Poetry+-+Form+and+Structure

= POETRY = =  = ** FORM AND STRUCTURE **  ** Questions we need to answer: **  ** Naturally these questions lead to slightly more complex questions such as: ** > >  ** Ultimately we need to answer things like:  **  First, let’s see if you can tell the difference between poetry, prose, poetry disguised as prose and prose disguised as poetry?  ** A ** = Poem, Limerick ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">B **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> = Prose ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">C **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> = prose disguised as poetry (Newspaper Report) ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">D **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> = Poetry disguised as prose (a poem by T.E Hume called “Autumn”) ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">E **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> = Poem (an extract) ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">F **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> = Prose (discussing the Mona Lisa) ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">G **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> = Poetry disguised as a poem ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">H **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> = Prose disguised as a poem ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">= Poem disguised as prose <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">Rhythm ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Let’s start with the basics: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Although the basics may be helpful, they are too limiting… ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Words are not just sounds like musical notes, they carry with them meaning – so in poetry we expect there to be a link between the sound of a word and its meaning. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">When you listen to poetry you need to be both a reader and a listener and then, almost as if you have a “third ear” – you need to be able to be critical of the quality of your reading. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Probably the most important thing to remember when you are listening to poetry is that it is a deliberate and conscious arrangement of words which will differ in a number of ways from “normal” or “natural” language. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Because we speak, think (and dream) in prose we tend to think that prose is NORMAL and poetry is, therefore, unusual or different. The problem is that we try to read poetry as if it were prose and, naturally, this leads to all kinds of problems. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Often the question is asked “Why couldn’t he/she just say it normally?” <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">When we ask why poets have to use such unnatural or obscure language to say what they mean it’s like asking why a painting of an apple doesn’t taste nice? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">What you have to learn is that a poet chooses the form or the language in order to enhance his/her expression and NOT to get in the way of what they are trying to say – this requires listening with a “new ear”. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Very often the form or overall sound of the poem comes before the words do; much like a musician may compose the music before the lyrics are decided upon. ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">So you need to develop a tolerance for “// language used differently //” or run the risk of never quite “getting it”! <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">Writing about the sounds your “third ear” hears. ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This is not a simple process, but it will improve with practice. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Avoid being vague in order to gloss over things that may be difficult for you to put down in words: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“The first lines are smooth” //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> or // “there is a hard feel to line 4” // actually don’t mean very much. You need to build up a small vocabulary to help you through this tendency. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A – Rhythm Methods ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">There are foreground (or obvious) rhythms and others that are more subtle – lets think about Reggae music versus a piece of classical music by Mozart. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Rhythm gives writing UNITY (or coherence) – think about an orchestra or a four piece band – all the instruments need to be following a similar rhythm in order for the end result to be pleasing to the ear. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Predictability **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> of the rhythm only works to a certain extent – for example, if a poem sustains the same rhyme scheme for the first 5 or 6 lines we tend to enjoy the rhythm, but if it had to repeat that same rhyme scheme for 40 lines or so we would almost certainly get irritated. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">So, poets sometimes disturb the expected rhythm of a poem – usually to draw our attention to something. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">B – Emphasis and Meaning ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">English in particular relies on where we place the emphasis on the word: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">See page 145 (Bacon Sandwich) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Another example is found in a sentence like “I want to go”; each sentence has a slightly different meaning depending on the emphasis. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Perhaps we can help ourselves by working through the lines of a poem and indicating (very simply) what the stresses on the words are. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">/ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">indicates a strongly stressed syllable <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 26pt; line-height: 150%;">˘ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">indicates a lightly stressed or unstressed syllable <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Mark the stresses on the following sentence <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I had a go on Kevin’s bike and smashed it up against a bus ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">As you can see it breaks up into eight similar units: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I had ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> a go ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> on Kev ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> in’s bike ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> and smashed ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> it up ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> against ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> a bus. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">If you break this up further you would get the following: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I had ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> a go ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> on Kev ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> in’s bike <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">And smashed ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> it up ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> against ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> a bus. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This may not exactly be poetry, but if you read it out loud you will see that its rhythm is very similar to that of a line from a very famous poem… <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I wan ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> der’d lone ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ly as ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> a cloud <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">That floats ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> on high ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> o’er vales ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">I  **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> and hills <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Although all of this may seem quite heavy going you need to understand “METRICS” if you are going to be able to listen effectively to the poetry written between 1350 and 1900. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">Free Verse & Form – Chapter 16 Leading Questions ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">S <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;">h <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%;">a <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;">r <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 150%;">p <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;">F S E Cor <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;"> A M L n   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;"> L I e   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 150%;"> L r   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store, code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">            Though foolishly he lost the same, code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                  Decaying more and more, code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                          Till he became code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                            Most poore: code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                             With  thee code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                         Oh let me rise code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> As, harmoniously, code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">         And sing this day  thy victories: code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">    Then shall the fall further the flight in me. code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">    My  tender  age  in  sorrow   did   beginne: code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">         And still with es and shame code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">              Thou  didst  so  punish  sinne, code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                        That  I  became code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                           Most thinne. code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                             With  thee code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">                      Let me combine code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">            And feel this day thy victorie: code code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;">         For,  if  I  imp  my  wing  on  thine code <span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua','serif'; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 150%;"> shall advance the flight in me. