Download What is poetry and why read it?

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What do you know about poetry?
WHAT IS POETRY AND WHY READ IT?
“Poetry is language at its most
distilled and most powerful.”
WHAT IS POETRY?
*Most simply, a form of literature written in lines (verse) instead of
sentences (prose).
*Noun. the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting
pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.
*Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful. –Rita Dove
*Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human
mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.
–Alan Ginsberg
*Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. –T.S. Eliot
WHY READ POETRY?
“Read poetry because the political and environmental realities make you weep and
poetry can help. Poetry can help. Read poetry because it offers no answers, no
advice, no cures, just understanding and love and timing. Read poetry because the
world is more than the facts of the world. Read poetry because you don't have
enough mystery in your life and you want to become even more mysterious (re:
attractive) than you are already are. Read poetry because you have poems in you
that need to be written. Read poetry because birds, honeysuckle, lit windows, new
shoes, walking outside, donuts, lipstick, fresh peaches, cocktails, kisses in the rain
produce in you a feeling that you never want to lose, but you will, and the only thing
you can do is pay better attention when the feeling comes again. And here it comes.
And there it goes. Was it as rich as it could be? Life is so short, my friends. But poetry
makes it last a bit longer. It does. It is true.” –Don Chelotti
Dead Poet's Society
“POETRY IS MUSIC WRITTEN FOR THE HUMAN VOICE.”---MAYA ANGELOU
♥Poetry loves an audience and is written to be heard.
♥Poetry is news—news of the mind, news of the heart.
♥Poetry flows from different geographies and cultures, and infuses new idioms and
energy into language.
THE POET’S LANGUAGE
♥Image: brings an experience to life by appealing to the senses. (sight, sound, touch,
taste, smell)
♥Symbol: carries a literal meaning while having a larger significance.
♥Metaphor: imaginative comparisons that may be pale when spelled out in literal
terms.
THE POET’S LANGUAGE (CONT.)
♥Rhyme: an echo produced when the poet repeats the same sounds (end rhyme, slant
or off rhyme, internal rhyme)
♥Stanza: a set of related lines with a pattern (may be repeated)
♥Meter: regulates the rhythm of ordinary speech
♥Foot: two syllables
HOW TO APPROACH POETRY
*Always read poems at least three times.
*First read – Look for words/lines that stand out or things
that don’t make sense; get a general “feel” for the poem.
*Second read – Start to notice figurative language,
patterns, and meaning.
*Third read – Using what you’ve gathered, read again.
While the act of reading a poem silently to oneself can be
a very powerful, private experience, it’s useful to also
read poetry OUT LOUD to hear the meter and the rhythm!
HINTS TO READING POETRY
♥Focus on words-- decode the meanings. In a short poem, every word counts.
♥Have a personal response– As readers, we experience a poem based upon private
agendas, emotional needs, and moral values.
♥Focus in a pattern—a poem may ask a question and then work out an answer, or
play off of opposites.
THE OPEN EYE
♥Poets take you into a world of language. They expect you to read their poems with
an open eye and willing ears. Look; marvel at what you see.
♥Think with abstraction: happiness, freedom, and honor. Imagine the vivid language.

THIS IS JUST TO SAY
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS 1883-1963
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
THE ROSE THAT GREW FROM CONCRETE
BY TUPAC SHAKUR 1971-1996
Did you hear about the rose that grew
from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it
learned to walk with out having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams,
it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete
when no one else ever cared.
USEFUL TERMS WHEN TALKING ABOUT POETRY
Types of poems:
Ballad- Any light, simple song, especially one of sentimental or romantic character, having two or more
stanzas all sung to the same melody.
Blank Verse- Unrhymed lines of poetry usually in iambic pentameter.
verse.
Plenty of modern poetry is written in blank
Elegy- A poem mourning the dead.
Epic- A long poem narrating the adventures of a heroic figure—for example, Homer’s The Odyssey.
Free Verse- Poetry with no set meter (rhythm) or rhyme scheme.
Haiku- A major form of Japanese verse, written in 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, and
employing highly evocative allusion and comparisons, often on the subject of nature or one of the seasons.
Lyric- A type of poetry that expresses the poet’s emotions.
It often tells some sort of brief story, engaging the reading in
Sonnet- A fourteen-line poem written iambic pentameter.
Different kinds of sonnets have different rhyme schemes.
the experience.
USEFUL TERMS WHEN TALKING ABOUT POETRY
Organization of Poetry:
Couplet- A pair of rhyming lines in a poem often from the
rest of the poem. Shakespeare’s sonnets all end in rhyme.
Stanza- A section of lines separated from the sections
before and after it; a verse “paragraph.”
Quatrain- A four-line stanza
Caesura – A space in the middle of a line of poetry meant
to make the reader pause.
USEFUL TERMS WHEN TALKING ABOUT POETRY
The Sounds and Rhythm of Poetry
Alliteration: The repetition of first consonants in a group of words as in “Peter Piper
Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.”
Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds as in “Days wane away.”
Consonance: the repetition of consonant sounds (example: humming and slimmer;
steaks, clocks, and smoky)
Internal rhyme: A rhyme that occurs within one line such as “He’s King of the Swing.”
Slant rhyme: Beginning and end sounds the same; middle sound is different. (example: Ball &
bell)
Iambic Pentameter – HEARTBEAT
METHOD OF ANNOTATION –TP-CASTT
Title
Paraphrase
Connotation
Attitude
Shifts
Title
Theme
I HEAR AMERICA SINGING
Walt Whitman 1819-1892
1) I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
2) Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
3) The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
4) The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
5) The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the
6) steamboat deck,
7) The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
8) The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon
9) intermission or at sundown,
10) The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl
11) sewing or washing,
12) Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
13) The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust,
14) friendly,
15) Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
I, TOO – PAIR WORK
Langston Hughes 1902-1967
1) I, too, sing America.
2) I am the darker brother.
3) They send me to eat in the kitchen
4) When company comes,
5) But I laugh,
6) And eat well,
7) And grow strong.
8) Tomorrow,
9) I’ll be at the table
10) When company comes.
11) Nobody’ll dare
12) Say to me,
13) “Eat in the kitchen,”
14) Then.
15) Besides,
16) They’ll see how beautiful I am
17) And be ashamed—
18) I, too, am America.