TERRY BOWDEN
How do you read poetry?
Poets and their readers will do well to consider this question.
For it is in answering it, that the poet can learn how to write
better poetry, and the reader can learn how to better enjoy poetry.
Personally, I can not read a poem once. I'm not skilled enough to combine subvocalised reading with non-subvocalised reading. Either I read to appreciate the rhythm, the style, the very word-joy of a poem, or I read to enjoy the content and message of the poem.
I can partially combine the two, but not completely. So I will
read a poem once, with emphasis on style, subvocalising as I go.
Then I will read it again, with emphasis on meaning, and skip the subvocalising. (In fact, I am not so regimented, and so I will chop and change and combine both methods in one reading, but let's not confuse the theory with the practice.)
So what's in all this for poets? To be an all round poet, you
need to recognize all the dimensions of your craft. Poetry is not distinguished solely by its rhythm, nor solely by its style, nor solely by its rhyme, nor solely by its heightened subject matter. Poets combine an ear for the sound of their words, an eye for the structure of their work, a mind that works to ensure the best sequence and form for their ideas, and a heart that serves as the well-spring for the emotional content. The poems that I find the most successful, are those which have taken all of these dimensions into account.<drops chalk, awaits incoming scuds, arms patriots>
But wait !
There's more..
How do I punctuate
poetry?
