If Poetry Confuses You, Watch This - Introduction to Poetry Appreciation
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A introduction to how to read poetry and how to tolerate ambiguity
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Poetry is an art. Sometimes art is abstract. Writing poetry is like playing, or like working something out. It's telling the truth in an indirect way because sometimes being too direct doesn't quite convey the whole truth of an experience. Many times the poet is only writing for themselves, not thinking about whether others are going to understand it. I've many times read a poem and been blown away, yet could not tell you what it "means."
this sums it up exactly for me and explains exactly why i really dislike writing about poems in an exam setting. what kind of a poet sits and writes with the expectation of their poem being analysed to shreds in a classroom? why can't we let poems just be?
I love thinking of poetry as writing for myself first, but then editing for an audience after (if I'm going to share it or send it out). We cannot be endlessly subjective, as we are asking a listener or reader to be in RELATIONSHIP with the poem. If there are no open doors, how can another person enter? Usually, the first write is opening my own door. The second that of the readers.
T.S. Eliot said that, when it comes to poetry, feeling should come before comprehension. Be open to feeling. Be ready for it to be slow.
Love it. Yes. I would like to discuss Eliot more in a future poetry video.
What a great explanation. Poetry is music made with words, and its musicality can be just as important as its meaning. Relax, dive in and enjoy it. Read it aloud, learn it by heart, share it with friends, copy it out and put it on your wall. A good poem will leave you with lots of delicious questions to ponder over, but very few answers. I also find that attempting to write my own poems helps me to develop a better appreciation of other people's poetry.
Totally agree with you. Poetry is powerful. It empowers one and makes us more aware of one's own and others humanity! It is also the most beautiful and elegant way to express emotions, intention, and many other things. It is one of the few fine things enrich one's life and experiences in life.
Yeah this! It’s the most musical genre of writing. The way some poets use line breaks and punctuation, it’s similar to how rests can recontextualize rhythms in music.
I think classical Chines poetry does this job very well. As a tonal language, Chinese is particularly good and easy to create the beautiful rhythmic poems. I talked about this in one of my videos about the great Chinese poet Li Bai from the 8th century. Here is the link for your reference: th-cam.com/video/3ySVMDuttVE/w-d-xo.html
Stunning way of putting it. I usually tell people to not struggle for meaning when they first hear it. Encounter it for what it is like you would music or a film. Be enveloped in it.
Thank you! Good poetry doesn't spell the theme out for you, it doesn't hold your hand. The point is to take an idea or a feeling that you have, use pretty words evoke that same feeling in a reader and then leave them to figure out why!
I have been working with a professor of the university where I studied and we were trying to find a way to explain some students what is poetry (we were showing a "poetic movie") and he came up with this definition which I think is really simple and works for an introduction to the subject and it is: Poetry tries to convey that which can't be said.
Great video!
my parents used to read poems to me throughout my adolescence but i always felt like i’m wasting the privilege of speaking the same language as these great persian poets because i never quite understood them, it’s a tough exercise to just appreciate the poems without feeling like you got it but it’s worthwhile.
How wonderful to have your parents to read poems to you growing up. I have a similar experience. I totally agree with you. Just the beauty of words and the elegant ways to express one's feeling make all the hard work with it!!
One of my favourite poems is "Greek Restaurant" by Louis Dudek. While the poem's meaning eludes me, its enigmatic allure causes me to revisit it repeatedly. With each reading, I am compelled to construct my own narrative, igniting further significance. This ever-shifting interpretation is what makes the poem truly captivating and beautiful to me.
I love poetry and have tried to write some myself over the years but I still feel I don't understand it enough, I don't read it enough, I couldn't tell you why ones I like specifically resonate etc. Sometimes it's just vibes. Other times it's deeper.
This made me grab our my old high school book “The Mentor Book of Major British Poets” and start reading again. It’s been 25 years since I’ve touched that book and I don’t know why. Going through Wordsworth, Wilfred Owens, Dylan Thomas etc after all these years is such a joy. Thanks for reminding me about the beauty and pleasure of poetry!!!
