Art Institute of Chicago II, Chicago, 1990, Thomas Struth (www.metmuseum.org)
Caveat: the following post is directly concerned with helping my English 101 students prepare for an assignment and may not be particularly valuable for practiced and practicing readers and writers of poetry. That said, I always appreciate feedback, insights or different points of view on this topic.
death of the poet, long live the poet
There are many ways to read a poem, as many readings as there are readers.
This postmodern chestnut has been linked to much unfortunate (anti-pomo, anti-theory) anger about the unbridled “relativism” of contemporary cultural theory. Nevertheless, while the death of the author is not a debate I am interested in returning to, it is perhaps useful to thinking about expectations around the act of close reading.
Because it has helped us to shift of focus away from the desire, wishes, or intentions of an individual creator (poet, artist, architect) and on to the shared acts of meaning making (readers, audience), it constitutes a vital recognition of the fact that knowledge is socially created. It is crucial in helping literary scholars to think about how these processes are undertaken or performed in relation to poetic texts.
Recognizing that the act of performing a close-reading of a given poem—i.e., this week’s in-class assignment for ENGL 101—is a scary proposition for many, I thought I’d try and help ease some of the tension by offering a quick, thumbnail sketch on how I approach close reading.
the artist who reads it
As, Jacqueline Turner suggested in lecture (quoting Octavio Paz)
“The poem demands the demise of the poet who writes it and the birth of the poet who reads it.”
The practice of reading a poem is similar to analyzing an artwork (as Jacqueline also suggested). As such, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for artists and designer who are familiar with critiques to develop interesting and engaging readings.
In thinking about it more, I realize that the “reader” in my opening statement actually assumes that not only there are many readers, but perhaps more importantly, that these readers are skilled. The best way to develop one’s skills is to practice doing. When confronted with a text or image that challenges social and aesthetic (linguistic) norms or conventions, we need to approach the work through the eyes of a maker, to think about the writer’s choices, the material she chooses to work with, any references
In the case of reading poetry, learning to do this involves developing skills through reading, re-reading, and analyzing actual poems—ideally as many poems as possible, in variety of forms, and from different perspectives. It means sharing readings.
Like musicians, photographers, dancers etc., readers are defined through their material practice, the doing. Their relative level of skill is tied to their willingness to perform and practice basic and not-so-basic exercises and their participation in a larger group of practitioners.
To this end, I would suggest to students—or anyone who wants to develop their facility reading poetry—that they share their readings with others. In a class situation, this can be done on Moodle or by email.
unpack it
In trying to work closely with a particular poem, one needs to slow things down and to pay careful attention to the language of the poem. As I suggested in lecture, it is good practice to live with the poem, to rewrite key parts of it, and if possible to read it aloud. Try the poetic syntax and diction across your tongue. Try reading it aloud to a friend. This is can be a struggle, and may be slightly awkward, but it helps us to find those moments of “torqued” language. It makes us aware not only of what the poem is trying to say but more importantly how it goes about meaning making.
As I tried to demonstrate in our collective reading of Dorothy Trujillo Lusk’s “SAXOfeigntly,” it is useful to begin by focusing on a key element of the poem—often something that is strange or remarkable. In the case of “SAXOfeigntly,” we started with diction, her odd sounding/looking word choices: “farküntry” and “mercanarische künstelry.”
From here we moved on to other aspect of the poem with an awareness of Lusk’s particular play with the look and sounds of the words. Lusk’s use of words that do and do not quite resemble contemporary English draws attention to questions of linguistic authority or history and the potential fluidity of the written word, or so we argued. (For more on Lusk’s writing, CUE resources.)
There are many aspects of a poem readers tend to focus on when performing a close reading. Personally, I tend to pay attention to the following.
- It is very often valuable to think about the title, how it is activated in the poem? How is the poet working with or against the conventions of titling work?
- Think about how the poem works against expectations, how it sets readers up to think we are move in one direction and then moves in another (e.g., Lusk finishes her poem in standard English).
- What can we tell about the poem’s narrator? Where is she? Where is he going? How does the poem allow us to construct this identity?
- Look for any allusions (references to other works of art, literature, history, culture). What function do they play? How is the poem positioned relative to these references, how does it provide commentary on them (for or against)?
The more you can work on the poems in Open Text or online, trying out these different approach the better prepared you will be for your in-class.
try out your readings on others
Feel free to share insights questions about particular poems. Use Moodle forums. Meet for coffee to go through a few poems. Talk about them over the telephone.
The most important thing is to keep reading and to try working through a variety of different poetic styles and approaches. So-called “difficult poems,” like abstract or highly conceptual artworks, require that you live with them for awhile, or if possible return to the work again. In the case of the in-class assignment, while you might know the actual poem that will be asked to discuss, there is a good chance that you will recognize it from the anthology.
If you feel that you want to read more about the practice of close reading, here are the two very different approaches— useful guidelines, not rules—I posted on Deqq: http://u.deqq.com/SJ75y and http://u.deqq.com/Kn9qV
