I've tried to show poetry to people who "hate" it before. My perspective is -- no one hates poetry. They hate the bullcrap misinterpretation of largely mediocre poems forcefed to them as if they were fois gras geese, as if forcing them to swallow something of literary quality will somehow make them intellectual gourmets.
It doesn't work that way because most schools don't teach poetry, they teach dead words. They speak of poems as if a poem can only ever have one meaning, as if the clarity of that meaning, or the WORTH of that meaning, can somehow be measured by naming its parts after dead Italians and ABAB BCBC FUCK YOU that's how my rhyme scheme goes to most teachers of poetry.
The way to show poetry to someone who hates it is to give them a few crumbs at a time, the way they had to reintroduce the emaciated skeletons of Nazi camps to eating again, because their systems were so wasted to it, they would die from a piece of cheese.
Give them a taste of something that has substance. Find a few lines that mean something within themselves, and that sound beautiful. Show them a whisper of the way words can sing, tell them what the song means to you, then know them, and show them the songs they can relate to. Don't show them anything they'd have ever seen in school. Lord knows that doesn't limit the selection.
I'm inclined to agree with this method :) A few well-chosen lines can pierce to the heart more directly than a full poem, oftentimes. And certainly a long poem, however beautiful, can intimidate and overwhelm, and turn them off because they're not willing to put in the effort to try to comprehend something they've decided they don't understand at all.
agreed! i got sooo lucky to have a great poetry-loving english teacher; she would read poems to her class every once in awhile, not as classwork, but "for your soul." she would say "just let it sit there." and no analyzing or discussion was required unless we wanted to talk about it. which usually, we did. best part of the day.
The way to show poetry to someone who hates it is to give them a few crumbs at a time, the way they had to reintroduce the emaciated skeletons of Nazi camps to eating again, because their systems were so wasted to it, they would die from a piece of cheese.
I've tried to show poetry to people who "hate" it before. My perspective is -- no one hates poetry. They hate the bullcrap misinterpretation of largely mediocre poems forcefed to them as if they were fois gras geese, as if forcing them to swallow something of literary quality will somehow make them intellectual gourmets.
It doesn't work that way because most schools don't teach poetry, they teach dead words. They speak of poems as if a poem can only ever have one meaning, as if the clarity of that meaning, or the WORTH of that meaning, can somehow be measured by naming its parts after dead Italians and ABAB BCBC FUCK YOU that's how my rhyme scheme goes to most teachers of poetry.
The way to show poetry to someone who hates it is to give them a few crumbs at a time, the way they had to reintroduce the emaciated skeletons of Nazi camps to eating again, because their systems were so wasted to it, they would die from a piece of cheese.
Give them a taste of something that has substance. Find a few lines that mean something within themselves, and that sound beautiful. Show them a whisper of the way words can sing, tell them what the song means to you, then know them, and show them the songs they can relate to. Don't show them anything they'd have ever seen in school. Lord knows that doesn't limit the selection.
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That was poetry. :) Thanks.
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