On a Personal Note

 Delia Fisher, GTF, English

Delia Fisher communicates regularly with her fifty poetry students through dittos. I asked her permission to use one in The Lizard. The tone is friendly, personal, and aimed at helping her students work more successfully with the poems.

Does poetry get your goat? Take note.

Does poetry bring you bliss? Read this.

Words like image, metaphor, simile, tone, rhyme, and meter are all just terms to give you ways to talk about poetry. The main trick is just noticing: being alert to what the poem communicates on a non-verbal level. But poetry's made of words, you say. How can words communicate non-verbally? Your body has to be alert--smart: a smart body will assist your smart minds.

So--start with noticing: How does the poem look? Stanzas? Couplets? Lots of space or little? Short or long lines? Take a look at the poem's form.

Read the poem a couple of times. Do words seem to rhyme in places? At the ends of lines or within the lines? You're not thinking too much yet, not asking questions yet--just noticing.

Read the poem again. What moves you in some way--seems odd, or funny, or sad, or angry, or puzzling? An interesting image? A metaphor that touches home? What are the connotations you sense? (for example, what's different about my saying "touches home" instead of "hit home"?).

Can you paraphrase the poem? What words are unfamiliar? Can you imagine their meaning from context or do you need to look them up? Is the poem telling some kind of story? If the poem doesn't seem to tell a story, what is it doing? Making a picture? Describing danger or delight? Using a myth to tell us something in a new way?

Now your mind is working a bit, just strolling around the poem, getting acquainted (can the mind"stroll"?). Is that a mixed-up metaphor or does it work? Have you been taking notes?(Marginal notes work best for me, or you can use sticky-pads to make small but highly significant comments (does my tone sound a bit tongue-in-cheek? What does "tongue-in-cheek" mean anyway? What does it feel like to put your tongue in your cheek?)

Now open the gates of your mind and let it scamper through the green meadow of the poem (am I letting this metaphor run away with itself?). Ask why about everything: Why this image in this sentence? Why is the tone ironic, angry, bitter, happy, confused, etc.? Why is this story being told to us? Why does this line end here? Take notes.

Now put the poem and all the notes away. Breathe. Live regular life for a while. Then go back and do the whole process again.

You'll know a lot about a poem when you're done.

Lizard 4 Spring 92

 

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