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Why Poetry Matters: The Significance Of Poems In Our Lives

Do you ever find yourself drawn to the beauty of language? The way words can flow together to evoke emotions and paint vivid imagery in our minds? If so, then you already understand the significance of poetry in our lives.

Poetry is more than just a collection of words on a page; it is a form of expression that has the power to capture the essence of human experience. Through poetry, we can explore our deepest emotions, from love and joy to grief and despair. It allows us to reflect on our own experiences and connect with others who may have gone through similar struggles.

The language of poetry is unique, often using metaphors and symbolism to convey complex ideas in a concise and impactful way. It is a tool for self-expression and self-reflection, a way to understand ourselves and the world around us.

In this article, we will delve into the significance of poems in our lives and explore why poetry matters.

Key Takeaways

Poetry serves as a means of emotional expression, allowing us to explore our deepest emotions and connect with others who have gone through similar struggles.
Poetry is a powerful tool for communication and self-expression, allowing poets to experiment with different forms and structures.
Reading and writing poetry can have therapeutic benefits, improving mood, reducing stress, and alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety.
The impact of technology on poetry has created both opportunities and challenges, but the future of poetry in the digital age remains promising as long as the integrity of the art form is preserved.

Poetry as an Expression of Human Emotions and Experiences

Poetry’s power lies in its ability to capture and convey the full spectrum of human emotions and experiences, making it an incredibly relatable and enjoyable form of expression. Through poetry, we’re able to explore the depths of our own emotions and connect with the experiences of others. The words on the page can evoke feelings of joy, sorrow, love, and everything in between, allowing us to confront and process our own feelings in a safe and creative way.

Human experiences in verse have the unique ability to make us feel less alone. When we read a poem that speaks to us on a personal level, we feel understood and validated. Poetry has the power to create a sense of community and empathy, bringing people from different walks of life together through shared experiences.

Whether it’s a love poem that captures the intensity of a first kiss or a piece that delves into the complexities of grief, poetry allows us to connect with each other on a deep and meaningful level.

The Unique Power of Poetic Language

When you read poetry, you’re often struck by the beauty of metaphors and symbolism. These literary devices allow writers to convey complex emotions and ideas in a powerful and concise way.

Additionally, the rhythm and sound of poetry can be mesmerizing, drawing you in and immersing you in the language.

Finally, the economy of language in poetry is remarkable – every word is carefully chosen and placed for maximum effect.

It’s this unique combination of elements that gives poetry its enduring appeal.

The Beauty of Metaphors and Symbolism

With metaphors and symbolism, poets paint vivid pictures in our minds, creating a beauty that words alone cannot capture. These literary devices add depth and complexity to a poem, allowing the reader to see beyond the surface level and into the deeper meaning of the words.

Here are four reasons why metaphors and symbolism are crucial in poetry:

They create a sense of universality: Metaphors and symbols tap into our shared human experiences and emotions, making them relatable to a wider audience. They allow us to connect with the poet and their message on a deeper level.
They evoke emotions: Metaphors and symbols add an emotional layer to a poem, allowing the reader to feel what the poet is feeling. They create a visceral response that can stay with the reader long after they’ve finished reading.
They add complexity: Metaphors and symbols can add layers of meaning to a poem, making it richer and more complex. They allow the poet to convey multiple ideas and messages in one piece of writing.
They challenge our thinking: Metaphors and symbols can be ambiguous, leaving room for interpretation. They challenge the reader to think critically and consider different perspectives, making poetry a thought-provoking and engaging art form.

In short, metaphors and symbolism are essential in poetry. They add beauty, depth, and complexity to a poem, making it a powerful tool for communication and self-expression.

The Rhythm and Sound of Poetry

Ah, the sweet melody of verse and the musicality of rhymes – it’s what makes reading a poem akin to listening to a symphony. Poetry is an art form that not only communicates emotions but also engages our senses.

The musicality of poetry is the rhythmic arrangement of words that creates a harmonious flow, inviting readers to feel and experience the emotions of the poet. Reading poetry aloud has a profound impact on the reader. The words come alive, and their musicality is amplified.

The rhythm and sound of poetry have the power to transport us to another world, to evoke emotions that we never knew existed. The musicality of poetry creates a space for us to connect with ourselves and others, to share in the beauty of language and the power of emotions.

