An introduction to Poetry By Meredydd Freier Reading Poetry

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An introduction to Poetry

• By
• Meredydd Freier

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Reading Poetry

• Read the poem slowly. Learning to read a poem
  slowly will not just make the poem easier to
  hear it will underscore the importance in poetry
  of each and every word. A poem cannot be read too
  slowly, and a good way for a reader to set an
  easy pace is to pause for a few seconds between
  the title and the poem's first line.
• Read in a normal, relaxed tone of voice. It is
  not necessary to give any of these poems a
  dramatic reading as if from a stage. Let the
  words of the poem do the work. Just speak clearly
  and slowly.
• Obviously, poems come in lines, but pausing at
  the end of every line will create a choppy effect
  and interrupt the flow of the poem's sense.
  Readers should pause only where there is
  punctuation, just as you would when reading
  prose, only more slowly.
• Use a dictionary to look up unfamiliar words and
  hard-to-pronounce words. To read with conviction,
  a reader needs to know at least the dictionary
  sense of every word.

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Poet Laureate

• What does the Poet Laureate do?
• Current Laureate
• Ted Kooser

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James Whitcomb Riley
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Raggedy Manby James Whitcomb Riley

• Listen carefully.
• What do you notice about the poem?
• What does it make you think about?

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Walt Whitman

• 1819 -1892
• Long Island, New York
• 1836-1841 teacher
• 1846 1847 editor
• 1848 editor in New Orleans
• 1848 1855 developed his own style of poetry

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• Even
• Walt Whitman revises!

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Poetry is written on a variety of topics
Documenting History
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• Poetry also is written to show ones emotion
• This, for example, was written by Thomas
  Jefferson
• Verses to Ellen
• Notice the pattern

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• An excerpt from Paul Reveres Ride
• What kind of poem is this an example of?

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Poems on the Web

• School Poems!
• Poetry for kids