The Elements of Poetry: A Comprehensive Course for High Schools and Colleges: Understanding Poetry, #1

By Jorges P. Lopez

Poetry is one of the most challenging subjects. It has been a big challenge both to study it and even to write it because it has inherent rules that determine how it works. To interpret it, understand it or even write it, one needs to understand these rules. Any good poetry enthusiast, critic or writer begins here. This book tries to make the reader understand the bulk of these rules. It uses some of the most exciting and popular poetry through time to examines poetry rules and to diagnose the most common problems that readers of poetry encounter. While the target of this book is majorly students and teachers of poetry in high schools and colleges, the book will be found crucial by anyone in the poetry field. Those who intend to write poetry, for example, will find the book illuminating in its attempt to explain how poems are generally written and what and how poets intend to communicate. The book examines the nature of sound patterns as a major tenet of communication in poetry. These include rhythm, rhyme and the like. The book also examines the elements that help poetry make meaning including use of irony and sarcasm, tone and atmosphere and many others. It then goes on to give twenty six poems which illuminate the issues which are discussed, giving questions which help illuminate these issues and test the reader's understanding of them so far. Teachers and students of poetry will find this section especially important in their study of poetry. A Separate book with suggested answers to the questions given here is available. The book also gives a catalogue of some of the terms used in poetry so that the reader can reflect on their meaning should they present a problem where they are encountered in the book. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jorges P. Lopez
• Release date: Jan 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224981250

Jorges P. Lopez

Jorges P. Lopez has been teaching Literature in high schools in Kenya and Communication at The Cooperative University in Nairobi. He has been writing Literary Criticism for more than fifteen years and fiction for just over ten years. He has contributed significantly to the perspective of teaching English as a Second Language in high school and to Communication Skills at the college level. He has developed humorous novellas in the Jimmy Karda Diaries Series for ages 9 to 13 which make it easier for learners of English to learn the language and the St. Maryan Seven Series for ages 13 to 16 which challenge them to improve spoken and written language. His interests in writing also spill into Poetry, Drama and Literary Fiction. He has written literary criticism books on Henrik Ibsen, Margaret Ogola, Bertolt Brecht, John Steinbeck, John Lara, Adipo Sidang' and many others.

Book preview

Introduction

What is Poetry?  

If you are encountering poetry for the first time, you must be perplexed at what weird things poems are. They are not written in normal sentences like other writing you are used to; the lines end abruptly without warning; the poem tends to ignore the respected rules of punctuation by which you have been taught to make sense out of writing – and at times, the poem tends to create its own rules!

If it is a really nasty poem, it may not make sense at all and I can just see you clicking and thrusting the collection away and reaching for the novel you’d half-finished and.....

The good thing is that maybe that is exactly what you need – something to shock you into accepting that poetry is not ordinary writing; it is an odd kind of writing. Once you accept that, and then examine the oddities of poetry and why poetry might want to punish you with such quirkiness, you will begin to really appreciate what poetry is and see the sense of such writing....and probably never pick that novel again .

To begin with, poetry is VERSE writing – writing in which words combine into lines rather than sentences; lines which may or may not begin with capital letters, be or not be punctuated at the end. These lines combine into stanzas (which are comparable to paragraphs in ordinary writing - but are not paragraphs). Indeed stanzas compare better with verses of a song. A stanza may even have a line or two at the end that is repeated, thus easily comparing with a chorus in a song. Poems also take different shapes, some of which may suggest or even present shapes of objects or animals. This way, they appeal to the eye and often compliment the diction or meaning of words. This means therefore, that the form of a poem, the way the poem looks on the page is often as important as what its words mean. A poet may simply shape a poem to avoid making it look like a mass of writing on the page the way ordinary writing looks. This may be the first step to encourage YOU to read. Since poets have very little time within which to communicate an idea, many often use the shape of the poem to cover some ground – to get a few miles into the mind (and often the heart) of the reader so to speak – as far as the meaning of the poem is concerned. This means that the words only come to reinforce the idea so created. It also means that the shape of the poem especially in descriptive poems may suggest the object the poet is trying to describe so that words will only be used to emphasize or reinforce this idea. Do not forget that poetry is generally unrestricted writing; the poet may use form to merely have fun with words. Poets may also position words at strategic points so that certain things become obvious to the reader (see The Secret Heart by Robert P. Tristam Coffin). Apart from form, a poem may define its nature by two other ways.

The second in rank is probably the poem’s sound system, that is, the way the words sound; we call it a sound system here because a poem may combine several sound patterns to form a system. A poet may use the sound of words significantly in many ways. The most basic, the one that many of us may be familiar with, is rhyme – using words whose sounds, at least in some parts of the words, are similar. There are many other sound effects in poetry that we will examine later. Sound, like form, is an important feature in poetry. Many poems take their individual character from the way their sound system defines them. Rhythm, assonance, alliteration and even onomatopoeia are often used to compliment diction and form. The way a poem reads may be a significant contributor to its meaning. It may be significant in the way the poem makes the reader feel and therefore determine the reception of the poem. The reception on other hand, determines the reader’s response and thus the poem’s overall effect.

Lastly, the meaning of words is of utmost importance. Poets choose words carefully because of the limited space within which they must communicate. As such, the choice of words should be regarded carefully in order to get the full meaning of the poem. Of importance is the figures of speech used. Similes, metaphors, symbols and allusion go a long way in creating definite comparisons and contrasts. Often, they also determine the imagery, or the word picture painted by the poem. Poets will compare unfamiliar things with things we know and thus enhance our imagination. At times, poets may talk about one thing in terms of another in order to reinforce our perception of the object being discussed or sometimes because the subject is too idealistic for us to understand.