The Economy of Language in Poetry

The efficiency of language in poetry is one of the most remarkable aspects of this literary art form. Poets have the ability to create an impact with just a few words, making every word count.

The brevity of language in poetry allows for a condensed yet powerful expression of emotion and imagery. Poets use this economy of language to convey complex emotions and ideas with just a few words, making poetry a unique form of expression.

The impact of brevity in poetry is undeniable. It allows poets to create a deep emotional connection with their readers by using only a few words. The reader is left to interpret the meaning of the poem, which makes poetry even more personal and intimate.

The economy of language in poetry not only creates a powerful impact but also allows poets to experiment with different forms and structures, making poetry an innovative literary art form.

So next time you read a poem, pay attention to the efficiency of language used by the poet and appreciate the impact of brevity in their expression.

Poetry as a Tool for Self-Reflection and Self-Expression

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your emotions, struggling to find a way to express them? Poetry can be a powerful tool for connecting with and exploring your feelings.

Through writing and reading poems, you can find meaning in life experiences and gain a deeper understanding of yourself. Additionally, poetry can help you overcome challenges by providing a safe space for reflection and self-expression.

Connecting with Emotions

Surprisingly, it’s often the saddest poems that make us feel the most alive. It’s not the happy-go-lucky rhymes that we remember, but the ones that cut us deep and expose our vulnerabilities. That’s the power of poetry – it connects us with emotions that we sometimes try to bury deep inside.

Through exploring vulnerability, we can find emotional healing through poetry. When we read a poem that speaks to us on a personal level, we feel seen and heard. It’s a reminder that we’re not alone in our struggles and that there are others out there who have felt the same way we do.

Poetry gives us permission to feel, to express our emotions without judgment. It’s a freeing experience that allows us to connect with our true selves and the world around us. So, let the sad poems make you feel alive because, in those moments of vulnerability and emotional connection, we find a sense of peace and understanding that is invaluable.

Finding Meaning in Life Experiences

When you’re feeling lost or unsure, it’s often the experiences that challenge us the most that can provide the greatest insight and direction. Poems can help us make sense of these experiences by offering new perspectives and insights that we might not have thought of before.

They can help us see the beauty in the struggle and find meaning in the chaos. Through poetry, we can explore our own experiences and find purpose in them. We can discover new parts of ourselves and grow in ways we never thought possible.

Poems can help us connect with our emotions and give voice to the experiences that we might otherwise struggle to put into words. They remind us that we’re not alone in our struggles and that there’s always a way forward, even when the path seems uncertain.

So, whether you’re feeling lost or just looking for a little inspiration, poetry can help you find meaning and purpose in your life experiences.

Overcoming Challenges Through Poetry

You’ve learned how to find meaning in your life experiences through poetry, but what happens when you face challenges that seem too difficult to overcome? This is where poetry truly shines.

By using poetry for resilience, you can find hope in even the darkest of times. When faced with adversity, it’s easy to feel alone and helpless. But poetry has a way of bringing people together and reminding us that we’re not alone in our struggles.

Through the words of poets who have also faced challenges, we can find comfort and understanding. By reading about others who have overcome similar obstacles, we can find the strength to keep moving forward.

And when we write our own poetry, we can express our emotions in a way that helps us process our feelings and find clarity. Poetry can be a powerful tool for overcoming challenges and finding hope in the midst of adversity.

Poetry as a Universal Language

When you read a poem, you’re not just reading words on a page. You’re tapping into a timeless art form that has been used to express human experience across cultures and throughout history.

Poetry has a cross-cultural appeal that transcends language barriers and allows us to connect with people from different backgrounds and perspectives. It is a tool for understanding and empathizing with the world around us, and for gaining new insights into the human condition.

The Timelessness of Poetry

Poetry possesses an enduring quality that has transcended time and continues to resonate with readers today. Despite the ever-changing world we live in, the themes and influences found in poetry are timeless.

Whether it’s love, loss, hope, or despair, these emotions have been felt by humans throughout history and will continue to be felt in the future. Poetry captures these emotions in a way that is both universal and personal, allowing readers to connect with the experiences of others and find solace in their own.

The timelessness of poetry also allows us to connect with past and future generations through verse. By reading the works of poets who lived centuries ago, we are given a glimpse into their world and the challenges they faced. We can see how their experiences are similar to our own and gain a better understanding of the human condition.

