Reading Poetry:

Getting Through Difficult Passages

Poetry is an interesting and exciting genre of writing; it allows poets to use language in new and unusual ways.

This, however, may cause challenges and frustrations for the reader.

The good news is that there are strategies that we can use to help us understand poetry. These include:

Finding word meaning through

context clues

Using a dictionary to find definitions of unknown words

Selective rereading

VisualizingAnswering and

generating questions

Now, let’s read the poem “Deer Hit” by Jon Loomis.

Click on the image to read the poem.

Finding Word Meaning Through Context Clues

Sometimes we can figure out unknown words by looking at the words around them.

“You're seventeen and tunnel-vision drunk, swerving your father's Fairlane wagon home”

You might not know what a Fairlane wagon is, but you can guess that is must be kind of car when you see the words tunnel-vision, swerving, and home.

Also, you see the phrase, two-lane road in the following verse.

Using a Dictionary to Find Definitions of Unknown Words

Sometimes, when we cannot determine the meaning of a word using context clues, you may find it necessary to look it up in the dictionary.

Some words in this poem that you might need to look up:

•teazle•obscured•bleat•frantic

Do you see any others?

Selective Rereading

Rereading may be the most important strategy. You will need to reread most poems several times before you understand them.

After you have looked up unknown words in a dictionary, and discussed the poem with a partner or group, it might be necessary to carefully reread difficult passages word by word, and verse by verse.

Answering and Generating Questions

Good readers always ask a lot of questions as they read.

With poetry, there are lots of useful general questions that we have been asking all along.

Can you think of any of them?

•Who is the speaker?•Who is the audience?•Who are the characters?•What is the setting?•What are the themes?

•What are the notable images in the poem?

•What are some examples of similes, metaphors, personification or symbols in the poem?

You should also ask questions that are specific to the poem. Such as:

•Why is the poem written in second person, using “you” instead of “I” or “he?”

•Where has the teen-age driver been? Why is he out so late?

•How do you think the driver feels when the deer bites him?

•When his father swears at him, is he angry that the car is wrecked, or worried about his son?

•Is the boy most worried about the car or the deer?

•What does the father do with the concrete block? Why doesn’t the poet tell us?

•Is the driver male or female? How do we know?

Visualizing

Good readers also visualize what they read. This means that they see pictures or movies of the images in the poem, all in their mind’s eye.

Good readers of poetry know how to use their imagination.

The poem “Deer Hit” is rich in imagery. Try using your imagination to visualize some of the examples below.

“Road full of eyeballs”

“Glitter and crunch of broken glass in your lap, deer hair drifting like dust.”

“its long head appears like a ghost in the rearview mirror.”

“The deer shudders and bleats in the driveway.”