1. Reading Poetry
The Experience of Words

2. What Is Poetry?
Poetry is a type of rhythmic, compressed language that
uses figures of speech and imagery to appeal to the
reader’s emotions and imagination.
•A poem captures the poet’s experience and thoughts
and offers them to readers for examination.
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

3. Punctuation
Pay attention to a poem’s punctuation when you read the
poem aloud. Punctuation indicates where you should
pause while reading.
•Pause whenever you encounter punctuation, even if
the punctuation occurs in the middle of a line.
• Commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes indicate short
pauses.
• End punctuation—periods, question marks, and
exclamation points—indicates longer pauses.
•Do not pause at the end of a line if there is no
punctuation there.

4. Word Order
Pay attention to the word order in poetry. Poets may use
unusual word order to emphasize certain ideas.
•If a line or sentence in a poem is confusing, look for the
subject and verb.
•Rearrange or reword the sentence to help you
understand it. Consider what the word order
emphasizes.
“The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.”
from “Concord Hymn” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. Figures of Speech
Pay attention to figures of speech in poetry. Poets use
figures of speech to add to a poem’s meaning.
•Identify figures of speech—similes, metaphors, and
personification—and note the effect they produce.
•Figures of speech may make a description clear, create
a mood, or reveal the speaker’s attitude about the
subject.

6. Speaker
Pay attention to the poem’s speaker—the voice talking to
the reader.
•Look for clues about who is speaking in the poem.
•The poet’s own voice may be speaking, or the speaker
may be a character the poet has created, an animal, or
an object.

7. Diction
Pay attention to the poem’s diction—a speaker’s choice of
words. Diction can reveal the speaker’s attitude toward the
subject.
•Analyze the speaker’s language choices.
•Identify whether the words are mostly positive or
negative.
•Consider what feelings the words evoke.

8. Sound Effects
Pay attention to sound effects in poems. Poets use
sound effects to create mood or add emphasis.
•Listen to the rhythm of the lines, and determine
whether the poem follows a set meter.
• Consider how the the rhythm or lack of rhythm affects the
poem’s meaning.
•Look for rhymes. Poets may follow a certain rhyme
scheme or use internal rhyme. However, not all poems
rhyme.
• Consider how the rhyme scheme affects the poem’s
meaning.

9. Sound Effects
•Look for other sound effects, such as alliteration and
onomatopoeia.
• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds.
• Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like their
meanings—for example, bump, slosh, and whimper.
• Consider what the sound effects emphasize.

10. Repetition
Pay attention to the use of repetition in the poem. A poet
may use repetition to get readers to focus on the theme
or most important idea in a poem.
•Watch for repeated words or images.
•Consider what the repeated words emphasize.

11. Let’s Practice
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
Often have I been to it,
Even to its highest tower,
From whence the world looks black.”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom;
Long have I pursued it,
But never have I touched
The hem of its garment.”
from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

12. Let’s Practice
When should you continue reading at the end of a line?
Where should you pause?
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
Often have I been to it,
Even to its highest tower,
From whence the world looks black.”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom;
Long have I pursued it,
But never have I touched
The hem of its garment.”
from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

13. Let’s Practice
Do you need to rearrange the word order of any line to
understand it better?
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
Often have I been to it,
Even to its highest tower,
From whence the world looks black.”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom;
Long have I pursued it,
But never have I touched
The hem of its garment.”
from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

14. Let’s Practice
What figures of speech does the poet use? What do they
mean?
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
Often have I been to it,
Even to its highest tower,
From whence the world looks black.”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom;
Long have I pursued it,
But never have I touched
The hem of its garment.”
from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

15. Let’s Practice
Who is the speaker in the poem? How does the speaker’s
diction affect the tone of the poem?
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
Often have I been to it,
Even to its highest tower,
From whence the world looks black.”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom;
Long have I pursued it,
But never have I touched
The hem of its garment.”
from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

16. Let’s Practice
What sound effects does the poet use? What words,
phrases, or lines are repeated?
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a rock, a mighty fortress;
Often have I been to it,
Even to its highest tower,
From whence the world looks black.”
“Truth,” said a traveller,
“Is a breath, a wind,
A shadow, a phantom;
Long have I pursued it,
But never have I touched
The hem of its garment.”
from The Black Riders, XXVIII by Stephen Crane

17. On Your Own
Use the suggestions in this lesson to analyze this poem.
When I am dead and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,
I shall not care.
I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough;
And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted
Than you are now.
“I Shall Not Care ” by Sara Teasdale

18. The End