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Poetry: Introduction

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Poetry

What is Poetry?

"What is poetry? Pressed for an answer, Robert Frost made a classic reply, 'Poetry is the kind of thing poets write.'" Another way of putting it might have been: "Poetry is a rhythmical composition of words expressing an attitude, designed to surprise and delight, and to arouse an emotional response." (Literature: An Introduction, p.628) The poet uses words to create three art forms in one: music, storytelling and painting. It is one third a verbal art, one third a visual art, one third an auditory art.

A poem is broken down into:

  1. The Image, the word-pictures, is the visual element of the poem. Pay attention to the sounds the words make.
  2. The Line establishes the poem's rhythm to create emotions.
  3. The Sentence communicates the meaning of the poem. Even when there are no periods to identify the sentence end.

Frances Mayes' The Discovery of Poetry (p. 8) defines the three traditional types of poetry this way:

  1. A lyric poem is a songlike poem. Examples: Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare; Go lovely Rose by Edmund Waller; Hope is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson.
  2. A narrative poem is a story poem. Examples:The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe; The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
  3. A dramatic poem demonstrates conflict. Examples: The Law of the Jungle by Rudyard Kipling; The Laboratory by Robert Browning.

Discovering Poetry

Library Quick LInks

10 Poets to Know

Rumi

Rumi's imaginary on a tiling art . Yeni Qapi, Istanbul
Date 21 July 2017
Source Own work
Author Chyah

Wiliam Shakespeare

Artist: John Taylor
Source: National Portrait Gallery

Basho

Kinkoku, Yokoi (1761-1832): A portrait of the poet Basho, with his most famous poem "An old pond - a frog jumps in -" (c.1820). From a collection of portraits of Basho and his disciples along with their respective haiku poems. Haikai Gunsen No Zu ('Portraits Of Haiku Poets').
Source: http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/britishlibrary/controller/subjectidsearch?id=9770

Walt Whitman

Author: Matthew Brady
Circa 1860 and 1865
Source: National Archives and Records Administration 

Emily Dickinson

Created by William C. North, 
The original daguerreotype is held by the Archives & Special Collections at Amherst College.
Source of this image: University of Illinois at at Urbana-Champaign

Portrait of Langston Hughes

Author: Carl Van Vechten
Feb. 29, 1936
Source: Library of Congress

Portrait of Dylan Thomas

15 June 2013
Author & Source: Gianpiero Actis

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath, sitting sideways to the camera
Author: Giovanni Giovannetti/Grazia Neri
​Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/synaes/5110600085

Maya Angelou

Date: Feb. 26, 2009
Author: Adria Richards
Source: Flickr: My Heroes - Maya Angelou connected with countless people through her powerful poetry

Derek Walcott

Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize in Literature 1992; picture taken at his honorary dinner, Amsterdam, May 20th 2008
Source File of the Werkgroep Caraibische Letteren, The Netherlands
Author Bert Nienhuis
Permission (Reusing this file):
Permission is granted by me, Michiel van Kempen, secretary and thesaurier of the Werkgroep Caraibische Letteren; by courtesy of the photographer Bert Nienhuis. 

Suggestions on how to read a poem

When I come across a new poem, these are the steps I follow:

  1. Read the poem to yourself.
  2. If the poem appeals to you, continue.
  3. Look up the unfamiliar words.
  4. Read the poem aloud several times.
  5. Read the poem slowly. Line by Line.
  6. Read the poem sentence by sentence
  7. Does the poem rhyme? If so, I try to ignore the rhyme.
  8. Figure out who's speaking and what the circumstances are.
  9. Close your eyes and see the images.
  10. Listen to the rhythm and the sounds of the poem.
  11. Does the poem appeal to all five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch?
  12. Try reading the poem in different ways: as a song, as a speech, as a conversation, etc.
  13. If possible, listen to a reading of the poem.
  14. Read the poem as if it were written just for you.
  15. Read the poem as if you wrote it.
  16. Don't over analyze.
  17. Don't be intimidated.

Suggestions on how to write a poem

  • Keep a notebook.
  • Read poetry. Let other poets inspire you.
  • Explore the dictionary to discover the beauty of the English language.
  • Remember poetry is not prose.
  • Write a poem without rhyming. (When we rhyme, we focus on the rhyme and not the meaning of the poem.)
  • When writing a poem, use all five senses. Ask:
    • What do I want the reader to see?
    • What do I want the reader to hear?
    • What do I want the reader to smell?
    • What do I want the reader to touch or feel?
  • Set a mood: Choose words that emphasize that mood.
  • Use concrete words, not abstract words.
  • Use a thesaurus.
  • Write the poem line by line, completing a line before going onto the next line.
  • Nouns and adjectives matter more than verbs in poetry. 
  • Use adjectives to create specifics.
  • Eliminate unneeded words. (Poems are made up of concentrated language unlike prose.)
  • Don't tell your reader what to feel.
  • Try to avoid sentimentality which is excessive emotion. 
  • Avoid clichés.
  • Don't rush.
  • Here are some subjects to write about: a place, a past experience, a particular person, an object, an emotion, an event, a time of year, a time of day, the weather, an animal, an activity, a piece of music, a work of art, an anecdote or story.
  • Use a prompt. A PROMPT is a trigger to inspire the subconscious to create.
  • Some prompts:
    • Choose a word from a foreign language dictionary and write a poem about it.
    • Read a poem, take a line from it, and write a new poem.
    • Make a list.
    • Write about the events of an average day.
    • Pretend you are visiting a town the first time. What things do you see?
    • Write a poem about building a house. Describe each room and each piece of furniture in the house. How will the house look when you have completed it.
    • Look at a picture. Focus on something or someone in the picture.
    • Re-write a fairy tale as a poem.

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