How to Read Poetry
Introduction
How do you read poetry? Poetry is odd to read at first. Are you supposed to emphasize rhymes? Do you pause at the end of every line? What about punctuations like commas, and periods? In this article, I’ll give you practical tips on how to read poetry.
Patience is the key
In today’s world, we binge watch shows, stream the latest pop singles, and scroll endless social media feeds. The worst part is, these things are background noise as we multitask ourselves to death. We are used to understanding the things we consume with little attention or effort on our part. The result is that we consume things that are shallow, with no actual substance.
So, poetry has become exasperating and unenjoyable. As we’ll discover, the meaning of poetry is not always plain; it takes intentional focus and effort to understand. But, don’t let that scare you, I know you can do it! Patience is the key. It can take time to comprehend a poem after reading it. This is a feature, not a bug. Poetry is something to be patiently explored. It’s okay to take a deep breath and slow down; there is no rush.
Read it like normal
Ordinary writing or speech without special attention to the rhythm of the words is called prose. A chat with your best friend and this article are examples of prose. The first time you read a poem, it’s best to read it like prose. This means paying attention to punctuation, but not placing special emphasis on line breaks, rhythm, or rhymes. As you become more familiar with a poem, you will look for these nuances.
A poem can contain words that are unfamiliar to you, especially if it’s older, or translated from another language. Don’t be afraid to have a dictionary nearby to lookup unfamiliar words. Patience is the key to enjoying poetry. Taking the time to fully understand it will unlock its beauty. You may also be surprised when you look up words you thought you knew the meaning of.
Below, we will look at punctuation, line breaks, and rhymes to understand their use in poetry better. Don’t worry, this won’t be a boring grade school English lesson.
Punctuation
In English, punctuation serve a myriad of purposes. They help the reader understand the text by organizing it and giving it structure. Punctuation is used to separate ideas, as well as connect them. When reading poetry, you treat punctuation the same as when you read prose. Take a slight pause at commas, colons, semicolons, and dashes and extended pauses at end-of-sentence punctuation, like periods, question marks, and exclamation points.
A poet will use punctuation for clarity in communication, but also for creative purposes.
Staring into vast and endless blue;
my chest bears such a weight.
Lifted only by the sight of you;
the day and night dire wait…
The semicolons and period help you understand the flow of ideas, and the ellipsis adds to the feeling of waiting. Poetry uses punctuation for both clarity and creativity.
Line breaks
In English, when a sentence is too long to fit on one line, a line break occurs and it continues on the line below. This happens in poetry as well, but often the poet will place line breaks in specific places for creative purposes. Look at this haiku, for example.
Yes, it is true
that anyone, even you,
can write a haiku.
Here is the poem again without manual line breaks.
Yes, it is true that anyone, even you, can write a haiku.
When you see the poem with manual line breaks, you understand the structure and rhyme. The haiku loses its structure without the line breaks and becomes a quippy sentence.
What if you only hear the poem? Placing a comma at the end of the first line helps you hear the structure and rhyme. However, using a comma in that way is incorrect. This doesn’t mean poets will use incorrect punctuation. Rather, it highlights the powerful use of intentional line breaks, and the reward of consuming a poem in multiple ways.
Rhyme
Sometimes, we are like a poet and we don’t even know it. We don’t try, but we rhyme all the time. All jokes aside, rhyme is a potent tool in the arsenal of a poet. Rhymes can be both simple and complex; the ways they can be used are only limited by the poet’s imagination. Rhyming is also optional, so there may be no rhymes. When you read a poem, don’t overemphasize the rhymes, allow them to flow naturally. Look at our yearning lover again.
Staring into vast and endless blue;
my chest bears such a weight.
Lifted only by the sight of you;
the day and night dire wait…
Both rhymes in this poem are easy to spot; they are perfect rhymes at the end of each clause. You can understand the connection and meaning of the words when you see the poem. But, you might reverse the definitions of “weight” and “wait” if you only hear the poem. This would likely be intentional by the poet and neither is incorrect.
Conclusion
Read a poem like a normal sentence the first few times. You will not understand some things. With some external reading and thinking, you’ll uncover amazing things. Take your time, go slowly. Once you have read the poem a few times and understand its basic meaning, you can begin looking for details such as meter, punctuation, line breaks, and rhyme. Remember, patience is the key to enjoying poetry.
If you are looking for poetry to read, check out the poetry section.