A Brief Introduction to Poetry

What makes poetry work: lines that stick in your memory ("the best lack all conviction, while the worst / are full of passionate intensity").

What makes this powerful poem last is a bit more subtle. We wonder about "the falcon cannot hear the falconer." The falcon was set on its course by the falconer. Are things falling apart because of the very way they were set in motion?

One neat thing about poetry is that when it's done right, there aren't a lot of words needed.

Take a look at the middle haiku about the ballerina. The sense that the lover is both passionate, awed and yet ashamed all at once is very clear. The only thing for the reader to do is figure out what it all means.

This haiku is far more cryptic than the previous ones. It is probably an example of why first impressions - thankfully - fail when it comes to poetry. The last line gives us the distinct impression something bad has happened.

But read the commentary and notice what's hiding in that middle line: there's a hidden spring image. Something is being lost, absolutely - whether it is a bad thing is another question entirely.

Not a short poem, but it reads quickly (scroll down the page to see the English). This could be the greatest love poem ever written - take note of the landscape and the beloved addressed. While the landscape that resembles her is beautiful, is it really a peaceful landscape?

Modern poetry tends to be less concerned about the Other and more concerned with the Self. In Amy King's "I've Opted for a Heart..." we see exactly the problem the modern poet faces: the Self ("inside the dress") may be composed of nothing but "mercurial gazes." How can love emerge, when all one knows is lust?

Here, Shakespeare's Sonnet 73 is analyzed stanza by stanza via a particular method known as "New Criticism." While it is only one method of analysis, it is a good way to learn to appreciate poems in depth and talk through them.