Verse or Adverse

Introduction

This book will equip the earnest reader with specific strategies to handle poetry. Perhaps “untangle” might be a better word, for the way poetry delivers its payoff so unlike prose.

In prose, be it fiction or nonfiction, the direction is generally straightforward. Words build to phrases, then sentences, which stack into paragraphs. The prose writer places these rhetorical units logically, one following the other according to plan, held together by the accepted conventions of grammar, diction, syntax, punctuation, and even graphics (how the words appear on the page).

Poetry, on the other hand, particularly modern and contemporary work, builds into a thematic direction in ways that often are idiosyncratic, unplanned, and even chaotic. The progression of words into phrases and so on can lead to coherence (theme, message: always present) in ways so roundabout that logic may seem abandoned. It isn’t, of course—at least not in accomplished poetry. It’s just that poets work with language more like magicians rather than builders. They are both, of course, with emphasis on sleight of hand and mind in the construction process.

In this book, I share methods of instruction based on what I’ve learned after decades of reading, writing, publishing, reciting, and teaching poetry. I have designed my presentation in a way that will best enable readers to approach poetry comfortably, understand it, squeeze the meaning out of power-packed words, and maybe even enjoy it.

The best way of introducing what lies ahead is to present a chapter-by-chapter run-through. It serves as this book’s resume, so to speak, a comparison well-chosen since Verse or Adverse is applying for the job of tutoring you. This introduction is the interview process. I’ll know I landed the job after you’ve purchased the book!

Now a football analogy. The chapter summaries serve as our game plan. You’re like a quarterback, and these chapter abstracts serve as the wristband that contains all the plays.

Chapter 1—F**k! Or The Amazing Power of Words: This chapter provides the raison d’etre for the book. I want to take that reader who now hates poetry, who doesn’t “get” poetry, or who doesn’t read it but now has to, and show them that their dread, though it may be well founded by past experience or lack of it, is not chiseled in stone. It’s on ice in a room 10 degrees F. I want to turn that thermostat up above freezing and as comfortable as you’re willing to help me make it. The ice turns to water, and you can enjoy a refreshing drink. You will then be less averse to verse. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even come to like it.

Chapter 2—Pieces and Pictures of the Puzzle: This chapter defines poetry. For starters, it’s the easiest form of the English language to write badly, as most amateur efforts indicate. It’s also the most difficult to write with expertise. This chapter explains the structural components of poetry. Like it or not, chances are at some point in a student’s academic career, they will need to read poems. It need not be the gallows. It can be one of the most enriching experiences of your academic life, one that if cultivated will be with you a lifetime.

Chapter 3—Key Words: Every poem has keys that unlock meaning. Often, a key can be found in a title. In the text of a piece, poets give keys in the emphasis on certain words or hinge points upon which meaning pivots and advances. A poem, like a photo, can usually be “scanned” (read) in one quick sitting often involving no more than a few minutes. Also like a photo, a poem can then be studied at length and leisure. In reading as in viewing, you control the pace. In a picture, you look for details that are missed during the initial view. You also look for the point of focus. In a poem, you do the same thing.

Chapter 4—The Riddle of the Work: Poems are like riddles. They pose questions in the form of statements intended to prod thinking. In this chapter, I provide tips in solving the poetic “riddle.” They include:

1. 1. Begin at the literal level.
2. 2. Examine how the poem looks on the page.
3. 3. Look carefully at word choice (diction).
4. 4. Identity the poet’s rhetorical “tricks,” that is, techniques.
5. 5. Realize that you are not reading prose.
6. 6. Take notes.
7. 7. Who’s the intended audience?
8. 8. What is the poem’s intention?
9. 9. What position does the poet take toward the subject?
10. 10. Look up any unfamiliar words.
11. 11. Stay alert and focused.
12. 12. Summarize the poem in prose.
13. 13. Note especially the title.
14. 14. Come to a finding.

Chapter 5—Explosions and Explorations in Word Power: Words have explosive power. Poets use words similar to how a demolition expert handles dynamite and nitroglycerin. Poets use words carefully, deliberately, and strategically. They want their words not simply to matter but to do so powerfully. There are a million words in the English language, but a poem of 100 words will only make use of 1/10,000 of them. Knowing this can help with the proper frame of mind when approaching a poem.

Chapter 6—The Sound of Music or The Power and the Glory: Words are the feedstock of any piece of writing. Poets use words in a manner that injects them with enhanced powers and/or unleashes stored power. The poet composes word by word, one following the next. The reader partakes in the product the same way, word by word. Keeping this in mind helps the reader find a conceptual pathway into the piece. I advise reading a poem in such a way that you almost pretend you are the poet, writing the words. The chapter concludes by identifying the only two sources a reader has in giving their analysis of a poem: The poem itself and background research. There also is a tertiary source usually not mentioned. That would be YOU, the reader: likes and dislikes, filters and biases, prejudices and predilections.

Chapter 7—Poetry: A Utility for Thought and Rhythm: I address (and answer) the eternal student question: “What the heck good will poetry do me now or later on in life?” Short answer: Poetry addresses people’s internal lives. You have an internal. Instant connection. The musical element in poetry, its meter and rhythm, appeals to a universal human impulse, responding to “the beat.” Poetry uses the musical aspect of words to tap into this beat. Without delving into the deep technical aspects of poetic meter, this chapter identifies, defines, and gives examples of poetry’s “beat.” I walk the tightrope between saying nothing about technique and laying on too much. You will profit, however, if you bother with some of it, poetry’s “inside baseball.”

Chapter 8—Hip Hop and Poetry, Strange Bedfellows: A point related to meter that’s often overlooked is “sound.” It’s the reason why poetry recitations historically have been so much in demand. Hip hop is a musical genre that needs no introduction or historical explanation. Its wild popularity can be attributed to the effect of the pounding, infectious, bass-driven, low-range beat. What immediately strikes me is the connection between poetry slams and rap. One of poetry’s most traditional manners of sharing has been the recital, where a poet reads their work or the work of others. In verse, the oral tradition long precedes the written tradition, one that goes back to the beginning of language and continues to this day. Hip hop, rap, and slams are a 21st-century equivalent.

Chapter 9—Formal, Blank, and Free Verse: Formal verse is what many of us have grown up to believe is “poetry”—and it is. Most all of what we consider traditional poetry can be considered “formal,” and certainly many of the world’s greatest verse falls into this category.

• — Blank verse is poetry that has a defined, metric emphasis in the manner of formal verse, but it eliminates end rhymes and rhyme schemes.
• — Free verse includes works that have no strict metric requirements (although, as we’ve seen, the very nature of words assures a measure of “music”) and no definite or repeated rhyme scheme. Most modern and contemporary poets write in free verse, which allows much greater range in expression of thought. This chapter also mentions more poetic devices such as internal rhyme, straight rhyme, “magic” words, repeated words, and the like.

Chapter 10—It Figures: Figurative language makes use of a special kind of comparison called analogy. In writing but especially in poetry, figurative language injects the already-powerful connotative effect of words with a boost. It’s like words on steroids. In discussing this literary superpower for today’s readers, we can safely abandon the past. Used to be that in dealing with rhetoric and verse, a student had the problem of memorizing such confusing labels as “hendiadys” and “metonymy.” Each describes a perfectly relatable concept but not one that can be of much use when it slogs the mind with useless memorization. Thus, don’t let this next discussion throw you. Relax and open up to it.