I like how you make academia more accessible, Kudos Walden
I'm obsessed with classic literature but I can't get into poetry. I won't give up!
I'm always re-reading the same poems by Victor Hugo, hoping I'll grow to understand them. :)
How's your journey with poetry going? One of my goals is to ensure people have positive experiences in poetry, whether at reading events I host, workshops I hold, or TH-cam videos I make, or poems I write.
@@nathanhassallpoetry I'm reading the most epic poem of them all right now: The Divine Comedy. Does that count? 🤭
Congratulations, you've stirred my interest in poetry like nobody ever has. Thanks... I think? Haha, I love your videos. Thanks for the great context. If there are other youtubers who you really appreciate or take inspiration from, I'd love to hear your recommendations, and perhaps some poetry recommendations as well. Thanks again! Cheers.
Well done! I hope many teachers are listening …
To tell you the truth when I was young I never liked poetry but when my sister was still alive she would read poetry to me and she taught me how to read and my very first book was Alice in wonderland and I didn't understand at first but when I kept reading it I felt dread I felt sadness I felt happiness I felt excitement and for the first time I read poetry as I got older I started reading William Faulkner one of the most beautiful novel I have ever read in my life and now I'm reading war and peace and it's also poetry as well but it's a wonderful tale I really hope you read more poetry and I love your videos thank you for making them I hope you make more videos
Rainer Maria Rilke and William Blake are my favourites 🌷
Rilke is so good. They are both great but Stephen Mitchell's translations of Rilke are delicious
Everything you need to understand a poem, is within the poem itself. Great poetry always defines itself! All we need to do is read with all of our heart and throw our minds out the window
As a polyglot I was wondering if you could make a video discussing the effect of (good) “translation” of a poem! Based on your beautiful interpretation of poetry in general and how to see it as an abstract rhapsody of words, how much of this abstraction is or could be conveyed into its translation. Reading Heine in German might feel different from its English translation! Reading Rumi or Khayyam in their original Persian is quite different from their translations in any other language. Li Bai in Chinese compare to its French translation ….
I would love to hear your well researched and personal al opinion.
Cheers!
I can understand your puzzling early experience of reading poetry. If you are not exposed to poetry early in life, you miss the chance to feel and sense the beauty in poetry, especially for a philosophical mind like you. Poetry is expression emotions, sensations, and things related to them. Logic and reasoning have little role in understanding poetry.
I was inspired when you demonstrated that even when you did not like a particular author, you could identify meaningful content from his writing. Each time I watch your video I also sense that it is not a mashed mix summary from just a few books; the video content is built upon a personal collection of knowledge from reading widely and reflecting deeply. The obscured way of poetic expression is really charming yet intimidating sometimes. I have always loved poetry, especially the collection of the Tang dynasty, and was greatly inspired to write poems myself. I tried to read more English poems, but I often found it difficult and frustrating to understand the poems.
Wonderful! I shared this with my students!
the same feelings about poetry! thanks for the video
Excellent video! The best way I found of understanding poetry is to read it out loud... or listen to someone else read poetry. 😉
8:58 thank you!
We appreciate your insights. You'll always have our support.
Incredibly helpful video . Thanks very much .
You're really funny, I really enjoy watching your videos
This is wonderful. I love poetry but I struggle with a lot of modern poetry. Can you explore how these themes emerge in the modern context?
Why do you think you struggle? Do you mean poetry being written now or modernist poetry?
This makes so much sense
I sure wish I had this video before my intro to literature: reading poetry class last year 😂
Lucky there are lots of poetry resources out there for free even on TH-cam.
