Can someone tell me how to enjoy poetry?

[HardWorkingDem]

I just don't get poetry. What is the secret? Is the key to loving poetry like that of enjoying a well written song? Anyone?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear HardWorkingDem...

How to enjoy poetry?

Good question...

I think you might have a good idea with comparing it to a well-written song. Often lyrics can be poetic.

I often find poetry hard to understand because there are so many hidden meanings. I generally try, in my own poetry, to use descriptions that are not metaphors for something hidden...

If you like, you could look at my Journal, which is where I put all my poetry threads. I tend to be very concrete when I write.

Good luck!

:hi:

[Lorax7844]

2. I think that the key is identifying

with the sentiment/subject of the poem.

[LeftyMom]

3. There's no magic to it. Like any form it either speaks to you or it doesn't.

Maybe other forms of writing just appeal to you more. That's totally okay.

[XemaSab]

4. It's like enjoying a well-written song, yes

Here are a couple poems that are fairly approachable, IMHO.

Just read them aloud to yourself and enjoy the language.


The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

THE OFT-REPEATED DREAM

She had no saying dark enough
For the dark pine that kept
Forever trying the window-latch
Of the room where they slept.

The tireless but ineffectual hands
That with every futile pass
Made the great tree seem as a little bird
Before the mystery of glass!

It never had been inside the room,
And only one of the two
Was afraid in an oft-repeated dream
Of what the tree might do.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Death Snips Proud Men

DEATH is stronger than all the governments because the governments are men and men die and then death laughs: Now you see ’em, now you don’t.

Death is stronger than all proud men and so death snips proud men on the nose, throws a pair of dice and says: Read ’em and weep.

Death sends a radiogram every day: When I want you I’ll drop in—and then one day he comes with a master-key and lets himself in and says: We’ll go now.

Death is a nurse mother with big arms: ’Twon’t hurt you at all; it’s your time now; you just need a long sleep, child; what have you had anyhow better than sleep?


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

NAMING OF PARTS

To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.


---------------------------------------------------------------

Yeats, Frost, Carl Sandburg, and Henry Reed. :hi:

[Common Sense Party]

5. I'm guessing alcohol is a key ingredient.

Which might be why I don't enjoy poetry much, either.

I like some of the OLD classics, but the more modern stuff leaves me cold.

[pokerfan]

6. There once was a man from Nantucket...

For me it's all about imagery and rhythm. We are taught to read to without moving our lips but poetry is intended to be read aloud. Just not in public. :)

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

[XemaSab]

8. I'd prefer the lake isle

You'd be surprised at how humid and sticky sleeping at sea is. x(

[Xipe Totec]

40. With all the Sea Behind

Patxi Andion, Con Toda la Mar Detras:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1mkABQBfs0

Only he has the right
to call the sea thou
He was born upon the ocean,
and the salt never left his blood

It touches his beginnings
teaching him the songs
that show the meaning of shelter,
of storms, and the wind.

they were thirty-six,
and with him thirty-seven,
that went out to sea,
one morning in March,
shortly before dawn.

Laborers of the sea,
that don't know sea sickness
men like the wind
challenged by storms.

Behold the ones passing, behold the ones passing!
those who don't know how to step on solid ground,
who drink wine and never learned to swim,
because destiny never thought them.

See them well. See them well,
the thirty-seven who used to be one hundred
they are proud men of faith,
they were fishermen before they were born.

The storm rose
without warning,
and on their way to port,
they began to flounder.

The pilot was drunk,
and had to be tied,
and they went under slowly,
as if hoping to make it out.

Only the pilot remained,
to tell the tale,
drunk from that day forward,
and never again out to sea.

And there's not enough wine,
to slack his thirst,
and he seeks a kind executioner,
but nobody wants to be it.

Behold him passing, behold him passing!
One who does not know how to step on solid ground,
who drinks wine and never learned to swim,
because destiny never thought him.

See him well. See him well,
of thirty-seven only he remains
he is a proud men of faith,
he was a fishermen before he was born.

