Reading PoetryThe Experience of Words

What Is Poetry?

Poetry is a type of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures of speech and imagery to appeal to the reader’s emotions and imagination.

•A poem captures the poet’s experience and thoughts and offers them to readers for examination.

Nature’s first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf’s a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay.

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

Punctuation

Pay attention to a poem’s punctuation when you read the poem aloud. Punctuation indicates where you should pause while reading.

•Pause whenever you encounter punctuation, even if the punctuation occurs in the middle of a line.

•Commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes indicate short pauses.

•End punctuation—periods, question marks, and exclamation points—indicates longer pauses.

•Do not pause at the end of a line if there is no punctuation there.

Word Order

Pay attention to the word order in poetry. Poets may use unusual word order to emphasize certain ideas.

•If a line or sentence in a poem is confusing, look for the subject and verb.

•Rearrange or reword the sentence to help you understand it. Consider what the word order emphasizes.

“The foe long since in silence slept;Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;

And Time the ruined bridge has sweptDown the dark stream which seaward creeps.”

from “Concord Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Figures of Speech

Pay attention to figures of speech in poetry. Poets use figures of speech to add to a poem’s meaning.

•Identify figures of speech—similes, metaphors, and personification—and note the effect they produce.

•Figures of speech may make a description clear, create a mood, or reveal the speaker’s attitude about the subject.

Speaker

Pay attention to the poem’s speaker—the voice talking to the reader.

•Look for clues about who is speaking in the poem.

•The poet’s own voice may be speaking, or the speaker may be a character the poet has created, an animal, or an object.

Diction

Pay attention to the poem’s diction—a speaker’s choice of words. Diction can reveal the speaker’s attitude toward the subject.

•Analyze the speaker’s language choices.

•Identify whether the words are mostly positive or negative.

•Consider what feelings the words evoke.

Sound Effects

Pay attention to sound effects in poems. Poets use sound effects to create mood or add emphasis.

•Listen to the rhythm of the lines, and determine whether the poem follows a set meter.

•Consider how the the rhythm or lack of rhythm affects the poem’s meaning.

•Look for rhymes. Poets may follow a certain rhyme scheme or use internal rhyme. However, not all poems rhyme.

•Consider how the rhyme scheme affects the poem’s meaning.

Sound Effects

•Look for other sound effects, such as alliteration and onomatopoeia.

•Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds.

•Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like their meanings—for example, bump, slosh, and whimper.

•Consider what the sound effects emphasize.

Repetition

Pay attention to the use of repetition in the poem. A poet may use repetition to get readers to focus on the theme or most important idea in a poem.

•Watch for repeated words or images.

•Consider what the repeated words emphasize.

Let’s Practice

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;Often have I been to it,Even to its highest tower,From whence the world looks black.”

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a breath, a wind,A shadow, a phantom;Long have I pursued it,But never have I touchedThe hem of its garment.”

from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

Let’s Practice

When should you continue reading at the end of a line? Where should you pause?

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;Often have I been to it,Even to its highest tower,From whence the world looks black.”

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a breath, a wind,A shadow, a phantom;Long have I pursued it,But never have I touchedThe hem of its garment.”

from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

Let’s Practice

Do you need to rearrange the word order of any line to understand it better?

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;Often have I been to it,Even to its highest tower,From whence the world looks black.”

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a breath, a wind,A shadow, a phantom;Long have I pursued it,But never have I touchedThe hem of its garment.”

from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

Let’s Practice

What figures of speech does the poet use? What do they mean?

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;Often have I been to it,Even to its highest tower,From whence the world looks black.”

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a breath, a wind,A shadow, a phantom;Long have I pursued it,But never have I touchedThe hem of its garment.”

from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

Let’s Practice

Who is the speaker in the poem? How does the speaker’s diction affect the tone of the poem?

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;Often have I been to it,Even to its highest tower,From whence the world looks black.”

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a breath, a wind,A shadow, a phantom;Long have I pursued it,But never have I touchedThe hem of its garment.”

from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

Let’s Practice

What sound effects does the poet use? What words, phrases, or lines are repeated?

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;Often have I been to it,Even to its highest tower,From whence the world looks black.”

“Truth,” said a traveller,“Is a breath, a wind,A shadow, a phantom;Long have I pursued it,But never have I touchedThe hem of its garment.”

from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

On Your Own

When I am dead and over me bright AprilShakes out her rain-drenched hair,

Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,I shall not care.

I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peacefulWhen rain bends down the bough;

And I shall be more silent and cold-heartedThan you are now.

“I Shall Not Care ” by Sara Teasdale

Use the suggestions in this lesson to analyze this poem.

The End