Learning Support Material: Poetry

Session 1: Overview of Poetry

(Please note that the materials under the title Learning Support Material: Poetry are sourced and adapted from:
Baldick, Chris (1996) Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Durr, W, LePere, J, Pescosolido, J, Bean, R and Glaser, N (1981) Awards,
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston
Roberts, E and Jacobs, H (1995) Literature, An introduction to reading and
writing (Fourth Ed), Prentice Hall Inc, New Jersey
Ruddel, R, Dillon, B and Spache, E (1978) Hand stands, Allyn and Bacon,
Inc. Boston.)

P  O  E  T  R  Y

- Poetry and poems: describe a wide variety of spoken and written forms,
   styles and patterns, and limitless subjects.

- Thus, it is not possible to make a single, comprehensive definition

- Origin: Greek word ‘poiema’ (something made or fashioned in words).

- The above meaning is applicable to both poetry and poems.

- Poet: person who writes or speaks poems


The nature of poetry

- Poems are imaginative works expressed in words that are used with
   utmost compressions, force and economy (unlike prose).

- Reading and understanding poetry should prompt us to re-examine,
   reinforce and reshape our ideas,  attitudes, feelings and our lives.


How poetry works


- Poems are often about subjects we have never experienced directly,
   never met the poet, never thought  about things in exactly the same way.

- The more effort we put to understand poetry, the greater will be our reward

- To recapture the experience of the poem, we need to understand
   the language, ideas, attitudes, and frames of reference that will
    make the poem comes alive.

How to read a poem

- Carefully, thoughtfully, sympathetically.

- Interact with the poem

- A poem employs language, imagery, rhythms, ideas, etc. The reader needs
   to open up his mind to the poet’s impact.

- No single technique for reading and appreciating poetry.

- Suggestion: read each poem more than once (aloud) and keep in mind the following:-

a. The title: always informative

b. The speaker: first person (persona: inside view) or 3rd. Person (omniscient: outside view)

c. The meanings of all words: familiar or unfamiliar

d. The poet’s setting and situation

e. The poem’s basic form and development

f. The poem’s subject and theme