READING T! PO! Read a poem more than once. A good poem will no more yield its full meaning on a single reading than will a Beethoven symphony on a single hearing. ‘Two readings may be necessary simply to let you get your bearings, And if the poem is a work of art, it will repay repeated and prolonged examination. One does not listen to a good piece of music once and forget it, one does not look at a good painting once and throw it away A poem is not like a newspaper, to be hastily read and cast into the wastebasket. It is to be hung on the wall of one's mind Keep a dictionary by you and use it. It is futile to try to understand poetry without troubling to learn the meanings of the words of which it is composed. One might as well attempt to play tennis without a ball. One of your primary purposes while at school should be to build a good vocabulary, and the study of poetry gives you an excellent opportunity A few other reference books will also be invaluable. Particularly desirable are a good book on mythology (Graves: The Greek Myths, Part J and If) and a Bible. Read so as to hear the sounds of the words in your mind. Poetry is written to be heard: its meanings are conveyed through sound as well as through print. Every word is therefore important. ‘The best way to read a poem is just the opposite of the best way to read a newspaper One reads a newspaper as rapidly as possible; one should read a poem as slowly as possible. When you cannot read a poem aloud, lip-read it form the words with your tongue and mouth though you do not utter them. Always pay attention to what the poem is saying. Though you should be conscious of the sounds of the poem, you should never be so exclusively conscious of them that you pay no attention to what the poem means. One should make the utmost effort to follow the thought continuously and to grasp the full implications and suggestions. Because a poem says so much, several readings may be necessary, but on the very first reading you should determine the subjects of the verbs and the antecedents [event, person or thing going before] of the pronouns Practice reading poems aloud. You should not read a poem as if it were prose. An important test of your reading will be how you handle the end of a line where there is no punctuation there, A frequent mistake of the beginning reader is to treat each line as if it were a complete thought, whether grammatically complete or not, and to drop the voice at the end of it. A frequent mistake of the sophisticated reader is to take a running start upon approaching the end of a line and fly over it as if it were not there The line is a rhythmical units, and its end should be observed whether there is punctuation or not. If there is no punctuation, one observes it ordinarily by the slightest of pauses or by holding on to the last word in the line just a little longer than usual, without dropping one's voiceHow To Do a Close Reading of poetry A few ideas to get you started React with your pen and you're more likely to remember later what struck you and what you discovered through your process of reading. 1, Circle or underline words or phrases that "stick out" at you. What grabs you about the pom? What seems to clamor for your attention? What confuses you? Are there words you don't understand? Who is the poet addressing in the poem, if anyone? ‘Why do you think he or she wrote the poem? What's the “big idea” of the poem? Try to write it out in one short sentence. 2. Map out the poem: draw arrows between words, phrases and images that seem re- lated; make notes in the margins about the connections you find. Note any possible symbolism. List various parts of speech in a short poem or in one section of a longer poem. For instance, list all the adjectives or nouns or verbs; notice the kind of lan- guage the poct uses. Is it coy? Brash? Angry? Intoxicated? Joyful? Musical? Mo- notonous? Ebullient? Reattach adjectives to their nouns and consider each noun- adjective pair against other pairs. Reattach the verb with its subject or object and fee! the action of the verb. 3. Read the poem aloud as you imagine it should be read. Is it satirical? Is it full of wonder? Didactic? Disparaging? Hopeless? Even-keeled? This should help you get at the tone of the poem. Look at the form of the poem. What about the rhythm of the poem? Can you get a sense of its meter? What about rhyme scheme, if any? Does the oem have alliteration (the repetition of consonant sounds) or assonance (the repeti- tion of vowel sounds). 4, Write a few short simple thesis statements (one short sentence cach). Do any of them seem related and, if so, can you combine them? Does your thesis statement in- volve the author? Why not? Zs there a defined (direct or indirect) purpose to your thesis? What are the key points to each of your thesis statements? Point to specific examples for each key point? Remember to keep your conclusions firmly grounded in the text. Support your assertions with textual evidence. Using outside information (history, biographies, ete.) often can help us understand the work, but the best way "in" (at first, anyway) is always through the door of the work itself.Poetic Devices and Terms (short list) Allusion reference to a person, place, event that is known in literature, history, religion, ete. Apostrophe- directly addressing an absent or dead person or an abstract. Alliteration— the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words that are close to one another Anaphora- the repetition of a word or group of words at the beginningjof successive lines ‘Assonance- repetition of similar vowel sounds within a line of poetry Atmosphere- the overall mood or feeling of a poem. Consonance- the repetition of similar consonant sounds within a line of poetry Connotation/Denotation the implied meaning of a word/ the literal or dictionary meaning of a word End rhyme— rhyme that comes at the end of the line of poetry Feminine rhyme rhyme in which two consecutive syllables of rhyming words correspond Internal rhyme- rhyme contained within a line of verse Masculine rhyme~ chyme in which only the last, accented syllable corresponds Slant rhyme- imperfect or approximate thyme Diction/Syntax- the choice of works and the arrangement of those words. End stopped line- where sense of meter coincides with the end of the line Hyperbole exaggeration for emphasis Imagery-language that appeals to the senses Irony (dramatic)- contrast between what audience knows and what a character knows Irony (situation)- contrast between what reader/character expects to happen and what really happens Irony (verbal)- contrast between what is said and what is meant Meter the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry (unit of meter= foot) Metaphor—a direct comparison of unlike objects by identification or substitution Metonymy- someting closely related to a thing is substituted for the thing itself Oxymoron- a figure of speech combining apparently contradictory or incongruous ideas Personification- ascribing human qualities to nonhuman thing or concepts Enjambment- a thought which is carried over into the following line or lines Simile~ a direct comparison of tow unlike objects, using like or as Symbolism—when a word or image signifies something other than what is literally represented. Synecdoche fart of something represents the whole object ‘Synesthesia— creating an image by combining two different senses. ‘Tone- the attitude of the author toward his/her subject Anapestic Dactylic FEET [ambic Spondaic ‘Trochaic Pyrrhic Monometer Dimeter Trimeter LINE Tetrameter Pentameter Hexameter Heptameter Octameter Couplet Triplet/Tercet LINES Quatrain Quintet Sestet Septep Octave PETRARCHAN SONNET, SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET, VILLANELLE, SESTINA, ODE, HAIKU, LIMERICK, ACROSTIC, BALLAD, BLANK VERSE, ELEGY, EPIC...