I really love your reading ans writing tips. ❤
my favourite approach to poems is to try to sing them, feel their rhythm and the words on your tongue, it's not a rational approach for me
Yes! Engage your body in the poetry process.
when you read a poetry book do you read it from cover to back? Or is there a specific way to read it?
your channel has made me see the light, thank you
This was so interesting. Thank you for the video. I've always struggled with poetry because even though some poems I've read are easy to understand (I admit I feel pretty dumb saying this lol) and they resonate a lot with my own feelings, some others are so cryptic, and to understand them I'd have to know the poet's biography, so at moments like this I feel lost, I don't get the poem and it doesn't mean anything to me. So yes, poetry it's very subjective. On one occasion I read a poem collection and got to make a few questions to the author, I failed completely to get the point of the poems 😂 I said my thoughts of one poem and after it, she said what it really meant. A friend made an observation on another poem, and it turned out he was right, and until this day, I don't understand what he said. Well, this became a rant 😂
I guess I need to spend more time with poetry.
Poetry can be extremely difficult to analyse and understand when you're doing it for academic purposes but really soothing to the soul when you're reading, analysing or interpreting it for yourself. It's sad that your professor assigned you with Wordsworth, I think you'd like Coleridge better.
It was enlightening man
can you recommend some poetry collections?
''Here there is no light,
save what from heaven is with the breezes blown,
through verdurous glooms and winding mossy ways.'' -Keats
Keats fell early to consumption and believed himself a failure, his life's epitaph writ in water. But he was mistaken.
Ironically Keats is buried in the same cemetery in Italy with Richard Henry Dana, poet and author of ''Two Years Before The Mast,'' another must read book with Melville's classic ''Moby Dick.''
I appreciate your video a lot and agree with pretty much every point you focus on, but I came up to a doubt which I find difficult to solve in some way: if poetry is based on this sense of ambiguity, how can someone judge a good poem from a bad one? What are the characteristics that can help us discern that? What's (brutal question, but I hope to get the idea) the difference between Dante, Borges, or Shakespeare with a poem written by someone who has zero knowledge and just tries to do his best? Is there a way at all?
sorry if my answer will be ambiguous too but I think one thing that can help us is to separate the distinction of high and low from good and bad. art is very subjective in general but there are certain poets that we can consider masters of the world but in no way does it make one better than the other. some high art can be uninspired or stale while some low art can be striking and relevant. hope this helps :)
Great video!
I love reading fiction, reading is for sure my favorite activitie but..... i cant like poetry. Much probably school ruined it to me
Took me until my masters in English before I was forced to study poetry. Even after the class…I still don’t appreciate it. Glad it’s there for people who like it because I definitely don’t wanna read it.
Being forced to study anything won't help our appreciation or art. Do you like music?
Have you read the love of stones by tobias hill? I think you might like it!!
“Poetry is the great language because poetry is the art of saying what can’t be said. Every poet knows this.
They’re trying to describe the indescribable, and every poet also knows that nothing is describable.
There is nothing at all that can be talked about adequately, and the whole art of poetry is to say what can't be said.”
- Alan Watts
The way I see it is words are a great tool in many things but theres so much more that may not have words enough to adequately convey and the ambiguity of poems attempts to do this
I am the opposite, I hate reading novels but love poetry.
Any books on Palestine?
Thank God Im not the only one struggling with Burke, damn that book was tough
And boring. 😂
Poetry's never been confusing, but English poetry is a sellout compared to others, especially to Eastern poetry, specifically Arabic literature and poetry.
I feel like I prefer writing poetry than reading other people's poetry
We learn by reading other people. Writing is the best way to learn how to write, but reading ain't far behind. Study the master's and you'll be more likely to achieve greatness.
Hahaha. Of course you hate edmund burke. Tradition is something you can't handle.
You should read:
THE BOOK OF MORMON all the way through.
Another Testament Of Jesus Christ.
I really don’t think you will regret.
Joeseph Smith believes in a work-based theology. You cannot believe in Jesus, and the Book of Mormon at the same time, because, to believe Jesus’s death and resurrection that has saved you, and it is grace alone. The works are only as a result of a transformed heart through Christ.
And If you believe in Jesus Christ, you must also reject other gods, and becoming a god of your own.
Do not piggyback on Christ to give false legitimacy to your cult.