How to Read Poetry Like a Professor

67 pages • 2 hours read

How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

PART 1

Reading Check

1. What does Foster say many in-training teachers turn to instead of poetry?

2. What does Foster suggest readers should pay attention to as a guide to meaning in poetry instead of focusing on where lines begin and end?

3. From which American poet does Foster borrow the title “The Sounds of Sense”?

4. What term describes the repetition of initial sounds to create an effect?

5. What does Foster view poetry as a deliberate struggle against?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is Foster’s assessment of how most people feel about poetry?

2. What relationship does Foster propose between poetry’s sensory aspects and ways to increase enjoyment of reading poetry?

3. What suggestion does Foster make in his analogy between decoding poetry and decoding music?

4. What point is Foster making in his discussion of avant-garde poets such as E. E. Cummings and Gerard Manley Hopkins?

5. What criticism does Foster make of the definitions of poetry offered over the ages by famous poets?

Paired Resource

“What Makes a Poem…a Poem?”

This 5-minute TED-Ed video describes the struggle to define poetry and shares a simple definition.
This resource relates to the themes of English Poetry in Particular and Creativity Within Constraints.
How does this video’s definition of poetry compare to Foster’s? Which definition do you find more useful? Why?

“Introduction to Poetry”

This accessible Billy Collins poem shares the speaker’s frustration at his poetry students’ focus on analysis over pleasure and experience.
This resource relates to the theme of The Universality of the Poetic Impulse Versus the Standout Voice.
What frustrates the speaker about the way his students approach poetry? What does he want them to experience about the genre, instead? How does this relate to Foster’s point about how we can increase the enjoyment we take in reading excellent poetry?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 3-8

Reading Check

1. Which is the most common type of metrical foot in English?

2. Which American poet does Foster describe as utilizing repeating patterns of prepositional phrases and the rhythms of jazz and blues?

3. What term describes lines of poetry that terminate in punctuation and tend to create a choppy rhythm?

4. What term refers to word choice?

5. What term refers to rhymes that occur inside lines of poetry?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Foster see as the purpose of scansion?

2. What is the relationship between meter and rhythm?

3. What are some of the aspects of word choice a reader should consider?

4. What is blank verse and what “sound” does it tend to create?

5. What argument does Foster make regarding the intentions of the speaker versus the intentions of the author?

Paired Resource

“The Pleasure of Poetic Pattern” and “What is Rhyme in Poetry?”

The first resource is a 5-minute TED-Ed video offering insight into why we find rhythm and repetition of sound pleasurable and how this manifests itself in poetic technique. The second resource is a 5-minute Oregon State University video in which poet-in-residence David Biespiel explores how rhyme scheme impacts meaning.
These resources relate to the themes of English Poetry in Particular and Creativity Within Constraints.
How does hearing someone discussing the sounds of rhyme, rhythm, and repetition differ from reading about the same concepts in Foster’s book? How does your response relate to Foster’s point about reading poetry aloud?

“The Most Misread Poem in America”

This article from The Paris Review explores the ways in which “The Road Not Taken” is often misinterpreted.
This resource relates to the theme of Creativity Within Constraints.
How do common misunderstandings of this poem illustrate Foster’s comments about the importance of carefully examining things such as diction and understanding the difference between speaker and author?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 9-14

Reading Check

1. What are the two most common sonnet forms?

2. According to Foster, what is the biggest challenge in composing an effective haiku?

3. What term is used to describe two lines of rhyming verse?

4. What term is used to describe a poem built around a central metaphor or simile?

5. Which work does Foster advise should be read “as if it’s German, but with a slightly French accent”? (148)

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What are the characteristics of a sonnet?

2. What is Foster’s general argument for learning about the different traditional poetic forms, like the sonnet, the villanelle, and so on?

3. How does Foster describe the difference between the rules that govern free verse and the rules that govern closed forms?

4. What relationship does Foster see between Beat Poetry and today’s spoken word poetry?

5. How does Foster compare and contrast songs with poetry?

Paired Resource

“Shrinking Women”

This 4-minute video is a spoken word piece by poet Lily Myers exploring the various ways women are expected to make themselves smaller. The text of her performance can be found here.
This resource relates to the themes of English Poetry in Particular, The Universality of the Poetic Impulse Versus the Standout Voice, and Creativity Within Constraints.
What poetic techniques do you see at work in “Shrinking Women”? Why do you think this poem went viral—because of its form, its content, or both? How does Myers’s performance of her poem either reinforce or contradict Foster’s comments about spoken word poetry?

“Hallelujah” and “How Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ Brilliantly Mingled Sex, Religion”

The first resource is the lyrics to Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah.” (An 8-minute video performance of the song can be found here.) The second resource is a Rolling Stone excerpt from a book about Cohen, explaining the creation and meaning of this song. Note that due to length, complexity, and brief references to sexuality, these resources may not be appropriate for younger readers.
These resources relate to the themes of English Poetry in Particular, The Universality of the Poetic Impulse Versus the Standout Voice, and Creativity Within Constraints.
Is Cohen’s “Hallelujah” a poem? Why or why not? How does this famous song illuminate Foster’s commentary on the relationship between songs and poems?

PART 3

Reading Check

1. According to Foster, what are the two main ways a poet can accomplish defamiliarization?

2. What technique does Foster credit for the Imagists’ ability to present universal truths in new ways?

3. What term did poet Wallace Stevens use to describe poetry’s ability to stretch the reader’s imagination by forcing the reader to participate in the creation of meaning?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What point is Foster illustrating in his discussion of “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home” by Craig Raine?

