“Reading a poem is part attitude and part technique.“ In order to understand a poem, the reader has to get into it and read it as they feel it, paying attention to the language and tone of the poem, which would be the attitude. As well as having a technique to help understand such as looking up confusing words, connecting related ideas, listening to its sound and rhythm and paying attention to repeated words and literary techniques used by the author.
In William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 “My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like The Sun” the author uses irony to emphasize the beauty of his mistress, by comparing her to things that show she’s not perfect but he still loves her.
“Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head” (Shakespeare lines 2-4)
It took me a while to understand because I wasn’t really getting the point, but then I realized he was comparing her and being realistic about the woman he loves, as many poems try to idealize and exaggerate woman’s beauty, he did the opposite. My attitude while reading this changed after I read it a few times, at first I was confused, then i read it as a love poem and my technique was just reading it and trying to figure out the author’s message, technique and ideas.
2 thoughts on “Lorianny Neris, Discussion 12”
Lorianny, thanks for the great comments. I remember when I first read that sonnet, it dawned on me so slowly that the whole thing was a kind of parody. And yes, Shakespeare is making a point about superficial versus genuine love while also disparaging overly flowery poetry.
Hi Lorianny, I also think that in order to understand the poem you do need to have a right mindset and you should try to connect with the poem by having emotions towards the poem, and if you do not understand any line or word it is really helpful to look it up, and having the right understanding and interpretation of the poem is also important