HOW TO READ POETRY
“Learn about pines from the pine, and about bamboo
from the bamboo”—Matsuo Bashō
[Matsuo Bashō was a seventeenth-century Japanese
master of haiku. Haiku is traditionally a Japanese poem consisting of three
short lines that do not rhyme. Bashō had written a series of insightful
reflections on poetry.]
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines
poetry as literature that evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness
of experience or a specific emotional response through
language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. The
terms—‘meaning’, ‘sound’ and ‘rhythm’— highlight the three significant features
of poetry. However, in the study of
poetry, ‘sound’ and ‘rhythm’ are often relegated to the background, and
‘meaning’ gets prominence. Prof. Butcher (in his Harvard Lectures) points
out the reason for the negligence of ‘sound’ and ‘rhythm’ in poetry: “The art
of printing has done much to dull our literary perceptions….
We miss much of the charm if the eye is made to do duty also for the ear.”
Without their vocal force, the words are only ‘half alive’ on
the printed page, and the music in the words becomes faint echo’ (quoted by
W.H. Hudson).
Poetry arose from the rituals of early
agricultural societies. At first, it was in the form of magical spells recited
to ensure a good harvest.
[Magic spells/incantations were/are always loud to
supplicate benign powers or fend off evil forces.]
Prof. Butcher adds that throughout the
Greek period, and far into the days of the Roman Empire—to the third and fourth
century of our era—the custom survived of reading both prose and verse, not
silently, but aloud and in the company of others. The moral of this is clear,
says Hudson.
Poetry is ‘musical speech’. It owes much
of its beauty, its magic, its peculiar power of stirring the feelings
and arousing the imagination to its verbal felicity and varied
melodies of meter and rime. We can feel the full power of poetry
only when it addresses us through the ear. “The silent perusal of
the printed page will leave one of its principal secrets unsurprised.”
Therefore, Hudson recommends that we should make it a practice to read
our poetry aloud.
The first primitive pleasure we derive when reading poetry is the sound of words.
Words act in poetry. They manifest what they describe. Gerard Manley Hopkins
calls it “the roll, the rise, the carol, the creation.” There are numerous examples to show how
simple words create an auditory impact on the listeners, even when they can
neither comprehend the context nor the semantic significance of the lines:
Sister, a sister
calling
A master, her master
and mine!—
[The Wreck of the Deutschland--Hopkins]
Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle:
I am no traitor's uncle [Richard II, Act II, Scene iii].
The
curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
[Gray’s Elegy]
Wallace
Stevens, the American poet, asserts that the love of the words is the first
condition of a capacity to love anything in poetry at all because it is the
words that make things happen. In poetry, Stevens says, you must love
the words, the ideas and images, and rhythms with all your capacity to love
anything at all.
In an article entitled Twenty-Four Suggestions for How to Read and
Understand a Poem, George S. Wykoff provides an explicit
methodological framework for appreciating poetry. (The English Journal, Vol. 52, No3—published by
National Council of Teachers of English).
[But students of poetry must always remember
that quick-fix solutions, like the one mentioned above, offer only temporary
solutions to demystify complex artefacts like poems. No single formula can
encompass Shakespeare, Milton, and Whitman]
Some
of the noteworthy suggestions:
1.
Learn some of the circumstances that lead to the composition of the poem.
[In poems
like Easter 1916 (W. B. Yeats), Ode to a Nightingale, The
Rape of the Lock, On His Blindness, etc. circumstances
play a decisive role]
2.
Study the title. Understand each word singly, understand them in
combination. Identify any proper names. See whether the poem is
labelled a sonnet, ode, hymn, etc.
[A master
craftsman chooses only those words that convey the meaning precisely. The
title, The Raven, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, is
significant because it is the gurgling croak of the bird— Nevermore—
that makes the poet remember his beloved dead girl, Lenore. The sound also
reminds the poet of the finality of death. The title might be the most
important word because it is the first thing the reader sees. It shapes the way
the reader understands the poem. In our analysis, the title is an important clue.
It tells us what the poet wants us to think as we start reading.]
Proper names
may pose difficulties for the reader. In the final stanza of the pastoral
elegy, Lycidas, Milton inserts two proper nouns that had puzzled
generations of readers and critics alike. Now we know, thanks to zealous
commentators, that the places are in Western Spain.
Where the Great vision of the guarded mount
Looks toward Namancos and Bayona's
hold;
3. Read through the whole poem or most
of it, or read at least as far as you can without becoming confused.
4. How is the material in the poem
treated: realistically, romantically, symbolically, satirically, or humorously.
5. Do not expect the sense to end with
each line. Watch the punctuation marks. Especially pay attention to periods or
semicolons.
