How to Read a Poem

A short guide for the moment a poem stops making sense.

Step 1: Read It Out Loud

Poems are built for the ear before the eye.

• Read the whole poem once, out loud, without stopping to solve anything.
• Notice where your voice naturally pauses.
• Notice where it speeds up.

Step 2: Find the Sentence

Line breaks are not the same as sentence breaks.

• Look for capital letters and end punctuation.
• Trace one sentence across as many lines as it takes.
• Read that sentence as if it were prose.

Step 3: Locate the Turn

Most poems change direction somewhere in the middle.

• Look for words like but, yet, and then, until.
• Ask what the poem believed before the turn.
• Ask what it believes after.

Step 4: Ask Who Is Speaking

The speaker is not always the poet.

• Is the speaker addressing someone specific?
• What does the speaker want?
• What does the speaker seem afraid to say directly?

Step 5: Read It Out Loud Again

The second reading is never the same as the first.

• Notice what makes sense now that didn’t before.
• Notice what still resists you.
• Sit with the part that resists. That part is usually the point.

One Last Thing

A poem you don’t fully understand is not a poem you have failed to read.

It is a poem you get to read again.