Reading Poems for Pleasure

When we read poems for pleasure, or for the first time, our job is frequently not to analyze but to imagine.

As I walked through that Hardy poem with you, I tried to help you envision the scene. Poems are special because they require one to use all of our five senses, in collaboration with one's imagination, to make something happen in one's mind. Reading poems well requires well-developed powers of imagination and also a commitment to imagining the poem as one reads.

That's why we read poems aloud before we begin to analyze them: because a poem belongs, not only to the world of facts and ideas, but to the world of sights and sounds. In order to experience a poem, we have to a) hear the poem and b) imagine everything it asks us to imagine. Then we can analyze it. So one of your jobs is to look for all of the sensory data in the poem and make it your own by reproducing it in your mind's eye (or your mind's ear, nose, etc. :) ).

Once we have reproduced these images in our minds, we need to understand the logical or intellectual relationships that govern the images and the ideas in the poem. In the case of the Hardy poem, for instance, the words "yet" and "only" are important.

So take it step by step! Read it once, aloud, and imagine all of the detail as you go. Then, go over it and figure out the words you don't know, and find the logical relationships. See if you can put it together in your head. Make sure you are really putting the poem under a microscope: be as careful and as thoughtful and as patient as you are learning to be at the lab. Okay?

Just like at the lab, we might get bored occasionally, but if we persevere, we will be rewarded by the pleasure of discovery.