3 ways to read a poem

If you've been reading poetry the way you read other genres in hopes of immediately understanding something interesting or new, you might have missed the vast difference in reading (and maybe writing) poems.

Taken from my paperback A Poet's Guide to Writing Poetry, these three ways to read a poem might help:

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As you read the works of other poets, expect to read each poem at least three times. 

This varies, person by person, but you might read aloud the first time to hear the musicality of a poem. 

Then you might read again, noticing the imagery or anything else that makes the poem outstanding. 

By a third reading, you might begin to enter the experience of the poem, feeling as if you were there or as if it were written just for you.

Mary Harwell Sayler  

P.S. Don't buy A Poet's Guide to Writing Poetry if you already have my former poetry home study course, poet's guide e-book, or earlier paperback!  Since the others went out of print, this one is almost the same.

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Find poems to love in anthologies

Every now and then, poets who are ready to step up their level of poetry-writing ask me to recommend poems they might study and emulate. No, not to mimic someone else’s voice or style, but to discover their own preferences and improve their use of technique.

Art students do this all the time. i.e. They typically study and copy the masters in order to find out what works and why. Then, having discovered a wide assortment of useful tools and techniques, they go on to find their own creative methods of working.

Conversely, I’ve found that many poets give little thought to poetry forms, styles, techniques, tips for revision, or precision in their choices of words. Worse, many poets don’t read poems by other poets, which handicaps them without their knowing it as they have few options except for what comes to mind.

Since we have centuries and centuries of beautifully expressed poetry to draw from, you can find all sorts of anthologies that collect poems around a central theme, subject, or form. Also, The Norton Anthology of Poetry aims to put together as many poems in English as possible.

To give you other anthologies I recommend with poems worth studying and enjoying, here’s a list of ones I’ve reviewed in the order shown:

The Seashell Anthology of Great Poetry 

The Paraclete Poetry Anthology 

Saint Peter’s B List 

Villanelles anthology 

Joy: 100 Poems 

The Soul in Paraphrase 

As publishers send me new copies of poetry books and anthologies to review, I’ll let you know of engaging poems and anthologies I’ve found that connect well with readers - including you and me!

Remember: We're first readers of poetry. Then, Lord willing, we become poets prepared to write poems that other people will want to read.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019, poet-writer

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10 Ways to Read a Poem

1. Get comfy and enjoy your first reading. Relax into the experience without trying to analyze anything.

2. Read the poem again, this time aloud. Listen for the musicality. Feel the rhythm.

3. As you read aloud, notice the sound echoes, images, or other poetic devices that make the poem unique.

4. Now analyze. Ask what grabbed your interest and why.

5. If the poem included words or literary references with which you’re not familiar, look up each in a dictionary or on the Internet. Analyze: How or why does a particular word or reference enhance the poem?

6. Ask more questions, such as why an image works – or not!

7. Does the poem follow a pattern or form? If so, is it effective?

8. Consider the connotations for unusual choices of words. Do the implied meanings add layers of meaning to the poem? If so, how? For instance, a word that suggests more than one meaning can add a sense of mystery – or confusion!

9. Whatever the overall effect, is it effective? Does each aspect of the poem work well – or not? If not, what would you change and why?

10. As a poem reveals itself to you, you begin to own the experience. And, as you notice or consider each poetic aspect, those techniques become available to you too. You now own the choices that went into the making of this poem – choices that you, too, have the option to use as you revise your poems for others to read, analyze, and enjoy.


© 2015, Mary Harwell Sayler has several books of poetry available on Amazon.
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Secrets of good poetry

A “good” poem is meant to be read, not once but as many times as it takes to reach that “oh” moment inherent in each good poem.

Conversely, many poems by new poets and poets who never read poems by other poets have no secrets. One reading reveals all they have to offer, making them boring or long-winded or too personal to connect with readers outside the poet’s private circle.

An effective poem has comparatively few words but much to say. This might be an insight into a spiritual realm few readers enter on their own. Or it might be a call to observe the intricacies of nature and our unique relationships with one another in a particular time and place.

“Good” poems occur as we give ourselves to them, opening our eyes and ears and letting our thoughts touch whatever is around, whether in a physical, mental, or spiritual realm.

Somewhere, somehow a poet must capture wonder, causing readers to perk up, pay attention, and read the lines again.

And, yet, too few of us allow enough time to throw ourselves into poems, whether we’re reading or writing them, but when we do, we come away with an experience or insight or awareness previously unknown to us.

It’s a busy world we live in, and, whether we read or write, poetry slows us down. But, even if you do not buy and read the poetry books occasionally reviewed on this blog, just reading the reviews will give you a feel for good poetry.

Then, if you do leap into faith in poetry, whether your own or someone else’s, be prepared to feel foolish at first! For, most likely you will not “get” what you’re reading the first or second time you read. Or, if you write to discover, as I often do, you might not even get right away what you’re writing.

Nevertheless, go with it! Flow with it. Let the words fall where they may.

Later, you can revisit your own poems and revise, but for the initial writing or reading, abandon yourself to the poem.

A mystery is at work here – a creative force looking for voice.

Give yourself to it.

Give yourself to the poems you write and the poems you read, then be prepared to be amazed!

© 2014 Mary Harwell Sayler



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New Year's Resolution: make new friends with poetry

Few of us enjoy poems we don’t “get,” but often, the problem isn’t with the poem so much as our approach to poetry. Maybe this seems obvious, but poems are not nonfiction books ready for one-time reading. Nor are they newspapers built on a pyramid of who/ what/ when/ where/ how and sometimes why.

Poems are meant to be read and re-read and….

Poems worth getting to know may be shy, seldom revealing themselves to passersby or quick acquaintances.

Poems want to be known for who they are, not necessarily why or how, but for the experience they bring.

Poems are adventures, waiting to happen.

Poems are playground experiments with words.

Poems are thoughts and feelings or stories scored with musicality.

Poems may analyze your deepest self but do not need you to analyze them!

Poems are meant to be enjoyed slowly – like good wine, good music, or good company.

As happens with new friends, each new meeting of a poem brings a new discovery. This might be an image that begins to clear or an insight you hadn’t considered or a sound that rings a chord in you.

May your New Year ring with enjoyment – the joy meant to occur in a renewed or newfound love of poetry.

Have a blessed and happy 2013!

© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler

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