Most readers consider poetry easy to read but hard to understand. In deed, poetry embodies extreme eloquence of a language and hence it is thought of as the finest form of literature. Nearly all poets do not express their perceptions directly, usually decorated with diversified artist skills. To make it simple, the appreciation of poetry may follow four steps: enjoy the sound when we read, observe the form the poem takes, visualize the image the poet established and at last reflect upon the theme the poet conveys.  

Rhythm and Rime

A single line of a poem is called a verse. In each verse, the order of stressed and unstressed syllables usually occurs repeatedly so as to produce a music like pattern. This pattern is called rhythm. The same as a beat in music, one beat of the rhythm is defined as a foot, while the number of feet in a line is measured by meter. For example:

                    The au / tumn time / has come

                   For the moon / never beams / without bring / ing me dream  

 Of the first verse, one unstressed syllable is followed by one stressed syllable and there are three beats like that, so the verse is called iambic (the name of the foot) trimeter (three feet) line. Similarly, in the second verse, two unstressed syllables are followed by one stressed, which is named: anapestic tetrameter line. The most commonly applied rhythm is iambic pentameter (an iambic line with five feet), as shown Sonnets and lots of Romantists’ works. 

Kinds of foot:

The iambic foot, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

              And then / my heart / with pleas/ure fills

The trochaic foot, consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable

             Shake your / chains to / earth like / dew

The anapestic foot, consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable

             For the moon / never beams / without bring / ing me dream

The dactylic foot, consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable 

             Slowly the / mist o'er the / meadow was / creeping 

Kinds of meter :

Monometer (one foot) 

            I trust 

Dimeter (two feet) 

            The wild / winds weep 

Trimeter (three feet) 

            The au/tumn time / has come 

Tetrameter (four feet) 

            When first / my way / to fair / I took 

Pentameter (five feet) 

            The lone / and le/vel sands / stretch far / away 

Hexameter (six feet) 

            This is the / forest pri/m: the / murmuring / pines and the / hemlocks 

      

 Rime is also a very decisive factor on the musical effect of the poem. Unlike Chinese poetry, in which each poem only contains one rime, the riming pattern of English poetry is quite different: there may be several rimes in a poem and these rimes usually appear in a regular way. If we use one letter to mark one rime, the riming pattern of the following poem is: a b a b, c d c d.

 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master         a 

   If you can think—and not make thoughts you aim                     b

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster                          a 

   And treat those two impostors just the same                    b

 If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken                        c

   Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools                      d 

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken                c 

  And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools             d

      

    Alliteration  is another effective poetic skill to achieve musical effect, which is the dominant form of rhythm applied in poetry of the middle ages. It can be defined as the repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of nearby words. The term is usually applied only to consonants and only when the recurrent sound begins a word or stressed syllable within a word.             

             Grim and greedy the gruesome monster  

     By rhythm and rime, the verse is bestowed with musical sound effect, which may be tuneful or harsh, depending on the theme of the poem. With the development of poetry, (i.e. Modernism Poetry) rhythm and rime are no longer essential as they were in Shakespeare’s age. A great deal of verse does not contain any rime but has necessary rhythm, the name given as Blank Verse (very popular in Romanism poetry). To free verse, both rhythm and rime are not taken into consideration, but lots of poet may use other skills to compensate for it, for example repeating certain words in a poem or in a verse.            

              Sing on there in the swamp, 

              O singer bashful and tender, I hear you notes 

                     I hear you call, 

              I hear, I come presently, I undersand you, 

              But a moment I linger, for the lustrous star 

                     Has detain’d me! 

The variation of Form

Form is not a vital factor of all poems, but concerning its visible character, it redounds to capture the image poet wishes to construct at the fist sight of the poem. This becomes especially important in modern poetry. Variation in form can be the alternation in the length of verses and stanzas, the repeated pause and blank and the use of dashes (as seen in Emily Dickinson’s work). The fact readers have to bear in mind is that no matter what form the poem takes, the form always serves for the theme of the work. One of the most successful combinations of form and content is Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand by E. E. Cummings. The length of verses of the whole poem varies greatly from one to another: it may continue to be lengthy while it also stops with a blank line. If taken together, the variation in the length is perfectly combined with its theme, like the wind of spring, sometimes in hasty and clear, sometimes peaceful and soft.  

An Image With Words

Many poems describe scenes or persons, but they will not speak it out so bluntly and truthfully as fiction does. Poets exert their imagination through imaginative language; the image they make is hence more vivid and impressive. The following are some of the techniques occasionally found in poetry: simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification and imagery. A simile involves a direct comparison, using like or as, between two basically unlike things that have something in common:             

              And now, like amorous birds of prey, 

              Rather at once our time devour  

In this example, the similarity between the lovers and the birds of prey is their hungry. A metaphor also draws a comparison but uses no connective such as like or as (i.e. She is a stone). Hyperbole calls for exaggeration (i.e. A thousand years he stands and never rest) and personification bestows life to objects and ideas as well as human characters to the abstract or the animal (i.e. Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful). Besides the above-mentioned skills, there are a great deal of others (i.e. the use of symbols), so that it is impossible to name them all. The point is to find the connection between the written words and the image the poet makes.  

Reflection and Summarization

The comprehension of theme is perhaps the most difficult step for beginners. There are several techniques to follow: 1. Read a poem more than once. A good poem will no more yield its full meaning on a single reading than will a Beethoven symphony on a single hearing. 2. Keep a dictionary by you and use it whenever the word sounds foreign because the shade of meaning of this word may be novel to you. When you read this line from Whitman:

              Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards, 

 

The word blows seems a strange choice. If you consult your dictionary, you will discover an unusual definition of blows: “masses of blossoms,” a meaning which fits exactly. 3. Find out the hints of the title, which often suggests the theme of the whole poem. 4. Ask yourself some  questions. These questions help you shift your attention on the fundamental elements and also test the achievement of your comprehension.

       Who is the speaker? What kind of person is the speaker?

       Is there an identifiable audience for the speaker? What can we know about it?

       What is the setting in time (hour, season, century, and so on)?

       What is the setting in place (indoors or out, city or country, land or sea)?     

When you have sufficient knowledge of the general information mentioned above, you may go deeper into the theme of the poem by asking yourself following questions.

       What is the relationship between the speaker and Nature?

       What is the relationship between the speaker and other people in the society?

       What is the relationship between the speaker and the God he warships?

       What does the speaker think about the connection between present and future?

       How does the speaker think about the meaning of life?

      Where does the speaker think happiness (or beauty, kindness, virtue, etc.) originate?

       Are you able to summarize the theme of the poem in a sentence?

Of course, not all of the above aspects are embodied in one poem; but the answers of these questions reflect poets’ world views and social values.

At last, the comprehension and reflection about one poem undoubtedly vary from one reader to another. Try not to ask others for correct understanding, but use the answer as a reference to your own comprehension. Besides, the above four steps are equally important to the appreciation of poem: so start enjoying the image of a poem by reading aloud—it will be very easy for you to discover the beauty of language.