Let no one dare raise a toast!
Let no one dare speak!
A mariner is passing!
A drunkard is passing!
With all the sea behind.

[Heidi]

7. It's only like enjoying a well-written song

if it's a well-written poem. Not every art form speaks to every individual. Don't beat yourself up about not enjoying one art form or another. Some of us enjoy many, many art forms; some of us prefer a quiet walk in nature -- there's poetry and color and music in that, too, I think. :hi:

[REP]

9. A lot of poetry isn't

A lot of it just sucks so badly it shouldn't be called poetry. I used to think I didn't like it either until I found some good ones.

And everyone who said you don't have to like it is right; you don't. Hell, I still don't get ballet and one of my oldest friends is a famous dancer!



Here's one I like:

Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus

he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

--ee cummings

[dysfunctional press]

10. enjoy it by moving on to something else...

there are PLENTY of literary and art forms to choose from. nobody can enjoy them all. if poetry isn't your thing- no biggie, try novels, plays, or short-stories.

[Connonym]

11. alcohol in large quantities n/t

[WinkyDink]

12. Depends on the era. But a working knowledge of every subject under the sun helps. :-)

That way, one "gets" the Biblical, mythological, historical, psychological, technological,and cultural allusions and meanings for a more profound understanding of the poem, i.e., of the words, as with visual art and symbolism. If the poem has no allusions, maybe it's just doggerel.

Then there is the study of poetic forms and devices ( e.g., sonnet or dramatic monologue; metaphor or simile; alliteration ---See above post with "Lake Isle of Innisfree" for the tongue-made "l" sounds in the line with "lapping"; etc.) to evaluate the poet's level of workmanship.

But, to agree basically with Coleridge, before the sense is the sound and how a poem strikes one. Not that a poem must rhyme (although I am partial to the sonnet form, myself), but that a poem must resonate.

What can I say? I spent 40 years at it. Never understood why science and mathematics are thought to be "harder"!

[eShirl]

13. get really, really stoned

et voila!

[rug]

14. One can never be sure whether it's good poetry or bad acid.

My Groupie

I read last Saturday in the
redwoods outside of Santa Cruz
and I was about 3/4's finished
when I heard a long high scream
and a quite attractive
young girl came running toward me
long gown & divine eyes of fire
and she leaped up on the stage
and screamed: "I WANT YOU!
I WANT YOU! TAKE ME! TAKE
ME!"
I told her, "look, get the hell
away from me."
but she kept tearing at my
clothing and throwing herself
at me.
"where were you," I
asked her, "when I was living
on one candy bar a day and
sending short stories to the
Atlantic Monthly?"
she grabbed my balls and almost
twisted them off. her kisses
tasted like shitsoup.
2 women jumped up on the stage
and
carried her off into the
woods.
I could still hear her screams
as I began the next poem.
mabye, I thought, I should have
taken her on stage in front
of all those eyes.
but one can never be sure
whether it's good poetry or
bad acid.

Charles Bukowski

[miss_american_pie]

15. I think you're born with it, or not

And sometimes English teachers destroy it, but you can't force it.

Sorry.

[nuxvomica]

16. Read some Billy Collins

A modern poet who clearly strives to appeal to a wide audience. Here's a good example, appropriate, I think, for this thread:

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.

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
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.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

http://www.poemhunter.com/billy-collins/

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. Two things. 1) Most poetry is crappily done and artless,

the kind of shit you read in Readers Digest or tomes of "Submit your poem and you might win by being published!" or the crap that shows up in evangelical circles.

2) For the good poetry, to get it, it takes reading slowly - chewing on the metaphor and simile, coasting through the seas of the poet's mind, and bringing the fullness of your being to the text.

I didn't get poetry until I was in my late 20s or thereabouts, partly because I was finally exposed to good poetry, but also because I was so linear and mathematical before that - symbolism was lost on me, creative word usage was lost on me.

It also helps to be in touch with your emotions, and to have lived, to read poetry in a more enjoyable way.


California Peggy writes poetry that's actually quite good - start with some of her stuff, and see how you do.

