“Poetry is just sitting there waiting to be read.“

How does one start reading poetry? The answer may be more simple than you think. In this session, Professor Van Engen offers some tips for getting started in the world of poetry and a few tools used to understand and experience poetry in depth.

Main Points

• To get started reading poetry, just start!
• Share what you find. When you’ve encountered poetry that moves you, share it with others.
• Don’t worry about what others think. You don’t need to start with the “Great Poets” of history. Find something that speaks to you.
• Ask questions of poems as you read. Think through what the lines, stanzas, and music of the poem are contributing to the experience of reading or hearing the poem.

Questions to ask of poetry:

• How does the grammar work?
• How do the lines work?
• How do the stanzas work?
• What is the music of this poem?
• Why does this poem keep going?

A couple of specific poetry forms mentioned in this session:

• Sonnet: A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line.
  • Villanelle: A nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout.

Content Questions

• What barriers have you experienced to starting to read poetry? What would it look like to “just start?”
• Have you shared poetry with someone? If so, what did that look like? How did the other person receive it?
• What questions have you found yourself asking of poetry when you read it? Which of the questions from this session occurs to you to ask the most? What about the least?

Application Questions

• Find a poem that speaks to you and share it with a friend. Share what about the poem made an impression on you, and ask your friend to share what their takeaways are.
• Choose a poem and read through it multiple times, asking the questions that are laid out in this session. Explore how the grammar, form, music, etc. of the poem are working to draw you in and create an experience.