The Sunday News
Charles Dube
I BELIEVE the study of poetry has been demystified in schools as most schools have encouraged learners to study poetry in their literature studies. I say this because some time back the mere suggestion of studying poetry used to scare both teachers and learners. Maybe the change of attitude is a result of the new syllabi where we find more of contemporary poems recommended for study.
Learners respond better to familiar territory. Contemporary poetry obviously has familiar themes. There are steps to follow which will help learners uncover the surface and deeper meanings in the poem. They should read for meaning in the same way as they do for prose and drama. The first step is to read the poem carefully. What this means is to sound out words in their heads or by reading aloud. As they read they should look up unfamiliar words form a good dictionary or online.
They should annotate the poem. This is done through making brief comments on the key words and ideas in the poem. Write a summary — that is outline concisely what happens in each stanza or section of the poem. As they do that learners can think of the following: What happens? What is being described — a person, place, thing or event? What are the feelings in the poem? What are the ideas in the poem? Who is addressed in the poem and who is it addressed to?
You can highlight clues about the poem’s deeper meanings. Think of the following: What are the poet’s main feelings and ideas? What is the poet’s attitude towards the subject discussed in the poem? You can also list the poem’s deeper meanings by creating a list of the main feelings and ideas in the poem. Above all read the poem. Teachers obviously offer simpler ways of approaching poetry. Do not take suggestions proffered here as the only ones and the best of all.
There are many versions of introducing poetry to learners. Some experts suggest WIST as a way of approaching poetry. WIST is an acronym of: What the poem is about? I stands for: What is the writer’s intention? S stands for sense of the poem — what do you make of the poem’s meaning? T stands for tone of the poem. When we look at this, there are a number of approaches which are basically the same but differ in expression.
All that is required is to read the poems with understanding and explain what they are about. Deduce the poet’s attitude to the subject under discussion, describe feelings of the poet as well as your own feelings towards the subject, and identify literary devices used by the poet. Remember it is not enough to identify devices such as similes, metaphors, personification to mention just a few, you must say why you think the poet has those particular words in the poem.
Some poets make use of these non-literal images mentioned above to make the experiences they describe more vivid to the readers. These terms have been explained a number of times on this page, but, for starters I will define them again. A simile is the comparison of one thing to another. You will find it used a lot in a number of anthologies. As a learner, your response to a poem involves looking closely at the choices of words made by poets, and considering their intended effects on the reader.
More advice proffered here is, as you read poems, you should be alert to the effects created by the sound of particular words as well as the rhythm of particular lines. There may be something significant about: the sounds of particular words and lines and the length of words and lines. Something unusual about the rhythm is always worthy of the learner’s attention. In such cases the rhythm will clearly reinforce the meaning.
Two common sound devices used by poets are alliteration and onomatopoeia. Alliteration — is the repetition of consonant sounds in words which are close together. Onomatopoeia — a word which sounds like the thing it describes. Like with imagery, you need to do more than merely spot and define sound devices such as alliteration and onomatopoeia. If you are to achieve high marks in essays you need to explore the effects such devices create and how they help convey the meaning.
Above all this, learners need to understand why poets use literary devices. Literary devices are the tools of the poet’s trade.
They enable the poet to communicate effectively with the reader. Poets use literary devices to: help us see images in our minds, through simile, metaphor, personification and symbolism, help us hear the feeling in the poems through onomatopoeia and the like as shown before, help us shape ideas into patterns by using rhythm, rhyme, repetition and set structures.
Poets select words and phrases carefully to prompt specific emotions and create very precise effects. Think about highlighting or underlining key words in questions; for example, ‘‘effects’’ and ‘‘feelings’’ as this will help you to remain focused on the main points of the question while writing your response. When responding to poetry questions you need to back up your ideas by referring closely to the text. Short quotations are more often more effective than long ones.
Put your quotation into context by saying what it is about and explain what effect it creates. Remember that you can embed a short quotation into your own sentence by marking it with quotation marks. There will definitely be more discussions on the responses to poetry to help learners have a better appreciation of the subject.
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