General Activities

A First Read

It is usually necessary to read a poem two or three times to get a sense of its meaning; and preferably it should be read aloud. Reading aloud helps you get a feel of the rhythm and mood of the poem and to develop your own response. If you can work with someone else, or in a group, then you can read the poem to each other and compare your versions.

• Did you read the poem at the same pace? Did you read it in the same tone of voice?
• Did you have the same sense of who was writing the poem and for whom it was intended?
• Did you agree on the theme of the poem?
• Did you find you were sympathetic to the poem’s theme?
• Did you like the poem?

Listen to the reading on the video. What do you think of it? How does it compare with your reading?

Closer Reading

There are a number of strategies that can help you get to grips with a poem. Once again, it helps a lot if you work with someone else.

Titles and first lines. Sometimes it is worth spending a few minutes jotting down any ideas that you get from reading the title or the first line of a poem. What, for example, does the title ‘Valentine’ make you think of – or the first line ‘This house has been far out at sea all night’?

Words omitted. Ask your partner to read a poem in which you have deleted a number of key words. List what words have been deleted but not their original place in the poem. Ask your partner to select a word for each gap. When they have done this, discuss the clues that determined the choice. Try it with ‘Hawk Roosting’.

Sequencing. Offer a poem to your partner with some of the lines in the wrong order. Ask them to rewrite the poem in an order that makes best sense. Then compare with the original version. Try it with the poem ‘I am very bothered…’

You can also experiment with putting the verses in the wrong sequence. Try it with ‘War Photographer’. Ask your partner to unravel the poem.

NB: These activities may seem like games, but they do force you to think carefully about the meaning of a poem as you reconstruct it. When you have completed one of these activities, you are in a stronger position to say: ‘Now I understand what the poem is about.’

Questioning a poem. Make a copy of a poem on a piece of paper and then jot down your comments and questions beside it as you read. When you have finished, make a list of questions about the poem that you would ask another student.