I enjoyed reading the article “How to Read a Poem” because the author uses many references to life that makes it easier to connect to the challenge of reading a poem. For example when he says that reading a poem might make you “sweat” a little, but that it’s like a sport – it takes practice and in the end, you get better. The poet William Carlos Williams, in acknowledging the challenges of reading poetry, writes that a reader must “complete” what the poet has begun. One example from this week’s readings can be the poem “My Last Duchess” in which you need to “talk back to a poem” as mentioned in the article. The author of the article gives some questions to ask yourself which I think are helpful in order to understand this poem better, such as who is the speaker, and what situation is presented? In this case, the speaker is a Duke, he shows someone the painting of his first wife, the Duchess, and tells him about her and a little about their relationship. The Duke says “She had
A heart — how shall I say? — too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere”.
She had a big heart and saw good in everything, she was friendly. He also mentioned that she treated others with gratitude and warmth, as treated him.
