Poetic Odyssey: How to read a poem using The Well Educated Mind

I have been somewhat distracted on my Odyssey (go figure). The Epic of Gilgamesh has been read. My notes are being made for the grammar stage. I will move onto the next stages now.

I emailed Peace Hill Press about how much of The Well Educated Mind (by Susan Wise Bauer) I can quote, they replied: “use the questions on your blog as long as the book is given full credit". Great news. So here goes.

Summary of How to read a poem (pages 343-352).

First level Inquiry: Grammar-stage reading.

• Read 10-30 pages of poetry.
• Read the title, cover, and table of contents.
• Read the preface.
• Finish reading.

Second level Inquiry: Logic-stage reading.

• Identify the basic narrative strategy.
• Identify the poem’s basic form.
• Examine the poem’s syntax.
• Try to identify the poem’s meter (or meters).
• Examine the lines and stanzas.
• Examine the rhyme pattern.
• Examine diction and vocabulary.
• Look for monologue or dialogue.

Third level Inquiry: Rhetoric-stage reading.

• Is there a moment of choice or change in the poem?
• Is there cause and effect?
• What is the tension between the physical and the psychological, the earthly and the spiritual, the mind and the body?
• What is the poem’s subject?
• Where is the self?
• Do you feel sympathy?
• How does the poet relate to those who came before?

The text expands and explains these points excellently, but you will have to get a copy of the book to read that.