Lesson 4.2 Reading a Lyric Poem
On standardized reading tests, you are likely to be asked to read and analyze a poem. In most
cases, the poem will be a lyric—a short poem that expresses a speaker’s emotions and
thoughts in concrete, precise, musical language.
Students usually have more problems with poetry than with any other kind of literature.
However, reading poetry doesn’t have to be difficult. With the right approach, you’ll find
that reading poetry is not that difficult; in fact, reading poetry (and writing it) can be a lot
of fun.
In the Renaissance era, four to five hundred years ago, well-to-do, powerftil people— kings
and queens, lords and ladies—often sent lyric poems to one another. These poems were
like personal letters. Today, people still sometimes write lyric poems for the same purpose.
In fact, the simplest way to think about a lyric poem is to consider it a kind of letter from
the poem’s speaker. Like a letter, the poem tells us what someone thinks and feels. Let’s
look at an example:
Have You Forgotten?
by James Worley
The curiosity of cats, observed, can enable men to retrieve infancy:
some sights and sounds and the movements bridging them
entice the kitten and the child alike:
the drip of faucets, the slide of sinkside streams,
the play of light reflected to a wall, the crumpled paper breathing on the
floor— have you forgotten? watch a cat!
return!
When reading a poem, don’t be put off by the division of the poem into lines. Remember that
most poems, like stories, are written in sentences. Don’t worry about the line breaks.
Simply read each sentence in the poem separately, and try to paraphrase it, or put it into
your own words. Let’s try this with James Worley’s poem.
The first statement in the poem is “The curiosity of cats, observed, / can enable men to retrieve
infancy.” In other words, if we observe, or watch, how curious cats are, we can become
like children again. The second statement in the poem is “[S]ome sights and sounds and
the movements bridging them / entice the kitten and the child alike.” In other words,
children and kittens are enticed, or attracted, by the same sights, sounds, and movements.
The poem then presents a list of the kinds of things that kittens and children are attracted
to: dripping faucets, streams of water sliding down
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the sides of sinks, light reflected and “playing” on a wall, crumpled paper “breathing” on the
floor. The speaker then asks the reader a question, “[H]ave you forgotten?”
Finally, the poem promises that if you watch a cat, you can “return,” or go back to a childhood
frame of mind. In other words, if you do not remember what it was like to be a child, if you
do not remember how to take joy in the tiny, little events occurring all around you, simply
watch a cat, and you’ll remember a time when you, too, enjoyed all the little miracles in
life.
The first step in understanding a poem, then, is to paraphrase it, or put its sentences into your
own words. If you wish, you can jot down the notes for your paraphrase on scrap paper.
Sometimes, when attempting to paraphrase, you will encounter words in poems that you don’t
understand. For example, you might not have known the meaning of the word entice in line
4 of “Have You Forgotten?” When reading a poem on your own, you can look up such
difficult words in a dictionary. When you are reading a poem during the test, it will be
helpful to be able to figure out such words from their context.
For information on using context clues to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words, see
Lesson 3.4.
The next step toward understanding a lyric poem is to ask yourself about the speaker and about
the subject. Imagine that you are an anthropologist in the year 2225 and that you have just
dug up a box. In the box you have found a journal, and in the journal you have found the
poem “Have You Forgotten?” What does the poem tell you about its speaker? Who was
this person? What was this person speaking about? What did this person think and feel? To
answer questions like this, you need to look for clues in the poem. Again, if you wish, you
can list in the margins of your Reading Book things that the poem reveals about the
speaker:
The speaker.
—is interested in cats
—is probably a man because of the reference, in line 2, to “men”
—must be older, no longer a child, because he speaks about “retriev[ing] infancy”
—thinks that people ought to observe cats
—thinks that observing cats will make it possible for people to “retrieve infancy”
—seems to feel that retrieving infancy, or becoming like a child again, is a good thing
—is very observant about little things (dripping faucets, light playing on the wall, etc.)
—wants us to watch cats so that we can remember what we were like when we were children
and full of curiosity ourselves
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After you have paraphrased the poem, have identified the subject, and have listed the
characteristics, interests, ideas, and feelings of the speaker, you are ready to state the
poem’s theme, or main idea. In a lyric poem, the theme is the main message that the
speaker wants to communicate:
Theme: Watching cats can help people to regain the sort of curiosity— wonder about and
interest in ordinary things—that they had when they were children.