Think of poetry as a long-winded, circuitous, non-linear way of saying something that could be said much more simply but which, if it were just boiled down to a sentence, would leave out all the feeling and wonder of life.

Take Frost's "The Road Not Taken" - he could have said, "I decided years ago to travel my own path, not the path that the masses take", but it leaves out all the dilemma, the questioning, the second-guessing and awesomeness of that choice that is in the poem:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 5

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, 10

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

[XemaSab]

20. For starters

The Frost poem is NOT a happy or inspirational poem.

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. No, potentially not. I find it inspiration, though.

Because, unlike so much evangelical and Reader's Digest garbage, it's ambiguous and true.

[Lyric]

23. Indeed. The problem is when people assume

(and I don't mean Rabrrrrr here--just casual readers in general) that the last line speaks of a "difference" for the better. It does not. In fact, when the speaker says that he will be "telling this with a sigh" in the future, it lends more evidence to the idea that the choice made did NOT turn out for the best. Considering the language of Frost's time, "sigh" was used more to denote wistful sadness for something lost, not contented remembrance. It's as if the narrator is telling us how he made this dramatic choice, and now wishes that he could take it back.

Just like so many people think that "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is about a pretty sleigh-ride in the snow. It's not--far from it, actually.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

26. Yes...one must judge the language by the way it was used at the

time. Words and their connotations evolve and sometimes mean the exact opposite.

[XemaSab]

29. It's funny to me that "Stopping by Woods" and "The Road not Taken"

are taught to little kids as happy fun poems.

Here are Xema's interpretations of the two: "I fucked up my life and it's too late to do anything about it," and "I long for the sweet escape of death but my wife is expecting me to bring home some ciggies from the 7-11 so I can't die quite yet."

Always good for a chuckle, that Frost fellow. The game in this house is to find a poem of his that doesn't reference fall, winter, snow, ice, cold, dead leaves, broken trees, or other morbid imagery. :D

[Tuesday Afternoon]

22. you break it down pretty well Rabrrrrrr (r? just in case)

I think it helps to have some life experiences, although as Miss A.Pie points out, one can also be born to is as well.

This is perhaps a difference between the left and right brain way of looking at things.

[UndertheOcean]

18. You either get it , or you don't . and when it comes , it comes suddenly

[insanity]

19. There is nothing 'to get' either you like a piece or you don't

The written word speaks to every one differently. If poems don't resonate, that's cool.

Frankly, there are very few poets I like

[wickerwoman]

24. Poetry is about giving you language to process

previously unprocessed experience.

We all go through life experiencing tons of things and only a tiny fraction of what we experience becomes accessible to us because we process it through language.

Poetry is great because it gives us language to explain or describe things that would otherwise just sink straight into the subconscious.

For example, I had this experience where I was walking across a bridge after being sent home from work on 9/11 and a few months later when I read a poem with the line "possibly dead but still moving" it just absolutely *was* that experience so that from then on I could really own that moment in a way I couldn't before.

I've had a lot of little explosive moments in my life when suddenly a line I'd read somewhere let me access something in a new way.

So 1.) don't feel like you have to "get" every poem ever written. You're only going to "get" the poems that speak to your experience. 2.) if you don't like poetry it's either because you haven't had the experience which the poem is meant to give you language to access or the experience is now so commonplace that the language has become trite and is now taken for granted.

Lots of poems have a shelf life, including a lot of "classics"... so just because a "great" poem doesn't do anything for you doesn't mean that you don't "get" poetry.

I'd recommend just reading a lot of it and then waiting for the moment to come along when it explodes for you.

[RetroLounge]

25. I'd recommend just reading a lot of it

and then waiting for the moment to come along when it explodes for you.

:applause:

RL

[Lex]

27. You have to love words in and of themselves.

nt

[RetroLounge]

28. I'll point you to my daily threads

today:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x8763585

and if you go into my journal you will see 3 years of daily poems, from all over the spectrum.

You can read thru 500 poems in there without dropping a penny at the bookstore and see if you find something that "takes the top of your head off" as Emily Dickinson once said.

You enjoy a well written song, right?

Well for every one of those, there are 10,000 poorly written ones.

