Teaching Poetry: Strategies for Poetic Interpretation - Essay Sample

Introduction

Poetry forms a significant part of literature by presenting information in the form of symbols and decoded messages to be decoded through analysis. As a result, various strategies have to be employed when teaching poetry to ensure that the learners understand how to go about the analysis. Essentially, one has to undergo proper training to understand the various approaches to a poetic interpretation better. A poem requires to be looked at from the poet's point of view, considering the different possible thoughts that they may have. An instructor would also need to have in-depth knowledge of poetic license, which allows a poet some freedom to add or omit various grammatical aspects to achieve a particular goal. The teaching strategies should be grounded on such approaches as the context, target audience, as well as the poet's choice of poetic features.

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Examining the Context

The context in poetry refers to the circumstances surrounding the message passed in the poem, such as the environment, the individuals involved, and the activities therein. For instance, when teaching poetic context in the poem entitled "Madam and the Rent Man" by Langston Hughes, the context is critical. The poet depicts a woman talking to an agent who has come to collect the rent from her. In the process, she tells him of all the problems with the house and why she would not pay the rent (Hughes 1312). In this case, one has to understand that in the context of a tenant and a renting agent, such a conversation may ensue and that the decision taken afterward only depends on that particular context. In the same light, one can draw the contextual base from reading the poem and understanding the characters, the message and the circumstances surrounding them. A good example is the short poem, "I Too" which by reading to the end, one understands that the persona is a person of color in the context of slavery and racial discrimination in America.

Understanding the Audience

The most important pedagogical factor in any writing is understanding the target audience and shaping the said literary piece according to their needs. Essentially, learning poetry is impossible without considering that each type of poem is addressed to a particular group of readers who require to understand and, in some cases, act accordingly. Claude Mc Kay's "If We Must Die" is a perfect example of an audience-oriented poem. The poet starts by saying that "If we must die, let it not be like hogs..." Here, the "we" is not defined, but the reader understands due to the knowledge of historical facts in the American past. The poet tries to pass this message firmly by repeating the line "If we must die" to trigger a response from the oppressed African Americans, to fight to the death and not accept to die like cowards. Similarly, Countee Cullen's poem "From the Dark Tower" employs the same strategy to stir action from people of color as he says, "We shall not always plant while others reap." The intended audience understands as he speaks their language, and as much as it is coded, they do get the message, and it ignites something within them.

Poetic Features

In the study of poetry, it is impossible to ignore the poet's choice of specific features that make the piece not only informative but also musical and entertaining. Some of these features include rhetoric, alliteration, rhyme, assonance, consonance, repetition, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, among others. Most poets present their works in a mixture of different features to ensure that they capture the reader's attention from the beginning to the end. For instance, In the second line of the first stanza in Countee Cullen's poem "Incident," he says "Heart-filled, head-filled with glee" and in the third line of the second stanza, "And so I smiled..." In these two statements, the most evident feature is alliteration and assonance (Cullen 14). Alliteration is in the repetition of the sound /h/ and /f/ in words with close proximity, while assonance is evident in the repetition of the sound /i/ in the words filled and glee. Apart from the musicality that comes with the alliteration and assonance, the reader's attention is drawn more to the message.

Rhetoric

The rhetorical approach is one of the most common methods utilized by poets to trigger further analysis on the reader's side. When teaching poetry, it is essential to explain the various types of questions, one of which is the rhetorical frame of reference. For instance, in "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes, the entire poem is a rhetorical piece with questions that do not require an answer. He asks, "What happens to a dream deferred?" where in reality, he does not need the reader to respond (Hughes 5). Instead, it opens up a discussion where the reader has to think beyond what is written, and as further questions arise, they hint to possible responses but introduce other issues in the process. The rhetorical strategy is part of the poetic freedom for a writer to actively engage the audience's minds and draw them into a state of sublime. A similar approach is evident in the poem "If We Must Die" by Claude McKay, where he asks, "What though before us lies the open grave? " (McKay 1). Here, the question is rhetorical but also acts as a guide to further analysis.

Summarizing, poems can be described as a unique form of literature in which only the lovers of poetry can understand and enjoy. As an instructor and a teacher of poetry, it is critical to have sufficient knowledge of the different features therein as well as the art of being a poet. Most importantly, one has to learn about the poem's context, the target audience, and the poetic features as well as their meanings and application. Essentially, teaching poetry is a skill, and the strategies employed in the process should be both comprehensive and precise. This way, the learner can quickly analyze and understand any poem regardless of how it has been written.

Works Cited

Cullen, Countee. Countee Cullen: Collected Poems:(American Poets Project# 32). Vol. 32. Library of America, 2013.

Hughes, Langston. "A dream deferred." Adventures in Reading (1951).

Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." 1926." Gates and McKay (1773): 1311-1314.

McKay, Claude. "If we must die." The Liberator 2.6 (1919): 1.