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> (2 Corinthians 4:16-17) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Free verse is essentially unrhymed or // “non-metric” //verse – this means that it is not organsied like the verse-forms we have encountered in the poems we have looked at so far. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Free verse is often written in lines pf varying length, and these lines may or may not begin with a capital letter. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Free verse may be organised into regular stanzas, or it may not. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In fact it’s a little difficult to exactly define what free verse is and often this leads to panic in the reader – if there are no rules how do we analyse it? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Well, firstly you have to consider each poem that uses free verse in isolation – as it comes. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Free verse as a concept is French in origin (coming from the term ** // vers libre // **) and started a poetic revolution. Suddenly conventional metric verse and “regular versification” was seen as the trend of the bourgeois and therefore conservative and dishonest. Free verse was liberating, novel and the mark of the individual. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This style of verse was eagerly adopted by the English and American writers because it was so different from the “stuffy” poetic rules of the Victorian era. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">See an extract from D.H Lawrence’s “** // New Poems // **” – page: 161 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Warning!!!!!!! **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This doesn’t mean that a poet who still employs metric verse is less of a poet or that his / her writing is less honest or meaningful. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Whether a poet writes in metric or free verse – NO POETRY JUST HAPPENS!! <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Regardless of the subject of the poem or how natural it sounds once it is completed it still takes careful deliberation to get it just right. This will include choosing the right words, the best rhyme scheme (if any) and the most suitable rhythm, be that metric or free verse. In order for poetry to sound like it “just happened” takes lots of hard work. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">Let us now take a closer look at FORM… <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Certain free verse poems seem to have a “difficult” form. This poem by e.e cummings was published in 1950. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">i’m <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">asking <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">you dear to  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">what else could a   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">no but it doesn’t <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">of course but you don’t seem <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">to realise i can’t make <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">it clearer war just isn’t what <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">we imagine but please for god’s O  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">what the hell yes it’s true that was <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">me but that me isn’t me  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">can’t you see now no not <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">any christ but you <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">must understand <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">why because <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">i am  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">dead <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Questions ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> > > > >  > >  > >  > >  > > > >   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Keep in mind that cummings is fairly unusual in his preoccupation with this type of visual form and playing with the meaning through form. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> = // (McGough) // = <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In the time...
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Why do some poems seem to “wander” all over the page while others “march” down the page in tidy blocks?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Why do some lines rhyme and yet others do not?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Why do poets sometimes leave a phrase dangling at the end of the line so that it doesn’t make sense until you read the next line?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Why does a line end when it does?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">What exactly is rhythm in poetry? And is it the same as in music?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Why is the sound of a poem so important?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">What comes first – the form or the words that fill it?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Why do some poets chose to write poetry that follows “rules and regulations”, like sonnets, when they can actually just write any way they want to?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Why is a poem a poem and not just prose that have been written slightly differently on the page?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Is there a difference in the way we read poetry and the way we read prose?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Are our expectations from poetry different from those we have of prose?
 * 1) <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Poems are organised words.
 * 2) <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Words are sounds
 * 3) <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">So, poems are organisations of sounds
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Imagine that you are learning the words to a new song and you have to get them to fit exactly with the rhythm of the music.
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The first step is to read the poem in your “best voice” – don’t rush, don’t swallow the ends of your words and make sure that CLARITY is your ultimate goal (you do not have to sound as if you have a hot potato in your mouth)!!
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Pay attention to the punctuation and pauses – they are there for a reason.
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Read the poem several times – as much as this may seem a waste of time the truth is the more you “hear” it, the more you will be able to make sense of it.
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l10 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Get the weight of the words right – should some of the words be read slower, is the emphasis you have placed on the word correct and have you got the pace right?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">** __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I __ **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> want to go
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I ** __want__ ** to go
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I want to ** __go__ **
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo9; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Can you guess what the title of this poem is?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo9; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Perhaps in order to understand the poem, you will need to know that in the Christian faith the individual has to become humble, suffer and die in order to achieve glory and eternal life.
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l8 level1 lfo10; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Can you see the connection between the shape of the poem and its meaning?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Would the meaning of the poem change at all if you wrote it out in a more traditional manner?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Count the number of syllables in each of the lines. What do you notice?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">How would you explain the unusual shape of the poem and the fact that it doesn’t really seem to make any sense at all?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Who is speaking?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Who is speaking to him?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Can you guess at the circumstances?

And the bomb ex... plodes... A spider's web woven across the plate glass window trembles, Snaps, and sends a shimmering haze of lethal stars across the crowded pavement

In the time it takes...

And the bomb ex... plodes... Jigsaw pieces of shrapnel glide gently towards children Tucking in to the warm flesh

In the time it takes to put down...

Enough limbs to build a Calvary across from splintered bones For England's devious apathy Island now atones

In the time it takes to put down a brown paper carrier bag.

(**boom**) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Remember: **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">There are no fixed rules about the length of a poem or the length of the lines in the poem. As the reader all we can do is run a check on the right hand margin of the poems we are given and see if there is anything significant about the length of the individual lines or the spaces in between the lines. By doing this we may spot signals as to what may be going on in the lines themselves. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In summary we need to keep the following in mind: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> > > > >   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo11; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">What is the poem about?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo11; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">What emotion is generated by this piece of writing and how is this achieved?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo11; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Do you see any relationship between the subject of the poem and its form?
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo8; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A ** free verse ** poem should leave us with the feeling that it is “what it has to be”.
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo8; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">We should also see that a ** free verse ** poem has the form it // should // have.
 * <span style="0cm line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo8; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In free verse words often need form to shape their meaning more fully.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">