Getting to Know Your Poem

1. Getting to Know Your Poem (Really, really, really – I mean REALLY- well.)

2. Incorrect Assumptions • I should understand this the first time I read it. If I don’t, either something is wrong with me or something is wrong with the poem • Poems are full of codes, and it’s my job to crack the code like a detective. • The poem can mean anything I want it to mean.

3. Keep these in mind… • A poet depends on the reader’s effort to understand. • Bring your own experience and point of view to the poem. • Reading poetry is a challenge, and it takes practice to improve your skills. • Literature is the sharing of experience and the pooling of human understanding about living, loving, and dying.

4. So, ponder this… • If everything I just said is true, why is it quite understandable that poetry is particularly hard for high school students to work with?

5. I know it, I just can’t explain it! • Sometimes literature, especially poetry, will suggest an idea, feeling, experience, that you understand clearly but can’t explain in a literal sense. • You might have a hard time putting it into words, but you know it’s real. • Rarely do poets just sit down and write out a perfect poem in one draft. They rework, revise, retool, revise, revise, revise relentlessly.

6. Close Reading Approaches • Look at the poem • Read and listen to the poem • Sloppy copy (make notes) • Ask the poem some questions • Talk about the poem with another person • Use outside help • Embrace ambiguity

7. 1. Look at the poem • Consider the title. • Does it have any significant shape? • How are the lines grouped? • How long or short are the lines? • How does it compare to the other poems by the same author? • Does any of that make a difference?

8. 2. Read the poem OUTLOUD and LISTEN to it • Do you notice any special effects? • Do the lines or words rhyme? • Are there clusters of sounds that are similar? • Are there sections of the poem that have distinct rhythm? Different from the rest of the poem? • Consider where the line “stops.” It may not be the same place where the line breaks. Pay attention to the punctuation that signals stops and pauses. (Dickinson) • Read the poem aloud in several ways, playing with the stops and line breaks to see if meaning changes because of that. • Read it pausing only for breath, like you are singing a song, and look for where the natural stops are (Whitman) • Remember that these are INTENTIONAL aspects of a poem that may push the meaning beyond what just the words imply.

9. 3. A sloppy copy is important • Write on your copy of the poem • Clarify vocabulary • Make notes on meaning • Ask questions • Paraphrase • Relate to your own life • Make notes of what other people think

10. 4. Questions to ask the poem • Who or what is the speaker? • What circumstances gave rise to the poem? • What situation is presented? • Who or what is the audience? • What is the tone? • What form, if any, does the poem take? • How is form related to content? • Is sound an important, active element of the poem? • Does the poem spring from an identifiable historical moment? • Does the poem speak from a specific culture? • Does the poem have its own vernacular? • Does the poem use imagery to achieve a particular effect? • What kind of figurative language, if any, does the poem use? • If the poem is a question, what is the answer? • If the poem is an answer, what is the question? • What does the title suggest? • Does the poem use unusual words or use words in an unusual way?

11. 5. Talk about the poem with another person • Keep the conversation focused on analysis • Compare and contrast your impressions and understanding of the poem • Relate to the other poems you have read and what you know • Talk through the confusions or misunderstandings you have

12. 6. Use outside help • Information about the author’s life • Historical information • Geographical influences • General literary technique and figurative language • CRITICAL ANALYSIS • Expert interpretation of the poem • Scholarly understanding of poetic qualities

13. 7. Embrace Ambiguity • A truly great poem will evolve in meaning as a reader evolves in maturity, experience, relationships • If a poem means the same to you at 25, 35, 65 years old that it meant at 15, what does that say about the poem? What does that say about you? • EMBRACE ambiguity, but don’t use it as an excuse.