Listening to Poetry

Jeremy Trabue

Description

A sad thing happens to most people somewhere between preschool and college: we unlearn our natural love of poetry, a love rooted in sound and surprise, pattern and play, discovery and delight. That loss is a tragedy that this book aims to reverse.
Based on fifteen years of teaching, and dedicated to the belief that rigor and accessibility are compatible, Listening to Poetry takes nothing for granted, and builds students’ confidence and skills from the ground up. It uses innovative, student-centered, and process-based approaches, including practical how-tos and skill-focused exercises for every subject covered.
Poems don’t have to be approached like riddles to be solved, codes to be cracked, or prisoners to be interrogated. There is a better way, and it starts right here. Don’t take our word for it, though. Listen to students who’ve read this book:
“I need to give full appreciation to this book for my new-found love of poetry... I have found myself a new hobby.”
“Before this book I was overwhelmed by poetry and felt I would never be artistic enough to create or analyze it. Now I feel very comfortable... and am excited to continue my appreciation for the art.”
“I have found my love for poetry from reading this book. I have learned how to read poetry and how to understand it.”

Sujets

• Writting
• Disciplines
• Language Arts
• Poetry

Informations

• Publié par: Chemeketa Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781943536801
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

L ISTENING TO Poetry

A N I NTRODUCTION FOR Readers AND Writers
J EREMY T RABUE
Listening to Poetry
ISBN: 978-1-943536-85-6
Edition 1.5 (Spring 2021)
2021 by Jeremy Trabue. All rights reserved.
Chemeketa Press
Chemeketa Press is a nonprofit publishing endeavor at Chemeketa Community College. Working together with faculty, staff, and students, we develop and publish affordable and effective alternatives to commercial textbooks. To learn more, visit www.chemeketapress.org .
Publisher: David Hallett
Director: Abbey Gaterud
Managing Editor: Brian Mosher
Instructional Editor: Stephanie Lenox
Design Editor: Ronald Cox IV
Manuscript Editor: Stephanie Lenox, Steve Richardson
Editorial Assistants: Nadia Isom, Taylor Wynia
Interior Design: Brice Spreadbury, Ronald Cox IV, Casandra Johns, Steve Richardson
Cover photo: olly / Adobe Stock
Text acknowledgments appear on pages 417 to 423 and constitute an extension of the copyright page.
Printed in the United States of America.
Contents
Chapter 1: Welcome Back to Poetry
What Is a Poem?
A Poem Has Form
A Poem Is Like a Story, a Song, and a Picture
A Poem Is a Poem
Common Mistakes
Analyzing a Poem
The Basic Reading of a Poem
Using this Book
Chapter 2: The Form of a Poem
Form as Structure
Lines
Stanzas
Form as Pattern
Formal Poems
Semiformal Poems
Open Form Poems
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 3: The Voice of a Poem
The Speaker
Speaker Versus Author
Point of View
Participant Speakers
Unreliable Participant Speakers
Nonparticipant Speakers
Addressee
The Speaker and Point of View in Out, Out-
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 4: The Feeling of a Poem
Tone
Tone in Out, Out-
The Speaker s and Author s Attitudes
Irony
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 5: The Situation of a Poem
Setting
Setting in Out, Out-
Types of Settings
Characters
Characters in Out, Out-
Types of Characters
Action
Action in Out, Out-
Action in Imagination and Memory
Not Much Action at All
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 6: Structural Language
Diction
Diction in Out, Out-
Denotation and Connotation
Uncommon Diction
Neologisms
Archaic Diction
Syntax
Syntax in Out, Out-
Complex Syntax
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 7: Descriptive Language
Imagery
Imagery in Out, Out-
Imagery and Association
Figurative Language
The Basic Structure of Figurative Language
Implied Figures of Speech
Figurative Language in Out, Out-
Extended Figures of Speech
Conceits
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 8: Symbolic Language
Allusions
Allusion in Out, Out-
Recognizing Allusions
Symbolism
Symbolism in Out, Out-
Symbols as Allusions
Symbols as Figures of Speech
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 9: Musical Language, Part 1
The Basic Musicality of Language
Musicality in Counting-Out Rhyme
Musicality in Cleaning Magazines
The Syllable
Stressed and Unstressed Syllables
Recognizing Stressed and Unstressed Syllables
Stressed and Unstressed Syllables in Counting Out Rhyme
Rhyme
Varieties of Rhyme
Rhyme in Counting Out Rhyme
Rhyme Scheme
Identifying the Rhyme Scheme in Counting Out Rhyme
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 10: Musical Language, Part 2
Alliteration
Alliteration in Counting-Out Rhyme
Strong Alliteration and Old English Form
Consonance and Assonance
Consonance
Assonance
Consonance and Assonance in Counting-Out Rhyme
Onomatopoeia
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 11: Rhythmic Language
Rhythm Basics
Accentual Rhythm in Counting-Out Rhyme
Meter
A Brief History of English Meter
Meter as Formal Pattern
The Foot
The Iamb
The Trochee
The Anapest
The Dactyl
The Spondee
The Pyrrhic
The Minor Ionic
Metrical Feet in Metrical Feet
The Line
Scansion
Recognizing the Feet
Recognizing the Meter
Scanning Counting-Out Rhyme
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 12: Visual Elements
Arrangement
Arrangement in l(a
Arrangement in Why I Don t Know Home
Arrangement s Subtler Effects
Typography
Typography in l(a
Expressive Typography
Unconventional Typography
Concrete Poetry
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 13: Reading the Whole Poem
Reviewing All the Elements
Form in Why It Almost Never Ends with Stripping
Speaker, Point of View, and Tone
Situation
Language
Music
Visual Elements
Summary
How the Poem Makes You Feel
Final Thoughts
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Chapter 14: Meaning and Appreciation
Deepening Your Understanding
Does the Poem Ask Questions?
Questions in Why It Almost Never Ends with Stripping
Does the Poem Challenge You?
Challenges in Why It Almost Never Ends with Stripping
Does the Poem Make Arguments?
Arguments in Why It Almost Never Ends with Stripping
Forming Interpretations
Deepening Your Appreciation
Discovering Your Reasons
Comparing with Other Poems
Articulating Your Appreciation
Final Thoughts
Having Poetry in Your Life
Exercises
For Readers
For Writers
Appendix A: Common Poetic Forms
Ballad Meter
Blank Verse
Ghazal
Haiku
Old English Meter
Sestina
Sonnet
Core Features
The Italian, or Petrarchan, Sonnet
The English, or Shakespearian, Sonnet
Villanelle
Not Even the Tip of an Iceberg
Appendix B: Writing about Poetry
Conventions for Writing about Poetry
Paraphrase and Summary
Paraphrase
Creating a Paraphrase
Paraphrasing The Sun Rising
Summary
Creating a Summary
Summarizing The Sun Rising
Examples of Paraphrase and Summary
Checklists for Paraphrase and Summary
Paraphrase Checklist
Summary Checklist
Beyond Paraphrase and Summary
Poet Biographies
Poem Index
Key Terms: Glossary Index
Acknowledgments
For Selby, Kelson, and Portia, who kept believing it was worth it.
Chapter 1
Welcome Back to Poetry
Key terms: prose, form, understanding, appreciation, analyze, element, analyze/analysis, basic reading, paraphrase