Additionally, through writing our own poetry, we are contributing to a legacy that will be passed down to future generations. Our words have the potential to inspire and connect with people we may never meet, creating a chain of understanding and empathy that stretches beyond our own lifetimes.

Poetry may be ancient, but its power to connect and inspire remains as relevant as ever.

The Cross-Cultural Appeal of Poetry

It’s remarkable how poetry can transcend cultural boundaries and touch the hearts of people from all walks of life. Poetry is a form of art that has the power to connect people from different backgrounds and cultures. It’s a universal language that speaks to the human experience.

Here are three ways in which poetry facilitates cultural exchange:

Poetic translation: When a poem is translated into another language, it opens up a window into another culture. It allows readers to understand the thoughts and emotions of people from different parts of the world. It also helps to preserve the beauty and richness of different languages.
Shared themes: Although cultures may differ, poetry often deals with universal themes such as love, loss, and hope. These shared themes help to create a sense of understanding and empathy between people from different cultures.
Performance: Poetry is often performed in front of an audience. This creates an opportunity for people to come together and share their love for poetry. It also allows for a cultural exchange as people from different backgrounds share their own poems and experiences.

Poetry has the power to bring people together and facilitate cultural exchange. Its ability to transcend cultural boundaries and touch the hearts of people from all walks of life makes it an important art form in our lives.

Poetry as a Tool for Understanding Different Perspectives

You can gain a greater understanding of different perspectives by perusing poetic pieces, particularly those that present poignant portrayals of people and places. Poetry has always been a tool for empathy, allowing us to step into the shoes of others and view the world through their eyes.

Through the use of vivid imagery, metaphors, and similes, poets can convey complex emotions and experiences that might not be easily expressed through other forms of writing. Expanding your worldview with poetry can be a transformative experience, as it exposes you to diverse cultures, traditions, and ways of life.

Poets can offer unique insights into the human condition, shedding light on issues that might otherwise go unnoticed. Through their words, they can challenge our preconceived notions and encourage us to think critically about the world around us. Whether you’re an avid reader or a casual poetry enthusiast, exploring different poetic styles and themes can broaden your horizons and deepen your understanding of the world we live in.

The Relevance of Poetry in Contemporary Society

You may not realize it, but poetry has played a major role in social justice movements throughout history. From Langston Hughes to Maya Angelou, poets have used their words to shine a light on issues of inequality and injustice, inspiring change and activism.

But poetry is not just a tool for activism – it also has a powerful impact on mental health. Studies have shown that reading and writing poetry can improve mood, reduce stress, and even alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.

As we move into the digital age, the future of poetry remains uncertain, but one thing’s clear: its relevance and importance in our lives isn’t going anywhere.

The Role of Poetry in Social Justice Movements

Poetry plays a pivotal role in social justice movements by giving a voice to the marginalized and inspiring collective action. When marginalized communities are silenced and their voices suppressed, poetry becomes a powerful tool to amplify their experiences and struggles. Through poetry, the marginalized can express their pain, hopes, and dreams in a way that resonates with others.

Poetry can bring people together, creating a sense of community and shared purpose that can lead to social change. Here are five ways in which poetry can evoke an emotional response in people and inspire them to take action for social justice:

Poetry can paint a vivid picture of the injustices faced by marginalized communities, making them impossible to ignore.
Poetry can create a sense of empathy and solidarity, helping people understand the struggles of others and see the world from their perspective.
Poetry can inspire people to take action by highlighting the urgent need for change and calling on individuals to do their part.
Poetry can offer hope and resilience in the face of oppression, reminding people that they’re not alone in their struggle for justice.
Poetry can challenge the status quo and push people to question their own assumptions and biases, paving the way for a more just and equitable society.

Incorporating poetry into social justice movements can have a profound impact on the way people think about and respond to issues of inequality and oppression. As you explore the intersection of poetry and activism, you’ll come to see that poetry isn’t just a form of self-expression, but a powerful means of amplifying the voices of those who’ve been silenced for far too long. By using poetry to inspire collective action and push for change, you can help create a world that’s more just, equitable, and compassionate for all.

The Connection between Poetry and Mental Health

Feeling overwhelmed and stressed? Let’s explore how incorporating poetry into your daily routine can benefit your mental health.

Poetry has been used as a form of therapy for centuries, and for good reason. When you read or write poetry, you engage with your emotions on a deeper level. This can help you process and release any negative feelings you may be carrying.

