Gail Herman
Sulphur Springs High School
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
10.
The feeling that poetry is esoteric—it’s not
for the common man!
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
9. The view of a poem as merely a puzzle to
solve.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
8. The belief that poetry is impractical. (How is
figuring this out going to help me?)
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
7. Lack of confidence in one’s ability to read
poetry. (In general, prose seems more
accessible, making readers more confident.)
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
6. Fear of reading poetry. (What if I don’t “get
it”?)
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
5. Unwillingness to dedicate the time that
much poetry requires.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
4. The belief that all poetry is hard to
understand.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
3. Readers’ sometimes low levels of tolerance
for the indirect, the subtle, and the ambiguous
(and poets often seem to specialize in these
areas!).
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2. Lack of knowledge of the language of poetry
analysis.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
1.
Inexperience at reading poetry.
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Provide the experience!
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
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Begin with accessible, relevant poems.
Teach the basics of meter, feet, and rhyme.
Gradually introduce more sophisticated terms.
Encourage students to note the use of various
kinds of rhyme in the music they listen to.
Make sure that you are in control of the material
you teach, but at the same time, be willing to
learn with your students. It’s good for them to
see you actively contemplating different
interpretations, different denotations and
connotations of key words, etc.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
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Engage your students in a joint process of
making meaning.
Share with students a wide variety of kinds of
poems.
Focus on understanding what the poem is
saying; then move to an analysis of how the
poet communicates his or her message.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
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Teach prosody (defined in the Handbook as
the principles of versification, particularly as
they refer to rhyme, meter, rhythm, and
stanza), but do not make the mistake of
leading students to believe that the
“mechanical” aspects constitute the totality of
studying poetry. Provide a foundation by
explaining the basic types of feet and meter,
but to begin with, focus on what the poem
seems to be saying.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
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Guide students to see the connection
between the meaning of the poem and the
structure of the poem. Once they make this
connection, their reading will be enriched
immensely. Similarly (to allude to Laurence
Perrine’s successful poetry text), they need to
connect sound with sense.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
The five most common feet:
Iamb
Trochee
Anapest
Dactyl
Spondee
(Memorize the patterns above in order. Use “It
ads” as a mnemonic for the types of feet.)
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
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meter
foot
couplet/heroic couplet/closed vs. open couplet
anaphora
rhyme scheme
imagery
diction
assonance
paradox
allusion
near rhyme
feminine rhyme
masculine rhyme
enjambment
run-on vs. end-stopped lines
inversion/anastrophe
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Free verse is a relatively new phenomenon. The
ancients used quantitative or alliterative verse.
Later, rhymed verse in accentual-syllabic qualitative
measure was established. Still later, poets began to
seek some freedom from this type of verse,
resulting in what we call today “vers libre, or “free
verse.” While free verse boasts no rhyme, meter, or
regular rhythm, it typically uses other devices to
give it structure (e.g. parallelism and anaphora).
The Handbook states that “very little of published
verse is truly free in every respect.”
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
Now, on to a look
at more poems!
Herman--Capital Conference 2014
Have fun as you
guide your students
to a greater
appreciation of
poetry!
Herman--Capital Conference 2014