Introduction to Poetry
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
5 I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
10 across the surface of a poem

waving at the author s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
15 They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.
Billy Collins, 1988
If you read a nursery rhyme to toddlers, they won t interrupt you to ask what it means. They certainly won t tie it to a chair and begin beating it with a hose. Instead, they ll laugh and clap and ask you to read it again-and again. They respond to the poem as people respond to songs, not as people respond to stories. The poem is delightful because of the rhyme, rhythm, and sound of the words, even if the words make no sense to toddlers-or to anyone.
Let s fast-forward fifteen or twenty years and check on those delighted toddlers as they sit down to take their first college literature class. If they now read a poem that makes no sense to them, they re not likely to be delighted by the rhyme, rhythm, and sound of the words. They want to know what it means. They don t respond to the poem as a song anymore, but as a story-or worse, as a problem to be solved, a code to be deciphered.
Something sad happened between preschool and college. The toddlers became students who unlearned their natural love of poetry, a love that is rooted in sound and surprise, pattern and play, discovery and delight.
This is sad because life can be dull and gray enough without cutting ourselves off from those amusements that are our natural birthright. And poetry is certainly one of those amusements. It s also sad because, to slightly misquote Robert Frost, if poetry begins in delight, it ends in wisdom. Poetry is not only one of our primal amusements, it s one of the best tools we have for rendering our lives comprehensible and meaningful.
Let s try to reverse this tragedy. Let s stop beating poems with hoses and relearn how to listen to them, have a conversation with them, enjoy them the way those toddlers did. This book will help you take the first few important steps in that direction. We ll start right away with a closer look at what poems are and how you can learn to really listen to them.
What Is a Poem?
Not knowing what to expect can be difficult. If you go to a football game without understanding the rules or that there are frequent and often long breaks between plays, you re going to be confused and bored.
It s the same with any art form. If you don t know what you re getting, or if you expect something different from what you re getting, then you re likely to be frustrated or disappointed. Your first job, then, is to make sure you know what you re getting into when you meet a poem.
A Poem Has Form
The first quality most people notice about a poem is the shape of the poem. When they see a poem on a screen or piece of paper, the look of the poem is what makes them think, Oh. This is a poem.
Look again at the Billy Collins poem at the start of the chapter. It just looks different from the way most books or magazine articles or letters look. It s arranged in lines that don t run all the way to the right edge of the page. Normal prose writing-like the text you re reading right now-is shaped into paragraphs and made up of lines that run from one margin to the next. In the poem, however, some lines are longer and some are shorter, and they all stop and