The idea of a checklist for poetry would make many poets turn in their graves (to say nothing of a few living ones as well!). Some of you will already know and love poetry – good. For those of you don’t or think that poetry is difficult, or all about daffodils and sunsets (not that there is anything wrong about those topics at all); this article is designed to get you thinking about poetry more positively. The basic division in understanding poetry is between meaning and structure, but the two obviously dovetail at many levels.
This comes in three forms – unseen poems, poems from the exam board’s anthology and comparing poets, such as Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. The basic techniques are, however, the same in all poems.
There is not a topic under the sun that has not been the subject of a poem. Just picking a few at random – I can think of poems about hate, war, childbirth, Slough, roses, travel, old age and love. This list could be infinite.
• Read the poem through several times – slowly. If possible, read it aloud.
• Note the title - poets usually give a very good steer as to what a poem is about through their choice of title. For example, “Down with War’ is unlikely to be about sunbathing in Tunbridge Wells!
• In trying to understand the meaning, ask yourself important questions. Who is speaking and to who? Does this change during the poem? What is the scene and situation? What feelings does it evoke and do these change?
• Look at the visual layout of the poem. Many poems are divided into verses or stanzas. These are often treated by poets the way that writers use a paragraph to signal a change of thought or intention.
• What is the tone of the poem – angry, sad, ironic, loving, despairing, etc.?
Poets start with a blank bit of paper and some ideas; there are an infinite ways of combining the two. Indeed, Ted Hughes actually wrote a poem, The Thought Fox, about this whole process.
1. Choice of words and phrases: You have obviously heard of poetic licence but poets spend an enormous amount of time thinking about what are exactly the right words to convey their feelings and thoughts. Some poets, such as Gerald Manley Hopkins and Edward Lear, have actually invented their own words, recognisable, but new. This choice may include puns, irony, satire, double entendre, humour, anger and a lot else besides. Poets will, hopefully, try to avoid the bland, clichéd or boring.
2. Rhythm: you do not have to spend a vast amount of time, trying to understand precise rhythm patterns. So, don’t get bogged down in dactyls, longs and shorts! But do look out for the basic feel of a poem – is it a regular (or irregular) beat? Does it slow up or get faster? This can create dramatisation, imitation, emphasis and a pattern of expectation.
3. Rhyme: Many poets still use various patterns of rhyme. Check that you understand how to indicate this via the a, b, c, etc method, i.e. couplets are indicated in essays as a, a, b, b, etc. Rhyme can create a knitting effect. Some poets even used internal rhymes in one line.
4. Imagery: special use of language in a way that evokes sense impressions (usually visual). This is often found in metaphor “the transfer of a name or descriptive term to an object different from, but analogous to, that to which it is properly applicable, e.g. ‘abysmal ignorance’” Oxford English: A Guide to the Language, page 519). There is also the use of simile – an object compared to something unusual and not literal, e.g. “as strong as an ox.” Poets use this device a lot, e.g. “The evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherised upon a table” (T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock). Similes are often introduced by the words such as, ‘like’ and ‘compared to.’
5. There are a lot of technical terms associated with poetry. Don’t let them overwhelm you. The most important are:
• Enjambement - the running of one line on into another without any form of break at the end of the line.
• Alliteration – this is when there are a lot of words in close proximity beginning with the same letter or sound, e.g. Hopkins, “I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-/dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon.”
• Assonance – the close proximity of words with similar sounding parts, e.g. the use by war poets, such as Wilfred Owen, of lots of words ending in “ing” to describe action.
• Onomatopoeia – words that sound like what they are trying to describe, e.g. hurlyburly and buzz.
6. Genre is also important. Poetry comes in various forms and fashions, e.g. sonnet, blank verse, romanticism, classicism, epic and limerick, but there are many others.
Now pick a poem and have a go. You never know, this might be the start of a lifelong interest.