Poetry: An Introduction

1. Poetry: An Introduction Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

2. Introduction: • There are many reasons why poetry appeals to so many people. • These reasons are also tied to the fact that poetry is one of the oldest forms of writing and has lasted over the centuries. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

3. Sensuous Appeal: • This is an appeal to the senses: sight, sound, touch, and, to a lesser degree, scent and taste. • Some poems offer vivid specific pictures. • Some please by their beat or rhythm; some by the chime of rhyme; some by the suggested sounds of words like “crunch,” “chatter,” “slip,” “slap,” or “slop.” • Some poems combine this with the suggestion of feeling. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

4. For Example: All to the left and right The bare black cliff clanged round him as he based His feet on juts of pointed rock which rang Sharp-smitten with the dent of armed heels. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

5. For Example: All to the left and right The bare black cliff clanged round him as he based His feet on juts of pointed rock which rang Sharp-smitten with the dent of armed heels. • Obviously the hared “b,” “k,” “g,” and “t” sounds grouped so that they are difficult to say, are suggestive of the harsh contact and difficulty of the action recounted. • A poem that delights in this way may or may not have a theme. • Don’t think there has to be a “message” in every poem. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

6. Emotional Appeal: • Some poems present feelings powerfully and sometimes stir them deeply in us, but a good poem is not a “meditation in molasses.” • According to one modern writer, “The test of a poem is its power, not to create emotion, but to withstand emotion.” • Sometimes it can be a crystallizing of complex emotions (like grief, or love) into a shape. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

7. Emotional Appeal: • A satisfaction comes with the realization that we are not alone in encountering complicated experience. • Other share similar responses to life and can sometimes voice them for us better than we can for ourselves. • Essentially, poems help us become more aware of the feelings of other human beings, more sensitively, and with more understanding. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

8. Intellectual Appeal: • The possibility of illumination or increase of insight is in some poems. • Its method is intuitional rather than objectively verifiable, except through experience. • Its method is indirect and suggestive rather than the method of open statement. • For this reason, one of its chief tools is figurative language in which complex impressions are conveyed simultaneously by suggestion. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

9. Intellectual Appeal: • When considering using figurative language, do not rely on clichés. • Instead, try to create your own images by considering what you are trying to convey. • Think what was suggested when someone first said to another “You are a pig!” • This figure of speech carries the implications of such phrases as “big fat slob,” “filthy,” “wallower in dirt,” etc. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

10. Intellectual Appeal: • Similarly, the first person who said to another, “You are a rose” suggested “delicate,” “young,” etc. • When creating your own figurative language, think about the connotations certain concrete objects in the world have. • Try not to be too obscure or you will lose your reader. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

11. Appeal of Form: • This is a very mature sort of appeal, yet very basic since rhythm and order are basic to human nature. • Not all people respond to all forms equally. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

12. Appeal of Form: • One contemporary critic says he has found at least four types of readers: the epicures, who relish small perfect phrases and flavours; the dionysiacs who seek chiefly intensity; the admirers of organization, structure, integration; and the ones who read the art work always keeping an eye on its relation to life. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

13. Appeal of Form: • Keep these types of readers in mind when you write your own poetry. • Remember, even though you are writing the poetry for yourself, it’s not JUST for you. • Other people have to read it, so it must be coherent and not overly obscure. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0

14. Good luck. Mr. Mehrotra EWC 4U0