The Experience of Poetry - Poetry invokes memories and feelings. It makes you wonder why the writer wrote with the diction he chose. - When you read poetry you need to pay attention to what the writer in trying to portray to the reader. - In poetry, you can “hear” how the writer uses his emotions in every line and how he expresses himself. - When reading poetry, it can make you flashback to a time during your life that is related to the piece of writing. It can help you remember things from the past.
The Interpretation of Poetry - You need to try and understand what the poem suggests and not how it affects you. - The act of interpretation involves four things: 1. Observing (details of description and action, language, and form) 2. Connecting (the way its details fit together in meaningful relationship) 3. Inferring (we make inferences of interpretive guesses at their significances) 4. Concluding (make a conclusion about the possible meaning based on our observations, connections, and inferences) - You need to have a strong point in the poem to make the reader get pulled in. - Using a different type of writing during the strong point of your poem will help show how important that line in the piece is. - When reading poetry you need to slow down enough to observe detail of language, form, and sound. This allows you to make connections with the details. - Try to read the poem once to get a sense of what it is about and then read it again but pay close attention to details and commentary that may be provided with the poem. - Interpretation of the poem does not end with reading it but continues as we reflect on it afterward. This helps new ideas to arise or different interpretations occur. - Interpretation never really ends!
The Evaluation of Poetry - First, we make a judgment about how good it is and how successfully it realizes its poetic intentions. - Second, we consider how much significance the poem has for us personally and what is may have for other readers. - You need to realize that in evaluating a poem you appraise it according to your own special combination of cultural, moral, and aesthetic values. - Context: the circumstances of a poem’s compositions, the poet’s attitudes and beliefs he or she may have expressing in letters or other comments. - Evaluation: judgment or set of opinions about a literary work based on a thoughtful consideration of it. - Evaluation depends upon interpretation. - The aesthetic aspect of the poem is very difficult to describe and interpret.

Narrative Poetry 1. Epics - Long narrative poems that record the adventures of a hero whose exploits are important to the history of the nation. - The style of epics are as grand as the action and embody central beliefs and values 2. Ballads - Most popular form of narrative poetry - Meant to be sung or recited and passed on orally 3. Romance - Adventure is the central feature - Plot tends to be complex with action - Characters are mainly humans but mythical creatures tend to be intertwined
Lyric Poetry 1. Epigram- brief witty poem that is often satirical 2. Elegy- lament for the dead 3. Ode- long stately poem in stanzas of varies length, meter, and form 4. Aubade- a love lyric expressing complaint that dawn means the speaker must part from his lover 5. Sonnet- condenses into fourteen lines an expression of emotion or an idea (Italian/English) 6. Sestina- consists of six stanzas of six lines each followed by a three-line conclusion or envoy. 7. Villanelle- relies heavily of repetition (first lines repeat throughout the poem).
Elements of Poetry 1. Figurative Language- nonliteral ways of expressing one things in terms of another 2. Rhythm and Meter- pattern of accents we hear in the poem’s words, phrases, lines, and sentences. 3. Dramatic