel look at reality; let the poem affect you. Create pictures in your head. Be an active reader.

5. Read for organization.

Start with finding out who the person is who is speaking. Then ask who the poem is addressing: what kind of person is being spoken to? What kind of pattern is there? Does the pattern have anything to do with the meaning of the poem? What's the tone?

6. Read for technique.

This is where you walk behind the scenes and understand why the poem does or doesn't work. Look for metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, meter, rhyme scheme, adaption of sound to sense, and use of symbols.

7. Read as a synthesis of all the above.

Often a poet will go through a dozen or so drafts of a poem before allowing it to be read by anyone else, much less published. Dylan Thomas often went through 80 or 100 drafts. You can be assured that, if you're alert, you'll gain more from another reading. Poems aren't like newspapers, to be read once and then tossed into the recycling bin. Each year you're a different person; you'll find that when you return to poems read years before, the good poems will seem to be telling you exactly those things you learned in the interim; they'll seem like different poems. Every poet, every age, every country, every emotion, every climate, every language, every temperament produces different types of poetry. If you don't like a poem, do it the justice to find out what about it you don't like, and then move on to a different kind of poem.

Last modified: January 8, 2001
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