[Sometimes, a full stop may appear unexpectedly at
the middle of a line.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love (Sonnet 116 of
Shakespeare)]
6. Pay attention to the headnotes or
footnotes, if any.
7. Difficult words or allusions: Seek
the help of footnotes/dictionary/encyclopedia or other reference work.
8. Watch for inversions,
transposed words, phrases, insertions, and parenthetic elements. Rearrange each
sentence so that the word order becomes normal.
[“Inversion” (anastrophe) is a literary technique.
Here the order of words gets reversed to provide a particular effect of
emphasis or meter].
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome
decree (‘ Kubla Khan’ by S.T.Coleridge)
If’t be so, For Banquo’s issue have I fil’d my
mind,
For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered,
(Macbeth)
9. Read aloud slowly, watching the
punctuation.
10. Try to write a one-sentence
statement of the purpose of the poem. Try to write another sentence on the
content of the poem.
11. Try to determine what kind of poem
it is –didactic, satirical, meditative, dramatic, narrative, or lyrical.
12. Determine the mood or tone of the
poem. (joy,
sorrow, grief, sadness, consolation, faith, hope, certainty, etc.)
13. Determine the pattern of the
poem—rime scheme, metrical pattern, etc.
14. If there is an ‘I’ in the poem,
check the identity. Is ‘I’ the writer or a character created/used by the writer
to tell the story or express the ideas?
15. Obtain adequate knowledge of the
various technical terms used in poetry. (blank verse, assonance, consonance,
rime, pentameter, iambic, ode, sonnet, etc.)
16. Watch for added poetical adornments:
alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.
Notes
Alliteration =
/əlɪtəˈreɪʃ(ə)n/. Alliteration is a literary device in which a series of words
begin with the same consonant sound. A classic example is: She sells seashells
by the sea-shore.
Onomatopoeia = /ɒnə(ʊ)matəˈpiːə/
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (cuckoo, sizzle
). Other examples: 'ding,dong', 'boom'.
Simile =
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things. The
simile is usually in a phrase that begins with the words as or like. You
were as brave as a lion. They fought like cats and dogs.
Metaphor= a figure of speech
containing an implied comparison. When we apply words or phrases connected to
one thing to another thing, we get metaphors. The snow is a white blanket. He
is a shining star. The curtain of night fell upon us. These are some examples
of metaphors.
Personification =
a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea, or an animal gets human
attributes. Lightning danced across the sky. The wind howled in the night. The
owl laughed with a “hoot-hoot!”
Hyperbole =
/hī-ˈpər-bə-(ˌ)lē/ =extravagant exaggeration. The word originates from a Greek
word meaning over-casting. It is a figure of speech that involves an
exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis.
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash
this blood / Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, /
Making the green one red.” (Macbeth)
Litotes=
ˈlī-tə-ˌtēz. Litotes features a phrase that utilizes negative wording or terms
to express a positive assertion or statement. The novel is not bad.
Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration finds.
Synecdoche \
sə-ˈnek-də-kē \= a part is put for the whole (such as fifty sail for fifty
ships). Here are some examples: the word hand in offer
your hand in marriage; mouths in hungry mouths to
feed; and wheels referring to a car.
Anaphora =/əˈnaf(ə)rə/Anaphora
is a rhetorical device that features the repetition of a word or phrase at the
beginning of successive sentences, phrases, or clauses. Anaphora works as a
literary device to allow writers to convey, emphasize, and reinforce
meaning. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times; it
was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of
belief; it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light; it was the
season of Darkness. (From A Tale of Two Cities by
Charles Dickens).
Puns=
A pun is a literary device that is also known as a play on words. Puns involve
words with similar or identical sounds but with different meanings.
A classic example of a pun is from Julius
Caesar. In the first scene, a cobbler uses a lot of puns that the marshals
fail to understand.
Sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am
but, as you would say, a cobbler.
[The
cobbler has two meanings in this context. It is a pun on the profession of the
cobbler—a person who repairs shoes. It also suggests that he is the opposite of
a fine workman in that he cobbles things together in a makeshift way. In
another pun, instead of plainly stating his trade, the cobbler says he is a
mender of bad soles’].
Double entendre =
/ˌduːb(ə)l ɒ̃ˈtɒ̃dr(ə)/. The words double entendre and pun are both about
double meanings. Double entendre originated from an expression
in French, which means “double meaning.” In English, double entendre refers to
a double meaning in which one meaning is usually shocking or bawdy in its
sexual suggestiveness. Example: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 135.
This material
prepared by Dr S. Sreekumar is for
undergraduate students of Indian Universities.
These lectures on poetry contain seven
topics:
i.
Metrics,
ii.
Persona and tone,
iii.
Rhythm,
iv.
Sonnet,
v.
Stanza,
vi.
How
to read poetry, and
vii.
Appreciation of poetry.
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