I wasn't aware that the reading of poetry required a strategy, but a writer at the Atlantic has twenty of them to offer. Some of them are good -- I especially like the one about always reading the poem aloud.
On the other hand, I'm bemused by the assumption that poetry is probably going to be something like a locked box or safe: so difficult to understand that it might require a dozen or more readings to come to the "slightest" understanding. Poetry need not be anything of the sort. The greatest poems -- the Iliad, say -- may well reward a dozen readings with continually new and deeper understandings. Yet though they have secrets and depths, they are first and foremost a form of communication. They speak to you. That is what they are for.
If they fail in that, in that first duty of poetry, they are poor examples of the art.
2 comments:
Yeah, well mostly since I bet (with out reading the article) that the author is referring to 'modern' poetry, written after WWI.
Poor examples indeed.
One commenter pointed to a reading of "The Cremation of Sam Magee" (Robert Service) by Johnny Cash. Was worth reading the article and some comments just for that.
I don't know why, but I've always been able to 'read aloud' in my head. Yes, I think it's great to actually read aloud, but one should learn to read in a number of different ways in your internal voice, as not all writings require the same sort of 'hearing' or processing.
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