Poetry



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Hamlet is heavily reliant on poetry. Consequently, we are beginning this section with a study of aspects of poetry before we begin our study of Hamlet. Poetry is an incredible tool for communicating, although it is often considered a source of frustration, confusion, and agony for students. However, if you listen to and enjoy music, you are already immersed in poetry! Concentrated language that carries significant impact can be difficult to translate into something we can relate to. What does it have to do with us? With me? How can it help me make sense of my world? Intended to relay intense emotions and images, poetry uses figurative language to convey ideas and emotions with greater precision than everyday language.


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Initially, we will look at poetry with a more general lens: What message is the speaker trying to convey? How is the message conveyed? The Poetry tutorial offers the "4Ts Strategy" for interpreting a poem: title, tone, theme, and technique. When doing a more in-depth analysis of poetry, we want to look at the figurative language used by the poet and how that impacts the message and purpose of the poem. How does repetition, metaphor, or blank verse impact our reading experience and understanding, for example? For a detailed list of figurative language, please review the glossary in the Poetry tutorial.

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Many people are turned off by poetry because they are unsure of how to approach it or read it. The best tip when approaching poetry is to read it just like you would any other text: use the punctuation marks to indicate when you should pause or stop or take a breath. If there is no punctuation in a poem, that may be for a reason - consider how the lack of punctuation may impact the poet's message. When you come to the end of a line, unless there is a period, continue reading the next line as if it were a continuation of the first line, just as if you were reading a story or essay.


Like this: Twinkle, twinkle, little star / how I wonder what you are / Up above the world so high, / like a diamond in the sky.

The forward slash (/) indicates that there was a new line, but we read it as if it just continued like a sentence.