Who is a Poet?

A funny question that one - after all, we all know that a poet is one who writes poetry! May be the question should be; who is a good poet? If you are beginning to see the point about poetry, you must think that a poet is one who has a very intelligent mind. This is not necessarily so though many poets are actually very intelligent. Think of it this way – there are many songs, some even composed by children at play which contain ‘beautiful’ words and which make us wonder when we read or sing them, true? These words can qualify as poetry. Yet such children are people like us. When they compose these songs, they do not set out, biting their lips and nails in determination, to do extraordinary things; they simply join words and lines that seem to accompany the particular game naturally. When we come to hear what they compose later, however, we marvel at their skill.  

As can be seen from this example, a good poet is not necessarily the most intelligent human being. It is he or she who finds the best words possible to say what s/he thinks, is able to put them in the finest possible order and then actually sits down to write them – because many of us don’t. It is one who uses words in an unfamiliar way to appeal to our emotions so that when we read their poems we think; there was a time I felt exactly like this but I didn’t have the words to say it - this poet echoes exactly what I felt; this is how I would have put it. Many good poets are also actually created by ‘spurs of the moment’. Robert Frost,  one of the most famous poets who ever lived, once admitted that his famous poem Stopping at a Wood on a Snowy Evening was born on a spur of the moment dawn when he had been up all night trying to write another very different poem! Such good poets feel deeply about something, find the right words to say it and as said, actually sit down to put those words on paper. However many good poets train themselves or are trained by other skilled poets.

In conclusion therefore, a good poet is one who feels strongly enough about something to want to tell others about it, takes time to consider his or her feelings as well as the best words to contain them then sits down to capture those feelings in written words. It is vital to distinguish between a poet and a persona. While a poet is that person who has written the poem you are reading, the persona on the other hand is the voice or person speaking to you in the poem. Often, a poet may not deliberately make this differentiation but it would be a gross error for a reader to assume that the poet and the persona or speaker are one and the same. A poet may speak to you through the voice of a child (though we know that for him or her to be able to create such a good poem, s/he must be able to think rationally and be able to consider ideas probably a lot better than us). A poet who is a university professor can talk to you through the voice of an illiterate rural woman! The point here is, do not take anything for granted. Identifying a persona properly is often crucial in unraveling the meaning of the poem.

How to Read a Poem

In order for a poem to begin to make sense, or to compliment the obvious sense a poem presents, it might be necessary to take certain deliberate steps in reading it. The following steps will be found quite helpful.

Take note of the shape of the poem on the page. Note where the lines begin and end. Count the number of lines, look at the rhythm and rhyme patterns if any. Does anything ring a bell? Does it conform to any traditional style? If the shape or the general form of the poem should suggest something to you be sure to note it down. If the lines have not been numbered, give your own numbers to every fifth line – e.g. 1, 5, 10 etc. to make it easier for you to illustrate by referring back to the lines, to help you count the lines and if possible, pin the poem to a certain tradition or style of writing poetry.

Take note of the poem’s punctuation and comment on whether it is the way you expect or not. If you find punctuation marks, where you do not expect them, or if they are missing where they should be, try to decide what the poet’s intention is likely to be.

Read the poem aloud at least once. Poets use sounds cleverly and it is therefore important to hear them. If you can have somebody else read the poem to you, do so and note the difference. (The time of reading can also make a big difference. Try reading the same poem at noon and again at midnight and record your responses then compare them).

Read the poem silently too, several times. At first, aim at making sense of the poem. If there is no punctuation, do not pause at the end of the lines. Let the eye and the brain work together to determine where ideas divide i.e. where meaningful bits of the poem separate. If the ends of lines are not punctuated, read on at even pace until you come to some form of punctuation or that point, even if unpunctuated, where sensible bits appear to divide.

Note other significant elements of the poem such as alliteration, assonance, rhyme etc. Note them alongside the poem or on a separate piece of paper and anything else they may suggest or make you feel.

If the poem has regular beat, DUM da da DUM da da DUM, do not distort this beat by reading the poem flatly. Follow the rhythm suggested by the sound and note any changes – where and how – if they occur.

Examine the diction. Poets use words carefully and you should examine them, especially content words and all other words that may stand out, with regard to what they mean, where they are positioned and what they might suggest.

Examine who the speaker is – gender, age, and profession - and the setting of the poem in terms of both space and time. (A boy who speaks about Industrial Revolution during the time of Charles Dickens would sound very different from one who speaks about computer games; a girl who talks about skipping rope in the remote district of Turkana in northern Kenya would sound very different from one who talks about the terrorist stalking of Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi).And indeed no matter how long they tell you about child rights and the rights of women and equality of gender, people will forever interpret things differently as a result of their age and gender. So put your feelings aside and regard those of the persona despite any disagreements you may have with him/her - or it!

Reflect too on the title and its relationship to the subject – Is the title direct, indirect, ironic etc. However out of this world the title may appear, it must have some relationship with the subject of the poem. (Subject here means that idea about life about which the poet is writing and can be captured in one or two words – education, teenage, starting a job, gardening etc. It is often possible to identify a narrower subtopic and say, in a statement, what is said about the topic e.g. Topic: Life, Subtopic: Growing up, What is said about the topic: Growing up in the rural areas often turns people naive). Be sure to identify the subject, subtopic and what the poet intends to say about that subject (the theme). You can then examine whether you agree