Reading a section of Hirsch's HOW TO READ A POEM
Read ONE of the sixteen sections of Edward Hirsch’s How to Read a Poem. Report which section you read and share an idea from it on the discussion page.
For example:
I read the section "Give a Common Word the Spell." Hirsch talks about how poetry uses language in a way that isn't manipulative or abusive, but instead invites us to hear words as if for the first time - or at least in a new way.
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Optional: Try out your own version of this Robert Frost poem:
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
I read the section Metaphor: A Poet is a Nightingale. EDWARD HIRSCH talks about how there is a distance relationship between the author and the reader they understand each other but not actually know each other.
ReplyDeleteI read the section, "Epic, Drama, Lyric: Be Plural Like the Universe!" Hirsch explains how people have grouped poetry into three categories: epic, drama and lyric. In reality, these categories overlap all the time. Poems often crossover into different groups, and readers can experience the best of all worlds!
ReplyDeleteI read the section "The Immense Intimacy, the Intimate Immensity" by Edward Hirsch. Hirsch talks about the tangibility of poems and how the emotions and ideas behind poems are "rooted" by words. He describes reading poems as an experience that takes him to another plane of time.
ReplyDeleteI read the section about Metaphor. What I found interesting is the way Edward Hirsch explains that metaphors are what make a poem stand out. “Metaphor drives the engine of poetry. Figurative language—figures of speech and thought—guides the interaction between poet and reader.” This showed me that having an example that resembles what has been said in the poem, is what brings the reader and the poem together.
ReplyDeleteI read the “Winged Type” section, which talked about how poems can also be artistic in shape. The shape of a poem gives readers something else to think about, and it often matches the mood of the play, whether the poem is happy and is an organic shape or more serious and it is shaped with hard lines.
ReplyDeleteI read “Heartland”. I think the message it’s trying to spread is that some poems take more to some people over others. The meaning of the poem is truly understood by a small amount of the people who read it.
ReplyDeleteWhat I mean is that some poems stand out to some people more than others, and that a poems are never meant for one person specifically, they are out there for anyone that can find them. The person that finds them is the person the poem was for.
DeleteI read the section "Stored Magic". Hirsch tells us about the feelings and emotions that poem gives us, and talks about how we do not have to understand it to be able to feel it. He tells us that poems are so much more than just hidden meanings, interpretation, and analysis. It's about evoking feeling, immersing the reader into the poem, and making it more enjoyable experience as well!
ReplyDeleteI read the section “Stored Magic”. Hirsch explains that poems can connect everyone, and people can see different perspectives and understand and accept each other even if they come from different backgrounds and have different opinions.
ReplyDeleteI read the same section as well and to add on to what you said, I think Edward Hirsch described these poems as being able to last for many generations, almost also as they can be so generic but also applicable to anyone and everyone. That must be hard to write about, being able to write something that can be meaningful to anyone but also not too specific that won't be relevant or make sense anymore in the future.
DeleteI read “The Wave Always Returns”. It was interesting to me how lyric poetry flows and moves like a wave. We get to interact with the water, but it has it’s own rhythm. Poetry is like a force of nature, and we are along for the ride.
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ReplyDeleteI read the section "Heartland". I think it is expressing how inclusive poetry is. Anyone who decides to read a poem can receive the message inside. A poem is meant for any person who chooses to read it. It is personal, and yet is shared by many.
ReplyDelete-Anya C.
I read the "heartland" section. It talks about poems being an escape and a way to connect to the author. Edward Hirsch says, "These poems have come from a great distance to find you". This message makes poems seem much more intimate and personal, which they are, because the messages "hidden" inside of poems are for us to decide.
ReplyDeleteI read the section “Help Me, O Heavenly Muse” and it talks about how deep passion to a near madness and sometimes simply feeling are just as necessary for writing poetry as reason and controlled technique.
ReplyDeleteI read the section Metaphor: A Poet is a Nightingale. I thought it was interesting how Hirsch said that a poem using figurative language and metaphors gives the reader and writer a deeper connection.
ReplyDeleteI read the section “The Immense Intimacy, the Intimate Immensity”. Reading poetry is different than reading a book, you need a open mind when reading poetry.
ReplyDelete-Angelica
I read the section "To the Reader Setting Out". An idea that I liked from this section is that by reading poetry you are leaving behind familiarity and exploring your imagination. You can be transported out of reality and into the poem, and discover new emotions and ideas because of this.
ReplyDeleteI read “Metaphor: A Poet is a Nightingale”. I think language really makes a poem. Metaphors and similes are what arouse discussion. It brings different layers of meaning. It gives the reader something more to discuss. Figurative language shows a completely different view on a topic. The reader gains a completely new perspective through the poem.
ReplyDeleteI the the part Help Me, O Heavenly Muse. This part shows that great feeling and passion is required to write a poem well.
ReplyDeleteI read "Give the Common Word a Spell". This part talked about how poetry can use words in many ways that they are not generally used in. It expands the use of language to allow for a new creative experience.
ReplyDeleteI read the section "Winged Type". It talked about how poetry can be more than a literary art, and become a visual art as well depending on where each word falls into place.
ReplyDeleteI read the section “Heartland”. It talked about how the destination/ reader of the poem is unknown when written but will make it to and ready by whoever it needs.
ReplyDeleteI read the section "Winged Type". This section wrote about how poems can be artistically shaped to bring out a meaning. I gives a chance for the reader to interact with it and see it as more of a piece of art, which makes the entire poem a metaphor.
