A Post About Poetry

Though this blog is dedicated to language, you may have noticed that so far, I have failed to address a fairly significant area of literature: poetry. This has been partially intentional. You see, poetry and I have a very interesting relationship. On one hand, I really and truly appreciate the beauty of poetry and the skillful mastery of language that is required to write good poetry. For this reason, I love rap music and I love reading my classmate Kate's blog which often deals with poetry. On the other hand, it is really frustrating when I can't understand the meaning or purpose behind a poem no matter how hard I try (this happens fairly often). My ineptitude in analyzing poetry is why I have steered clear of poetry on this blog.

But no longer!

In English class on Friday, our teacher introduced the upcoming poetry unit. I have a feeling that this poetry unit will be different than any other I have endured previously. At the start of class, our teacher passed out a MAGICAL goldenrod sheet. The sheet (which I will protect at all costs) provides some basic questions to ask/things to consider when analyzing poetry. Once we had looked over the sheet, we proceeded to read and analyze the poem entitled On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High by D.C. Berry. The goldenrod sheet provided me with a basic strategy for unpacking poetry and I was able to successfully break down the poem and comprehend it!

If other students are anything like me, then they could also use some tips on analyzing poetry. I attempted to scan the sheet but it came out blurry when I tried to upload it. But, I have taken the liberty of retyping it. Hopefully, it will help your relationship with poetry, as it has with mine.
Here it is:

Analyzing poetry is like conducting an interview in many ways. You want to start with a script of questions and things you know you'll need to cover, but new questions will also occur to you as you listen to what the poem is saying. The questions on this page are the scripted questions and your answers will form most of your annotation. You should also write down the new questions that come to your mind as you read the poem.

1. What is the poem saying?
a) Read the poem through for sense, paying attention to the sentence--not the line--as the principal unit of organization. Find the subject and verb and mark the end of sentences.
b) Look up any words you don't know
c) Identify the antecedent of all pronouns
d) Paraphrase the poem

2. What is the situation of the poem?
a) Who is the speaker? What is the speaker like?
b) Who is the addressee and/or audience? (Not always the same)
c) What is the occasion and setting of the poem?

3. How has the author constructed the poem?
a) Consider the title
b) Consider the structure - line breaks, stanza breaks, shifts in time/tense, meaning or tone
c) Consider connotation and diction. Is there recurrent vocabulary from a specific realm?
d) Consider the mood/tone. Is irony a factor?
e) Consider imagery. Are the images figurative or literal?
f) Consider simile, metaphor, symbol, analogy, etc. Are the metaphors stock, conventional or original?
g) Consider meter, form and sound (includes assonance, consonance, slant rhyme, etc.)
h) What other literary devices has the author employed?

4. What is the theme/purpose of the poem? What are the most important elements that contribute to it?

Sidenote: If you google the poem On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High, you will find an infinite number of analysis papers/blogs.

Found In Translation

Hello world, I hope you did not worry too much about me during my mini hiatus haha ;) I was on my spring break. Unfortunately, I was not able to travel anywhere warm or exotic because of my commitment to the baseball team. Fortunately, this gave me an ample amount of time to read the book Walk Two Moons (book webpage) by Sharon Creech......in Spanish. I wish that this had been a spontaneous decision of mine, but in truth, our spanish teacher assigned us to read a book of our choice in Spanish over break. I chose Entre Dos Lunas because it was a book that I probably should have read as a child, but never got around to it. So, this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Little did I know it would lead to my next blog post!

As I was reading, I thought the translator did a really nice job taking the story and bringing it to life using the Spanish language. Since I have not read the English version, I had nothing to compare it to, but the story seemed to have most of the nuances that I expect were written into the original. The tone of the vibrant, energetic characters was clear and the occasional sarcasm was not lost in translation. So was this really any different than reading the book in English? Does reading anything in another language have an impact on the readers' experience? How much?

After some thought and a little poking around on the Internet, I have concluded that the answers to those questions are respectively: Yes, Yes and It Depends. While reading Entre Dos Lunas, there were still some aspects of the story that were not able to be carried over to Spanish. For example, there is a character named Margaret Cadaver. Obviously the word cadaver has no meaning in the Spanish language. Despite this and a few other things, I found that reading Entre Dos Lunas was very enjoyable and nothing appeared to be left out.

Still, I think the translation of a novel, poem, etc. can potentially downgrade the reader's experience. One reason for this is a sub-par translation. Here is one blogger's take on translators that I agree with. However, even if you read the best translation possible, there will be parts that cannot crossover, especially in great works of literature that the author has crafted skillfully using the original language.

This is not to discourage anyone from reading a translated text. If the only way you can read Pablo Neruda is in english, then by all means read it! But, keep in mind that you're reading a text that is subject to the whims of a translator and may not offer all the original does.