If I were to put the quote “Reading a poem is part attitude and part technique.” into my own words I would say that when reading a poem you have to leave narratives in the past such as, “Poetry is hard to decipher.” and “I have to understand a poem on the first try.” and have a more positive more outlook on reading. I would also say that you have to look for literary techniques for meaning such as alliteration, rhyming, and imagery. In class this week we read the poem White Lies by Natasha Trethewey. I used some of the strategies learned in the article to help me decipher this poem. The first time I read this poem, I felt a bit frustrated that I didn’t understand what the poem was trying to convey. But thinking back to the article I was reminded that I should try reading the poem multiple times and out loud instead of giving up. The article also mentioned how the way lines are structured can affect the meaning of a poem. I encountered this technique when reading the poem.
“I could easily tell the white folks
that we lived uptown,” (Trethewey, lines 7-8”
Reading both lines with no pause in-between you would interpret this as Trethewey telling people that she lives uptown. But when using breaks between each line you can also interpret the first line as Trethewey (who was often mistaken for being white) being able to tell who was white from who wasn’t.
One thought on “Discussion Week 9”
Hi Patricia,
I agree. I had similar ideas about technique and attitude. Understanding a challenging poem is part of the experience of a poem. The techniques that poets use such as rhythm and even the shape of a poem is part of conveying the meaning, and even then, there are still various meanings.