The Sunday News
Charles Dube
READING on about poetry I came across more points I feel could be very helpful to the learners of poetry. These points blend in well with what was raised in last week’s article. For example, the fact that learners are often uncertain about studying poetry is emphasised again. Sometimes learners are said to look to the teacher for the “right” answer. But, we are told that there is generally no absolute right answer where poetry is concerned.
However, this last bit demands more explanation for learners to understand it. Learners should be made aware that this does not necessarily mean that they should simply write a wrong answer. There is a line of thinking to which all the divergent opinions should converge. There should be a point whereby readers or learners should agree for the discussion on the poem to progress. Learners are encouraged to build their confidence with poetry.
They should not worry too much about technical language. Read a poem properly by reading it sentence-by-sentence. Work out the voice (or voices) that you read. The voice refers to who is speaking in the poem and the point of view from which the poem is written. You should also learn to identify the situation early on. The situation is what happens in the poem. Pay attention to the characters and stories in poems.
Poems have people, places, events and twisting plots. Different people will have different opinions about poetry and will react to it in different ways. The key is to back up your view with evidence from the text. Note that when writing about different poems, each poem will present its own unique questions for you to investigate. Here is a set of questions you might ask yourself about any poem. You can use these questions as a basis for writing more than one poem, but be selective and thoughtful. Questions to think about:
Themes: What particular aspect of the theme is being considered? Viewpoint: Does the poet view the characters and emotions from a distance or is he or she “in” the poem and experiencing them? Mood: What kind of mood does the poet create? Does it change as the poem progresses? Style: What kind of images does the poet use? Does the language include a lot of metaphors and similes? Does the poet use irony? Is the style conversational, complex, formal?
Structure: How is the poem put together? A series of arguments or a story perhaps? Is the poem separated into parts? If so, how do the parts relate to each other? Period: When was the poem written? Do you think people may have held different attitudes then? Has the style, imagery and vocabulary of the poem been influenced by when it was written? Personal response: Has the poet succeeded in doing what he or she set out to do? What do you find interesting about the poem?
“Always try to make comments that show your understanding of the poem. Use technical terms only when they fit the poem that you are working on and only if you have a sensible comment to make on the features you have found. Please note that you can talk about and write poetry perfectly well without knowing many technical terms. Interestingly, sometimes technical language actually gets in the way of what you are trying to say”.
In the same vein, however, sensible use of terminology is a good thing and no one should feel they cannot use it. If a word, phrase or sentence in a poem is especially interesting or important, in your opinion, then make sure your comment deals with how it affects the poem’s meaning. Commenting on language choices — you will gain marks for showing that you can select and comment on particular language choices in the poems you study.
When commenting on language choices, you should try to make sure that the points you make address one or a number of the following questions: Which words stand out as particularly important? Which words are especially effective or surprising? Do any words have underlying meanings that you find interesting? What images are created by descriptive vocabulary and similes or metaphors? How does the language involve the senses?
Does the vocabulary create a particular mood or atmosphere? Does the vocabulary help to build tension in a poem? Commenting on poetic structure — writing about the structure of a poem need not be complicated. Poetic structure simple means how the poem has been put together and how it is organised on the page: features such as rhyme, line length and how the content is spread across stanzas all fall into this category.
There will often be lots of feature to comment on in poems you study — but remember, you should focus on features that reveal something about what the poem means or how it achieves a particular impact on the reader. For example, you might consider the following questions: Does the overall shape or structure of the poem add to your understanding? Are there any sound patterns worthy of comment — rhythms, rhymes or stresses? Does the style of language change at any points in the poem? Is there any use of repetition in the poem and how does this affect the overall meaning?
“Do not make comments like, “this poem contains lots of similes and metaphors” or it has an “ababcdcd rhyme scheme”. Comments like these will not help show your understanding of the poem. Try to comment on specific features rather than offering sweeping statements. Explain what the features reveal to you and how they add meaning and create effects”.
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