“Reading a poem is part attitude and part technique”
In my opinion, this means in order to understand a poem you have to use the correct tone. For example, when it comes to William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130: My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the Sun” I would not read it in a happy and positive tone. I read it with more of an annoyed or distasteful tone because he is analyzing his mistress and almost comparing to other women who are attractive or “appealing” to him; meanwhile his mistress is not.
“I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight, Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.”
I, for one, am not big on reading poetry because I usually have to reread it multiple times in order to fully understand what I am reading. For example, William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” I had to go back for a second time, half way through after getting an idea of what I was reading. The language also plays a part in the “technique” of reading a poem. The way writers used words such as “hath” instead of has, “thou” instead of you, and abbreviations such as “grow’st”, “ow’st”, and “wand’rest”. These are all tongue twisters in my opinion and can be all be factors in your understanding of the reading.