ReplyDeleteI read the section “heartland”. I think it’s interesting that how every poem are destined to find a recipient. And I think it is true. It’s trapped in a bottle, but if you find it and open it I believe it will give a person joy.
ReplyDeleteI read “To the Reader Setting Out” and it showed me that reading poetry is like a frame of mind and you have to be involved and let your imagination explore while reading to get the full affect and really know what message It’s trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteI read "Winged Type". It brings up that the poem is not only the words, but also the shape of the words. The author can add another level to the poem by adding the aspect of shape their poem.
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ReplyDeleteI read the section "Heartland". It talks about how poems will make their way to you and are meant for anyone who chooses them. Poems aren't meant for specific people, but can be for anyone who
ReplyDeletefinds their way to the poem.
I read "The wave always returns", and it shows that your poem can sort of move like the title describes, so if your poem has the title of "bustling", it should be shaped and meant to be read at faster pace. A part I also read was talking about it should get our senses involved within it as well, to try to trigger our sense of smell, taste, etc...
ReplyDeleteI read stored magic and thought it was interesting how poetry can stop time If you really get into it and pay attention. It explains how poetry can come t two people who are strangers and help understand eachother.
ReplyDeleteI read the winged type and thought it was interesting how it focused on the visual aspect of poems as well as how they sound.
ReplyDeleteI read about winged type where the poem takes a shape which in my opinion can add mystery to the poem or take away from some of that uncertainty. When there’s a more visuals aspect more senses are involved with reading a poem making it more emotional.
ReplyDeleteI read Heartland. I like the idea that the poem is meant for the reader and that each reader is special, and is fulfilling the purpose of the poem by reading it.
ReplyDeleteI read the section titled "In the Beginning Is the Relation." Hirsch talks about how poems are intimate communication between the speaker and the reader, and describes poetry as a "relational process" or "dynamic unfolding" of meaning.
ReplyDeleteI chose Winged Type. This type of poem incorporates visuals and art into the poetry from arranging the words into a shape on paper to putting them in another type of physical form. I thought this was interesting because the way you present your poem can make a large difference in the way it is read.
ReplyDeleteI read the section called Winged Type. It is about how the poem appeals to the eye. I really liked it because it is interesting how you can shape words artistically, like a drawing. I thought it was really cool.
ReplyDeleteI read the section "Stored Magic". It tells how poems are timeless and can last on their own, surviving the changes in the world. Poems are meant to change people and bring emotions out, no matter who they are.
ReplyDeleteI read Heartland which brought up the idea that poems are like messages sent to specific people> I think what this means at-least to mean is that specific poems can resonate with specific people only. Not everyone can understand the pain of divorce or a poem about it but those who've been through it or are going through it understand it to the core of there being. Within that it can reveal so much more about who that person is and what there going through by hearing from another perspective or even hearing similar or different experiences.
ReplyDeleteI read the "Mere Air, These Words, but Delicious to Hear" section. It talked about how poetry is meant to be spoken aloud, and that the way it is spoken is very important, and as much a part of the poem as the words themselves. I liked this section because it's very true how poems read differently than prose, and that a bad delivery can ruin the experience, while a good one can make all the difference.
ReplyDeleteI read the "The Wave Always Returns" section. It talked about how fluid poetry is and that it is something that can resonate with us in so many ways. It talked about how poetry can transport us places that we can only understand by thinking about every sense.
ReplyDeleteThe first section claims that a poem is a message, which seems fair enough to me, as most poems do seem to be trying to present a big idea or lesson.
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ReplyDeleteI read the section to give a common word the spell, which describes how poetry brings the common word out of context, which is true in some poetry where you’ll find words used in a surprising or new way sometimes
I read the “Heartland” section. It talked about how certain aspects of the poem really tug at the heartstrings, specifically our emotions! It relates about information relating regarding our daily lives. It’s important to think about that part because when you start to pick up on that, it becomes more recognizable in other works of literature that you come upon.
ReplyDeleteI read “Winged Type” which said how poems are not only pleasing to listen to but also to look at. Poems tell a message through their appearance not just what they are saying.
ReplyDeleteI read, “the wave always returns” which talks about how a poem in processed through your senses. Traveling, from your eyes to your ears and always returns to make you think of the poem in a different way.
ReplyDeleteI read "It Is Something of an Accident That You Are the Reader and I the Writer" and it discussed that the reader needs to actively read the poem in order for it to be meaningful, and made me think of how when someone reads they will often create a mental image or view of what is happening and that that is exactly what the section is discussing.
ReplyDeleteI read “Stored Magic” and it talked about how some poems contain magic in a way that transcends their lifetime. It’s not real magic but magic in a sense that it can connect with so many people everywhere no matter how long it’s been since the poem’s been written.
ReplyDeleteI read “Give a a Common Word the Spell”. This section talked about how poetry is not limited or exclusive to anyone, but rather an open medium for all to test. Not only is a poems diction a reflection of how the author hopes to personally enhance the meaning of certain terms, but also provides a unique position for the readers of poetry to compare their own interpretations of many open ended pieces.
ReplyDeleteI read the heartland section which talks about how a poem is like a message in a bottle, and sometimes we stumble upon them, written for you.
ReplyDeleteI read, “ It is Something of Accident That You Are the reader and I the Writer”. This section talks about how the reader has to be involved while reading the poem or the poem has no meaning and voice.
ReplyDeleteI read heartland, which really emphasized how important poems are, as a message. How poems are very personal, a message sent out by the poems author for you. Something special which you have discovered rather than just been told to read or found in a library. Edward Hirsch seems to believe that poems are like capsules of emotion just waiting to be discovered and experienced.
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