24.4: A Brief Introduction to Reading Poetry

Before novels, before the essay, before theatre, even before written language, humans created poetry. Or perhaps we discovered poetry in the music of our own voices. As language developed across cultures we learned to manipulate rhythm and tone, image and meaning to create powerful emotion effects. Poetry is an attempt to capture that effect on the page. Thus, we can look at poetry to inspire not just our hearts, minds, and souls but our writing as well. Below are a few selections from a few authors writing in different centuries in different styles and with different purposes. Some seek only to capture a brief moment in time, a thought drawn out over several lines. Some seek empathy and some seek love and some are just trying to be clever, but either way, we can look to these poets for ideas for our own writing, a good line to quote, or maybe a little music for our souls.

Issues to consider while reading poetry:

1) As you read through the poems, try not to concentrate on “figuring them out.” Try to read over them a few times to get an overall idea of the poem. Circle or highlight images that stand out to you. Underline phrases that you find interesting or speak to you in some way. Make notes or write questions in the margins if you don’t understand a line or wonder what a phrase is referencing. Reading a poem is an active process; meaning can be stacked on meaning, and unpacking a power requires a lot of mental effort so really try to dig into each stanza.

2) Poetry is an aural experience, so you should try to read the poems aloud. Some of the meaning is revealed in the rhythm, rhyme, and sound of your voice as you read the poem. The line breaks can be a little confusing at first. Read the lines just as you would a normal sentence, pausing at punctuation – short pause for a comma, a little longer for end punctuation – not at the break in the line. The line breaks are significant though (as they tend to separate different ideas), and you might try re-reading the poem, pausing at the end of every line to see how the poem changes.

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“Because I Could Not Stop for Death––”

By Emily Dickinson

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Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then –'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity –

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“’Hope’ is a thing with feathers––” (314)

By Emily Dickinson

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“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

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“I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” (214)

By Emily Dickinson

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I taste a liquor never brewed –

From Tankards scooped in Pearl –

Not all the Frankfort Berries

Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of air – am I –

And Debauchee of Dew –

Reeling – thro’ endless summer days –

From inns of molten Blue –

When “Landlords” turn the drunken Bee

Out of the Foxglove’s door –

When Butterflies – renounce their “drams” –

I shall but drink the more!

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats –

And Saints – to windows run –

To see the little Tippler

Leaning against the – Sun!

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“I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –”

By Emily Dickinson

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I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air -

Between the Heaves of Storm -

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -

And Breaths were gathering firm

For that last Onset - when the King

Be witnessed - in the Room -

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away

What portion of me be

Assignable - and then it was

There interposed a Fly -

With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -

Between the light - and me -

And then the Windows failed - and then

I could not see to see –

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“After great pain, a formal feeling comes –”

By Emily Dickinson

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After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –

The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’

And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –

A Wooden way

Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –

Regardless grown,

A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –

Remembered, if outlived,

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –

First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

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Post-Reading

1) Emily Dickinson’s poems are “different” for a number of reasons. She doesn’t use titles; her poetry is numbered which is why the first line is normally used for the title (somewhat similar to Shakespeare’s Sonnets). She also uses dashes in an unusual way. As you read the poem aloud, you pause at the dashes. What effect does this have on the reading? There are pauses in the middle of sentences, sometimes in the middle of a breath. What sort of mood does this halting structure create? How does the unusual punctuation compliment the unusual imagery? Try reading the poem without the pauses. How does it change? How does punctuation affect meaning, even with something as simple the difference between a period and an exclamation point?

2) “Hope’ is a thing with feathers” uses a bird as its central metaphor. Explore that image for a bit; how is “hope” a bird? Why does it have feathers? How does it “never stop?” How can hope be buffeted by a “Gale?” Why does it never ask anything of us and yet we ask so much of it (the bird and hope)?

3) “I taste a liquor never brewed” seems to indicate an almost desperate yearning for something. If the narrator wishes for a liquor that has never been brewed (something that doesn’t exist) then what is she yearning for? Relatedly, when have you yearned for something you couldn’t have (or maybe couldn’t identify what it is you actually wanted)? How did that make you feel? Where do you see those feeling echoed in the poem?

4) Many of Dickinson’s poems take the form of musings on a singular emotion or moment in time (or both). What emotion does ““I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –“ evoke in you? If you could pick one specific emotion to describe the poem, what would it be. How does the narrator feel about her death (or the idea of her death)? How do you know?