Finally, look for the special literary techniques used in the poem. These techniques include
such features as rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, metaphor, and simile. If you have forgotten
what any of these terms mean, go back to the previous lesson and review them.
Literary Techniques in the Poem “Have You Forgotten?”
Alliteration
—curiosity of cats
—slide of sinkside streams
Rhyme
—slide of sinkside
Metaphor
—movements connecting sights and sounds are compared to bridges
Personification
—light is said to “play”
—crumpled paper, moving on the floor, is described as “breathing”
Finally, think about these techniques and ask yourself how they reinforce the poem’s meaning.
The alliteration and rhyme in the poem make it more musical and thus more memorable.
Describing movements as bridges reinforces the idea that watching a cat serves as a kind of
bridge back to one’s own childhood. Personifying the light and the paper on the floor tell
us that if we exercise our curiosity, then little things in the world will seem more
interesting. They will “come alive.”
Reading a Poem During the Exam
If one of the works that you are asked to read for the test is a poem, begin by reading the poem
through quickly a couple of times, Then examine the poem, following the steps outlined on
the chart on the next page.
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Steps to Understanding an Lyric Poem
~
First, paraphrase the poem. That is, restate it to yourself, sentence by sentence, in your own
words.
~
Second, look for clues in the poem that tell you what the speaker is speaking about—his or
her subject.
~
Third, based on clues in the poem, identify what the poem reveals about the speaker’s
interests, ideas, and feelings.
~
Fourth, identify the main idea, or theme, that the speaker of the poem is expressing.
~
Fifth, note any special literary techniques used in the poem, such as vivid imagery or
metaphors.
~
Sixth, think about how these techniques reinforce the poem’s theme.
If it is permitted, use the margins of your test booklet to take notes on any of the information
gleaned by following the steps described above. See the example to the right.
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Your Turn
A. Choose one poem from the next page and do the following on your own paper:
1
First, paraphrase the poem. That is, restate it, sentence by sentence, in your own words.
2
Second, look for clues in the poem that tell you what the speaker is speaking about—his or
her subject. List that subject.
3
Third, based on clues in the poem, make a list telling what the poem reveals about the
speaker’s interests, ideas, and feelings.
4
Fourth, state the main idea, or theme, that the speaker of the poem is expressing.
5
Fifth, make a list of the literary techniques used in the poem.
6 Sixth, make a few notes to yourself about how these techniques reinforce the poem’s theme.
B. Write a paragraph explaining the theme, or main idea, of the poem that you chose for
Exercise A. Begin your paragraph with a topic sentence that states the title, author, and
theme of the poem, like this:
The theme of James Worley’s poem “Have You Forgotten” is that by observing the
playful curiosity of cats, we can remember the wonder that we felt about the world
when we were very young.
After your topic sentence, write at least five or six additional sentences that present evidence
from the poem to support your topic sentence. Use transitions, such as first, second, third,
then, next, finally, in conclusion, and so on, to connect your ideas.
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Poems for Practice
Brahma1
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the red slayer thinks he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I the hymn the Brahmin2 sings.
The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven;3
But thou, meek lover of the good!
Find me, and turn thy back4 on heaven.
by Edgar Allan Poe
Alone
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring— From the same source I
have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone— And all I lov’d— I lov’d
alone— Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still— From the torrent, or the
fountain— From the red cliff of the mountain— From the sun that
round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold— From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by— From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—
1 Brahma. Supreme god of the Hindu religion. Emerson, a Unitarian minister and one of the greatest of the
nineteenth-century American poets, was strongly influenced by Hindu sacred texts and philosophy.
2 Brahmin. Member of the highest caste of Hindu society, the priestly caste.
3 the Sacred Seven. Lesser gods. Hindus are polytheistic, believing in many gods, but all, according to Hindu
belief, are subordinate to and part of the one supreme god.
4 turn thy back. According to Hindu philosophy, all things, good and bad, are part of Brahma, and people should
therefore embrace life in all its complexity. Emerson’s line suggests turning away from simplistic ideas and
embracing a more inclusive spirituality.
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