Reading, Thinking and Writing
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The poem on the page
A poem is made of words
Two ways of taking about poetry
Reading poetry
Thinking about words
What the poem is about
The effect of the poem
Tone
The poem on the page
• The poems are unusual things:
☺ organised into fixed lines
☺ lines organised into verses
☺ lines that are rhythmical
☺ words that rhyme
☺ words arranged in non-standard order
☺ words used with special meanings
A poem is made of words
• Poetry is specially made. (words, sentences,
speeches and so on are not “natural” things
• Poetry is specially made : To say that poetry is
specially made is to say that it is art
• Poetry says something : Poetry is about ideas,
about feelings, about places, about people and
about events. It can argue, explore feelings,
create pictures (either detailed or impressionistic
ones) and tell stories
Two ways of talking about poetry
• To think about literature requires two kinds of
language:
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a specialised language that enables us to be
clear about the art of literature

a more general language about the subject
matter of literature
There are no formulate: Since all poems (and all
works of literature) are different from each other,
there can be no single way of writing about them
Reading poetry
• Read carefully
• Read the poem aloud
• Vary the speed from a deliberate one to
quiker one
Reading Poetry
As you read you should try to do
the following things:
Concentrate on each word
Keep in mind how the poem is developing
Listen to what the poem sounds like
(gentle, angry, thoughtful, sad…)
Be aware of how you are reacting to what
you are hearing
Notice any words that have a particularly
strong impact on you
Thinking about words
As you read, you should try to
attend to the following points:
• How the words combine to create
meanings
• How they create pictures in your mind
• How they work upon your feelings
• How they are organised to give the poem
a shape
What the poems about
To think about the words of a
poem is to think about its meaning
• The first thing you can do is be realistic
• Before you begin to think about a poem in
detail, it’s a good idea to have general
ideas as to what it’s about
The effect of the poem
• Puzzlement . It arises when you say: “how
strange” or ‘that’s odd’
• You can frame the reaction as questions:
 why does the poet say that?
 why is this particular word used?
 why does the poet move from that
subject to this?
Tone
• The best piece of advice that can be given about tone is:
- Try to imagine the poet speaking and hear in the
words his or her attitude to what is being said
The act of imagination is not always easy, so, as with all
difficult procedures, practice is essential. Since virtually
every poem can be regarded as a communication of one
person to others, every poem can be imagine as the
spoken utterance of the poet. The reader, therefore, can
always ask: Can I hear the poet’s voice in this poem?