But you still enjoy music, right?

I guess it's a matter of just reading, and reading, and reading more...

RL

[Haole Girl]

30. I don't think it is something someone can force themselves to enjoy

Read it, think about it, then read it again. If you don't enjoy it, and it is a chore for you, why bother?

I'd rather someone not force his or herself to enjoy poetry. It's a little like forcing a person to like a particular food or shoe style.

Does that make sense?

[lizziegrace]

31. Read *good* poetry

there's a lot of marginal stuff out there. Check books out of the library by different authors and find a style/message that speaks to you.

:)

[Inchworm]

32. Read it out loud

or have someone read it to you.

Start with rhyming stuff.. well, unless you know someone gifted with top-notch freeform reading.

Don't overthink (thats why I'm on a poetry boycott hehe)

Just... listen

:D

:hi:

[RagAss]

33. Let it Read You !

[Rabrrrrrr]

45. In Soviet Russia, poems read you!

:rofl:

You're right, though - there is something about a good poem that is the poem reading the reader.

[Rabrrrrrr]

46. In Soviet Russia, poems read you!

:rofl:

You're right, though - there is something about a good poem that is the poem reading the reader.

[timtom]

34. Poetry, ultimately, comes from the oral tradition.

Get ahold of Dylan Thomas reading "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"
or Vachel Lindsay reading "The Congo"
or Robert Frost reading anything of his.

[Mike 03]

35. My taste in poetry is terrible. I prefer Ally Sheedy to Shakespeare.

And that's true, and I'm not joking. It's just because I related to her poems more and, more importantly, she signed all my copies of her books.

Another great work is T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland." That might turn you on.

[elleng]

39. Wrong to say 'terrible,' as there is SO MUCH,

and its not useful to label, imo.

[Mike 03]

41. Thanks. All I can say is that Ally Sheedy's poetry really spoke to me in a way that "true"

poetry has not.

That is why I think my taste in poetry is probably quite lame.

[elleng]

44. Not familiar with hers,

but I question your term 'true' poetry. What do you think THIS is???

Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses.
Dorothy Parker


PS, I'm a LIBERAL!!!

[RetroLounge]

47. You're recommending "The Wasteland?"

Really?

God, whole semesters are dedicated to that poem, and still no one understands it...

:hi:

RL

[RandomThoughts]

36. My thought is written poetry is limited.

Originally poetry was sung in song, or spoken with rhythm, and it was passed along by minstrels or in theaters, or even through oral tradition.

Then a thing called writing, and mass printing of books, and suddenly words on a page could be spread to many people. So poetry took a lesser form in printed books. Although many poets learned to put even more rhythm in the words.

With the invent of radio and TV, alot of poetry has returned to song.

So my best guess on how to enjoy poetry is to read it aloud, or at least with a rhythmic meter as you read it.

[elleng]

37. Just get a big anthology, or go to library,

and SKIM lots of poems; you may (or may not) find something that gets your attention. There are SO MANY styles, its hard to say what you might like in particular.


How's this????


Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses.
Dorothy Parker

[Xipe Totec]

38. There once was a hard working Dem,

There once was a hard working Dem,

that Muses chose to condemn,

to a life without rhymes,

though I wonder sometimes,

if he, was the one to refuse them.

[BlooInBloo]

42. Enjoying thinking helps.

[Sky Masterson]

43. I suggest that you start with bad emo poetry.

Make sure it rhymes.
"when i see my own reflection
it under goes a deep inspection
within me i can not find affection
for this disgustingly bad selection
of all the parts of my complexion
it is really a rather sad collection
so it under goes much rejection
yes i know i can't have perfection
but is it too much to ask for a pretty collection
cause i absolutely hate my face confection"_ end snip.

This is about a third of it :yoiks:
(I swear on my mothers grave I didn't write this)

Bad Poetry is the SHIT!!

[Dangerously Amused]

48. Good poems make me think and feel. Bad poems make me laugh.

The badder the poem, the harder I laugh.

It's a win-win situation for me. :7

[DarkTirade]

49. It should be taken aurally.