Writing Help 129 | - ☆ Freelance Writer
Apr 06, 2013 | #1
Poetic Terms You Have to Learn
Whenever I ask students what part of English courses they find most difficult, the answer is almost always understanding and writing about poetry, and this makes sense to a certain degree. After all, dramatic works and novels both share a narrative structure which, especially in the latter case, makes understanding far less complex, and both plays and novels are so long that it is possible to grasp and remember the larger course of the action, even if some of the details are difficult to understand. Poetry, on the other hand, is far more condensed than either of the aforementioned forms, and often the failure to understand a single line or word can sabotage the understanding of the whole. Also, poetry usually eschews narrative structure, so if you are looking for a plot in a poem, you are looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place. Add to this the fact that poetry employs far more figurative language, symbolism, and formal constructions that are significant to its meaning, and you can easily see why so many find it so very daunting.
All of that having been said, however, there is still hope for even the least poetically literate among you. Many people look at the process professors and teachers lead them through when explaining poems, and think of it as some kind of linguistic magic, a power inherent in the individual that makes connections obvious and symbols clear. Certainly, there is a definite sense of magic that accompanies the feeling of success you encounter when you have devised a reading for a poem that makes sense, and which fits the evidence as it is presented to you. However, there is no inherent faculty for poetic wizardry you need to possess in order to achieve this success. Like most things, the successful analysis of poetic texts requires study and practice. An ear for meter and an eye for symbolism are important, but these too are developed as a result of study and practice, not inherited from birth.
Much of the problem students have with poetry is that they have no idea what to look for, or how to find it. I have heard many students who have noticed something interesting and important in a poem struggle to find the words to describe it, only to be cut off by a more terminologically adept classmate or impatient professor. Contrary to popular belief, there are certain aspects of poems that will strike everyone regardless of their training and poetic skill. The best poetry is so effective not only because it handles the technical considerations well, and lends itself to complex and rewarding analysis, but also because almost anyone reading it will experience a feeling, or a range of feelings, that will captivate interest and encourage deeper reflection, both of yourself and of the poem in question. Knowing how poets create these emotive responses, and how to relate specific aspects of poetic texts to your personal experience of a poem, is what this series is all about.
Although many teachers and professors forget this, the primary purpose of poetry is not to provide intellectual puzzles against which our wits can be tested. Poets do not write to provide secret codes for transmitting important government information, but rather to provide their readers with an enjoyable emotional experience on as many levels of understanding as possible. The difficult language and grammatical labyrinths many poems employ are not designed to trap the reader in a quagmire of frustration, but rather to tease the mind into producing experiences and engaging memories that regular prose cannot elicit. Learning the terms that follow will assist you immeasurably in that experience, and impress your instructors to boot.
Introduction in Poetry
Whenever I ask students what part of English courses they find most difficult, the answer is almost always understanding and writing about poetry, and this makes sense to a certain degree. After all, dramatic works and novels both share a narrative structure which, especially in the latter case, makes understanding far less complex, and both plays and novels are so long that it is possible to grasp and remember the larger course of the action, even if some of the details are difficult to understand. Poetry, on the other hand, is far more condensed than either of the aforementioned forms, and often the failure to understand a single line or word can sabotage the understanding of the whole. Also, poetry usually eschews narrative structure, so if you are looking for a plot in a poem, you are looking for the wrong thing in the wrong place. Add to this the fact that poetry employs far more figurative language, symbolism, and formal constructions that are significant to its meaning, and you can easily see why so many find it so very daunting.
All of that having been said, however, there is still hope for even the least poetically literate among you. Many people look at the process professors and teachers lead them through when explaining poems, and think of it as some kind of linguistic magic, a power inherent in the individual that makes connections obvious and symbols clear. Certainly, there is a definite sense of magic that accompanies the feeling of success you encounter when you have devised a reading for a poem that makes sense, and which fits the evidence as it is presented to you. However, there is no inherent faculty for poetic wizardry you need to possess in order to achieve this success. Like most things, the successful analysis of poetic texts requires study and practice. An ear for meter and an eye for symbolism are important, but these too are developed as a result of study and practice, not inherited from birth.Much of the problem students have with poetry is that they have no idea what to look for, or how to find it. I have heard many students who have noticed something interesting and important in a poem struggle to find the words to describe it, only to be cut off by a more terminologically adept classmate or impatient professor. Contrary to popular belief, there are certain aspects of poems that will strike everyone regardless of their training and poetic skill. The best poetry is so effective not only because it handles the technical considerations well, and lends itself to complex and rewarding analysis, but also because almost anyone reading it will experience a feeling, or a range of feelings, that will captivate interest and encourage deeper reflection, both of yourself and of the poem in question. Knowing how poets create these emotive responses, and how to relate specific aspects of poetic texts to your personal experience of a poem, is what this series is all about.
Although many teachers and professors forget this, the primary purpose of poetry is not to provide intellectual puzzles against which our wits can be tested. Poets do not write to provide secret codes for transmitting important government information, but rather to provide their readers with an enjoyable emotional experience on as many levels of understanding as possible. The difficult language and grammatical labyrinths many poems employ are not designed to trap the reader in a quagmire of frustration, but rather to tease the mind into producing experiences and engaging memories that regular prose cannot elicit. Learning the terms that follow will assist you immeasurably in that experience, and impress your instructors to boot.