Week 12 – Melissa Cordero

In the article, “How to Read a Poem” by Edward Hirsch, he describes the act of completion when reading poetry, is to step into the imaginative play of the poem.  So as I read, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats, I took part of this imaginative play was by first reciting the poem at different tempos. To see if there was a rhythm I needed to find so I can find the flow of the poem.  I tried different ones, like from how I would read ” Mary had a little lamb”.  I kept trying until there was a flow connecting the words that rhymed, which was every other line.  I also found myself searching for a theme. I noticed there was a lot of mention of things that create sounds from nature. For example, “Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet’s wings.”  or ” Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee; And live alone in the bee-loud glade.”  As I re-read it, I found myself playing the sounds of nature he described, in my head to create the atmosphere. I, without trying, played along with the visuals given to me in the poem. Trying to bring it to life to see what about it felt peaceful. Every sound they found pleasant were low, fluttering and from nature.  It almost felt like a picture puzzle in my head as I tried to envision the meaning. and feeling, through visualizing.

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