2. What technique, according to Foster, did T. S. Eliot use in The Waste Land, instead of directly telling readers what to think?

3. What claim does Foster make about the reason for poetry’s enduring and widespread appeal?

Recommended Next Reads

Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder

This highly regarded handbook explores what poetry is, why it has value, and how to read it in fulfilling ways.
Shared themes include English Poetry in Particular, The Universality of the Poetic Impulse Versus the Standout Voice, and Creativity Within Constraints.
Shared topics include characteristics of poetry, strategies for reading and analysis of poetry, the importance of poetry in modern life, and overcoming barriers to enjoyment of poetry.

Don’t Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems by Stephanie Burt

Poet Stephanie Burt’s innovative handbook guides readers through strategies for reading and appreciating poetry, arguing that poetry is for everyone.
Shared themes include English Poetry in Particular, The Universality of the Poetic Impulse Versus the Standout Voice, and Creativity Within Constraints.
Shared topics include characteristics of poetry, strategies for reading and analysis of poetry, the importance of poetry in modern life, and overcoming barriers to enjoyment of poetry.

Reading Questions Answer Key

PART 1

Reading Check

1. Novels (Part 1, Introduction)

2. Punctuation/sentences (Part 1, Chapter 1)

3. Robert Frost (Part 1, Chapter 1)

4. Alliteration (Part 1, Chapter 2)

5. Mediocrity (Part 1, Interlude)

Short Answer

1. He thinks that most people are curious about poetry but because they feel tricked and intimidated by it, they don’t read it more avidly. (Part 1, Introduction)

2. People enjoy poetry more when they read it aloud and when they reread it, focusing on its sensory aspects rather than exclusively on its meaning. (Part 1, Chapter 1)

3. Foster suggests that we think of the sound of poetry separately from the meaning of the words, just as we can consider the sound of melody separately from the meaning of lyrics in songs. (Part 1, Chapter 2)

4. These poets make especially interesting use of sound devices and studying them illuminates the ways in which sound can be considered separately from word meanings. (Part 1, Chapter 2)

5. They are generally just describing their own approaches to poetry rather than something universal about the genre. (Part 1, Interlude)

PART 2, CHAPTERS 3-8

Reading Check

1. Iamb (Part 2, Chapter 3)

2. Langston Hughes (Part 2, Chapter 4)

3. End-stopped (Part 2, Chapter 5)

4. Diction (Part 2, Chapter 6)

5. Internal rhyme (Part 2, Chapter 7)

Short Answer

1. Analyzing the metrical patterns in poetry allows us to understand why the meter makes us feel as we do. (Part 2, Chapter 3)

2. Rhythm is a larger idea than meter: It is made up of both meter and other sound devices, like alliteration and other forms of repetition. (Part 2, Chapter 4)

3. Readers should consider the relative formality of diction, its connotations, its look on the page and sound when spoken, original or idiosyncratic uses of language, and specialized language such as regional dialects. (Part 2, Chapter 6)

4. Blank verse is unrhymed, metrical verse written in lines, and it often creates a more thoughtful and serious tone than is created by rhymed verse. (Part 2, Chapter 7)

5. The speaker is the person narrating the poem, a construction created by an author. Because the speaker is directly heard from, it makes more sense to talk about the intentions of the speaker; the author is a separate entity and their intentions are largely elusive. (Part 2, Chapter 8)

PART 2, CHAPTERS 9-14

Reading Check

1. Petrarchan and Shakespearean (Part 2, Chapter 9)

2. Compression of meaning (Part 2, Chapter 10)

3. Couplet (Part 2, Chapter 11)

4. Conceit (Part 2, Chapter 12)

5. The Canterbury Tales (Part 2, Chapter 13)

Short Answer

1. Sonnets are traditional poems composed of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, which tends to give them a square shape. They may have various rhyme schemes, or—occasionally—may be unrhymed. (Part 2, Chapter 9)

2. Although the different traditional forms seem intimidating, they are worth understanding because each form’s unique characteristics make it well-suited to accomplish particular poetic tasks. (Part 2, Chapter 10)

3. The rules governing traditional, closed-form poetry are external to the poem itself, while the rules that create the “verse” part of free verse are internal to individual poems. (Part 2, Interlude)

4. Contemporary spoken word poetry has inherited the Beat Poets’ emphasis on orality and the use of the voice to control pace, emphasize rhythm, convey emotion, and so on. (Part 2, Chapter 13)

5. Both songs and poetry use techniques such as stanzas, verses, and meter, but songs are additionally constrained by needing to be catchy and to match the rhythm of language to the beat of the music. (Part 2, Chapter 14)

PART 3

Reading Check

1. Seeing and saying things differently (Part 3, Chapter 15)

2. Their use of simple, stark images (Part 3, Chapter 15)

3. “Supreme fictions” (Part 3, Conclusion)

Short Answer

1. He is using Raine’s poem to illustrate his idea that an important goal of poetry is to present the ordinary in such a way that it feels strange and new. (Part 3, Chapter 15)

2. Eliot presented a long series of images without much explanation or commentary, allowing readers to make connections and supply their own meaning. (Part 3, Chapter 15)

3. Foster believes that self-expression is a universal impulse and that humans have always had, and will always have, a desire to write poetry. (Part 3, Conclusion)