Reading Poetry For Beginners - Tips & Tricks (Part 1)

[@thebookfox]

This video is inspiring me to give poetry another chance because I tend to avoid it like the plague. I think I do have some irrational fear that I won't "get" it so what you said about there being no right or wrong answer was somewhat illuminating. That being said, "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe is my all time favourite poem, I can very nearly recite it from beginning to end (and it ain't short!)

[@Lizzyandherbookss]

I also love The Raven The Book Fox I always have, its so brilliantly terrifying! Best of luck with your poetical journey, I have lots of plans to release some (hopefully) helpful vids, so I might well be able to help! xx

[@thebookfox]

There is every chance I will need your help! Xx

[@TheStoryMagpie]

This is really, really useful! I think talking about it definitely helps with me. My poor mum has to sit and listen to me talk about books and poems she's never read all the time :') Part 2 will definitely be useful too! Can't wait to see it :)

[@Lizzyandherbookss]

The Story Magpie So glad it helped!! Looking forward to sharing part 2, oooh and check your twitter soon! ;) x

[@TheStoryMagpie]

Lizzy and her books Oooh very mysterious I'll go and check it now! :)

[@SaraiTalksBooks]

These are great tips! I really want to read some poetry books this year as part of my goals for the year, I already have two poets I'm planning to read in the next coming months, so this video is perfect!

[@Lizzyandherbookss]

***** oooh can't wait to hear your thoughts on poetry!! xx

[@KatieRuby]

I love reading poetry but don't do it nearly enough, I definitely need to get back into it! This was lovely, I can't wait for the rest!

[@Lizzyandherbookss]

Once you start again Katie D you'll never stop!! ;) xx

[@squidgeandbooks9421]

Loved this video, if I'm perfectly honest English GCSE took away my love of poetry but this video has inspired me to get back into reading poetry :) Thank you so much for this video :D

[@Lizzyandherbookss]

Studying poetry in school can sometimes take away the pleasure of reading poetry for what it is, mainly because we have to deconstruct everything! But, as I said, I've always believed there's no right or wrong answer, so while these will help when looking at a poem, I always think that your heart tells you the truth! Lol, that might sound cheesy! x

[@achristianandhercamera]

I thought this was a really informative and interesting video :D I think the reason I used to be turned off by poetry because I didn't necessarily understand how to read it. This video gave me a lot more confidence in reading poetry the way I want. Can't wait for more videos!

[@suzann1219]

Amazingly helpful and inspiring! I haven't read any poetry for over a year now - I read much during my bachelor's in English, but now I'm merely studying novels, which I find super interesting, but recently I've been wanting to read poetry, but afraid I won't understand a single bit. This inspires me to try it again soon :) Thanks!

[@Lizzyandherbookss]

Glad you found this helpful! We should start a poetry group! x

[@suzann1219]

That would actually be awesome!

[@SunriseFireberry]

Reading a whole poem out loud is OK when it is of short or medium length. For long epic poems eg. Paradise Lost, it'd best be done eg. in chapters. I'm interested in archetypal poems, the stellar examples of different types of poetry. (In prose, for eg., the archetypes for realist novels are Middlemarch & War and Peace. In high epic fantasy, the archetype may be Lord of the Rings.) I'm interested in hearing you speak about the creme de la creme. I don't know much about poetry, so what are the greats? The Iliad? Pindar? Dante's Paradiso, Faery Queene, The Waste Land, Psalm 19 & 119 from Hebrew scripture, the best of Tennyson & Wordsworth, & what about Shakespeare, or Milton, or lots of other great poets who wrote in other languages than English? Prose I read once, straight thru. I may reread the piece (months or years later), but I don't hyperanalyze it, deconstruct it, pull it apart line by line, & couldn't care less about allegory (don't like it), & care only slightly more about the pedantic overstress of symbolism (teachers & Profs affected me negatively here: some treated it like a sacred cow). Poetry I found tough, & much of I found elitist, reading material of the tiny-group literary 'in' crowd. No one I know reads poetry that's not proscribed; incidentally they don't read unproscribed drama either. Poetry is a very different fish than, for me anyway, hyperfamiliar prose. Going over a bunch of text over & over, looking at it in a plethora of different ways, is an exercise which, on the surface at least, doesn't seem like too much fun & more like ponderous pedantry. I want in some sense to be wrong but I fear that for a huge number of poems I may be right.

[@Lizzyandherbookss]

Reading poetry can be so difficult when studying - especially because we're taught to deconstruct and pick apart every single poem we're presented with, which for me often took away the opportunity to form an opinion straight away, I always felt I had to discover or come across the 'answers' as opposed to feeling them from the get-go. I remember having to do the same with Wordsworth's Prelude and screaming at my teacher because I wanted to read it continuously rather than breaking it down... it was such a frustration!