October 14, 2009 Archives

The Full Text

I hope everyone won't pick "The Raven," but please pick a poem and be ready to read it aloud in class.  You can pick two short poems, if you like.

I'll assign a 10% bonus for picking a poem that I didn't already assign for class (meaning you could earn 55 out of 50 points).

You don't have to memorize your selection, but I would like you to submit a printout that you've marked up to indicate how the way you delivered the words helped you to convey the meaning.

For example, what words are really important, so that you need to punch them by making them louder?

Where will you make an extra effort not to pause at the end of a line, because the thought continues from the end of one line to the beginning of the next?

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.

If you pause after "see," it sounds like you're saying that you're blind, which is completely different from what you would mean if you read the two lines straight through, without any pause.

Where will you make your voice louder? Where will you insert a gasp, or a hand gesture, or something else that might help you to convey the meaning?

1) Perform your poem, 2) listen to the class reaction, then 3) speak briefly about the effects you were trying for and how your study of the poem directed you to read the poem aloud a certain way.  Then 4) turn in your marked-up printout.

Here is an example of a poet giving life to a poem... note that he doesn't sound in the slightest like he's "reciting a poem" (though the audio doesn't exactly match the text on this page).

Taylor Mali, "What Teachers Make (Or, If Things Don't Work Out, You Can Always Go to Law School)"

Of course, if the poem you select has a rhyme scheme and a strict rhythm, you do need to respect and use that rhythm.  Here's a recitation of Green Eggs and Ham, by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. (This was a Saturday Night Live skit, performed shortly after Dr. Seuss died in the early 1990s.)