Poetry; Reading, Writing, and Responding

When we read poetry with attention to detail, we will respond.
"Responding involves remembering and reflecting as well."
Reading poetry can make us more "active" readers. Even though the texts may differ, though if we develop specific questions about poems and work on our reading skills, the guess-work can be removed from the study of poetry and we can gain greater satisfaction from the poems and our interpretations of them.
Reading poetry; sharpens our reading skills because poetry can be somewhat compact and concise and work on a "shareable language for feeling."
Responding to poetry; sharing through the language of poems can help us uncover feeling. The reading may cause feelings of pleasure or discomfort, yet the use of language is directly connected to how one may be emotionally affected by the poems.
Writing about poetry; We write about poems to keep notes on our personal reactions to poetry. We can formulate questions about a specific work to help us understand the voice of the poem, the "agenda" of the poem, come to understand hidden meanings or even overt meaning.(how does the title affect your reading and response to the poem? What is the poem about? What makes the poem interesting? Who is the speaker? What role does the speaker have? What effect does the poem have on you? Do you think the poet intended such an effect? What is distinctive about the poet's use of language? Which words especially contribute to the poem's effect?)
Pay close attention to:
1) Reading the syntax literally.
2) Articulate for yourself what the title, subject, and situation make you expect.
3) Identify the poem's situation.
4) Find out what is implied by the traditions behind the poem.
5) Use your dictionary, other reference books, and reliable Web sites.
6) Remember that poems exist in time, and times change.
7) Take a poem on its own terms.
8) Be willing to be surprised.
9) Assume there is a reason for everything.
10) Argue.
"[Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone]", by W. H. Auden
The speaker of this poem seems to be addressing an audience of people who have come to memorialize a loved one who has died. Perhaps the writer wrote this in private, while he was experiencing his own pain about his loss, yet the poem begs to be read aloud to share the feelings of loss and grief.
"He was my North, my South, my East, my West,
my working week and my Sunday rest." (pp 411, Norton text for class)
This really struck a chord with me. Then again, the whole poem struck a chord with me! The poet bears his soul, stripped down to the very rawness of how he feels about the death of a loved one. He wants to shout to the world that he feels his world has closed upon him. That time needs to stop, and that everyone should notice that a special someone has departed from the earth. Also, the thought that "nothing now can ever come to any good." The poet is feeling completely out of his element...with no hope for the future and no desire to take in the world around him. The speaker is grieving and uses everyday occurrences to express his desire to stop activity all around. "The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; pack up the moon and dismantle the sun," wow...the poem is full of pain and the language used by the poet drives the idea home that he won't be partaking in the worldly activity around him...that there is no need for it all anymore since he lost his loved one.
This poem always makes me cry. I saw it first in the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and then I wanted to read it at my deceased husband's burial, yet I couldn't speak it that day. The words ripped through me and I couldn't even read it alone to myself. I could only rewind the scene in the movie over and over and cry and cry and cry. I cried for over 3 years whenever I watched the movie and revisited that scene. What am I saying!!!? I still cry when I read this...there are parts of me still in that stage. "I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong."