To give an idea of how good "Don't Read Poetry" is, six libraries within the Alaska system have it. It is truly worth reading. Photo courtesy of Pixabay
Burt, Stephanie, “Don’t Read Poetry: A Book about how to Read Poems.” Hachette Book Group, 2019. 320 pages. 0465094503 $18.99 978-0465094509
The title holds her thesis statement: Don’t read poetry. For the rest of the book, Stephanie Burt demystifies and explains how to read poems.
Burt is an English professor at Harvard, a poet, and the recipient of a 2016 Guggenheim fellowship for poetry.
Poetry can be complex, and once it is written, the understanding begins between the ears of the reader. Normal poetry classes teach how to label poetry and how to understand the rhythms. And you learn how to glean what a poet was saying with their work.
But Burt’s book gives hints on making it personal to the reader without the help of a professor.
Burt simplifies poetry and works from what most of her readers can relate to, showing a poem or poem segment and deconstructing it. Burt has a way of connecting with her readers and poetry she loves, pointing out aspects of it and why she is sharing it.
In the first chapter on feelings, Burt writes of how poetry can express a lot of feeling without telling the whole story, “inviting you to put yourself into the poet’s place.” The words of a poet’s words can “seem to connect feeling across time and space,” she writes.
Burt explains form, writing about different patterns in poetry and compares patterns to what readers will recognize, such as in music, dance, and architecture. She explains how the schemes can almost feel like “magic.”
She shares how sonnets have become modernized and shows how different they are under the label of being called sonnets. She introduces forms that may be new to readers, all presented with a poem and an explanation.
When it comes to understanding poems and recognizing their messages, Burt explains that techniques used in creating poems makes them easier to remember, even when we are surrounded by media, friends, novels and other published ideas. Poets chose forms for delivery and with repetition, rhyme, and meter — and many other techniques — she shows how the reader can better glean the idea being shared and remember it.
Even though we cannot see or hear Stephanie Burt talking to us, her writing style is personal and friendly. “Don’t Read Poetry” is like having a good friend chatting with you on a Zoom call and sharing poems.
In the “Dead Poets Society,” Mr. Keating says to his students: “One reads poetry because he is a member of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion! Medicine, law, banking - these are necessary to sustain life. But poetry, romance, love, beauty? These are what we stay alive for!" I think that Mr. Keating would give “Don’t Read Poetry” his stamp of approval.
For many who start out not liking poetry or who feel overwhelmed by it, Burt does a truly fantastic job presenting it.
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