Mini Poetry Lesson 1

For those of you in sec 1 this year, you would have done unseen prose and learnt something about literary analysis.

Literary analysis is about a few things:

1) In-depth reading/reading 'in between the lines'

2) What's the SUBJECT, PURPOSE, EMOTION & TONE of the piece of writing? (Recall your SPEC & SLIM)

3) Reading beyond the literal meaning and going into the metaphorical/symbolic (hidden or abstract meanings)

4) Giving an individual response to the piece of writing

In sec2, your teacher will be doing unseen poetry with you. Many of you hate poetry. I know because I've asked you in class, remember? Here are a few things about poetry I'd like to share with you. I hope that you will be really open-minded about it and perhaps it will help you appreciate your poetry lessons more next year.

1. Don't expect to understand the entire poem in just one reading. That's impossible, unless what you have is a kid's poem or some soppy pop song lyric disguising as a poem. Always read a poem many times through (no excuses for not doing that, hey, most poems are so short ok!) and often, the meaning will become clearer to you like magic.

2. Always read a poem out loud. A poem is meant to be read aloud. When you do that, you can feel the rhythm, hear the sound of the words, the stresses, pauses etc. better. Go attend some poetry readings and see (and hear) for yourself. Having said that, in an exam, don't read so loudly that you distract your friends and invite unwanted attention from the invigilator. What you can do is to mouth the words under your breath. The idea is to feel the words in your mouth and as long as you can hear it yourself, that's good enough.

3. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (who on earth is he? good question. aiyah, must be a famous poet lah! go google!) said "Prose is words in their best order, poetry is the best words in the best order". This means that the words in a poem are meticulously chosen by the poet and each word has great significance. That is also why we find it hard to comprehend a poem in our first reading. It is simply packed with so much meaning and imagery.

That's all I have for you now. Your teacher will no doubt tell you more next year.

Just remember:

-> Don't be afraid if you don't understand a poem after reading it once through. You're not alone.

-> Every word in a poem counts, and it is your task as literary detectives to find out how.

-> Poets often use symbols/metaphors/imageries in the poem. Find out what they represent and you are halfway to understanding the poem. Never take things too literally.

(on 18th December 2007)

(on 19th December 2007)