The therapeutic benefits of poetry extend beyond just emotional release. Poetry and mindfulness practices go hand in hand. When you read or write poetry, you’re forced to slow down and focus on the present moment. This can help you become more mindful and aware of your thoughts and feelings.

By incorporating poetry into your daily routine, you can create a space for introspection and self-reflection, which can lead to a more positive and healthy mindset.

So, why not give it a try and see how poetry can benefit your mental health?

The Future of Poetry in the Digital Age

In this fast-paced digital age, it’s easy to overlook the impact that technology has on the way we consume and create art, including poetry.

Social media has become the new frontier for poets, giving them an opportunity to share their work with a wider audience. However, this shift towards digital platforms has also raised concerns about the quality and authenticity of poetry in the online world.

As technology continues to evolve, so does the role of technology in poetry creation. While some argue that technology has made poetry more accessible and democratic, others worry that it has created a culture of instant gratification and superficiality.

Despite these concerns, the future of poetry in the digital age remains promising, as poets continue to use technology as a tool for self-expression and connection. The key will be to find a balance between embracing the benefits of technology while also preserving the integrity of the art form.

The language of poetry has the ability to touch our hearts and souls in a way that no other form of communication can.

Through poetry, you can reflect on your own life and express your innermost thoughts and feelings. You can connect with others who have had similar experiences, and you can learn from the wisdom of poets who’ve come before you.

Poetry is a universal language that transcends cultural and linguistic barriers, allowing us to connect with people from all walks of life. So why does poetry matter? Because it allows us to express ourselves in a way that is both personal and universal.

It helps us to understand ourselves and each other, and it reminds us of the beauty and complexity of the human experience.

So go ahead, pick up a pen and write a poem. Share it with others, or keep it for yourself. Either way, you’ll be tapping into the power of poetry and all that it has to offer.

Why Is Poetry Important? (25 Reasons)

The art of poetry transcends mere words on a page; it is an intimate dance of emotion and insight. It unravels lifetimes of feeling, offering a respite, a reflection, a revelation. It challenges us to consider the world anew through a prism of metaphor and meter that relegates the ordinary to the extraordinary.

As we delve into the realm of verse, one might ask: What is the real power of poetry, and how does its gentle insistence on introspection change us?

Read on to uncover the enduring significance of poetry and its quiet, persistent call to consider the world and our place within it.

Table of Contents

Poetry as a Vehicle for Emotional Expression

Poetry distills feelings into an essence that can be intensely personal yet universally understood. It’s this ability to encapsulate emotions in words that enable poets to touch readers deeply, connecting them with the subtleties and complexities of the human experience.

Poetry employs various devices such as metaphor, simile, and symbolism to express emotions in ways that everyday language may fail to achieve.
The rhythm, cadence, and music of poetry can mirror the heartbeat of emotion, whether it’s the slow heaviness of sorrow or the staccato beats of joy.
Through its form, poetry can help people grapple with feelings that are often inexpressible, providing a release and a sense of understanding.

Moreover, the reading and writing of poetry can be cathartic. The process can help individuals process their emotions by constructing a narrative around them, which can be particularly therapeutic during times of stress, grief, or joy.

Poetry Fosters Deeper Connections Among People

When we engage with poetry, we’re not just reading words on a page; we’re connecting with the thoughts and feelings of another person. This connection can span generations and cultures, creating a bridge of understanding that can be difficult to achieve through other means.

Poetry clubs and readings, for instance, bring people together in a shared experience, promoting empathy and community as participants resonate with the joys and struggles expressed.

The reasons for poetry’s powerful connective capabilities include:

Sharing of Personal Experiences: Through the intimate act of writing or reading poetry, people share their most personal experiences, from love to despair.
Creation of Common Ground: Even in the midst of diversity, poetry can highlight common human experiences, building bonds between individuals.
Fostering Empathetic Relationships: By exposing us to perspectives different from our own, poetry can encourage an empathetic understanding of others’ feelings and backgrounds.

Such connections are not solely the domain of adult readers and writers. Children, too, can find friendship and commonality through poetry that discusses themes age-appropriate to their experiences, such as Shel Silverstein’s playful reflections on childhood.

Poetry Enhances Literacy and Language Skills

Engaging with poetry is more than a passive experience; it’s an active exercise in linguistic exploration and comprehension. For learners of all ages, poetry presents a rich, condensed language that demands and thereby develops robust literacy skills.

Here’s how poetry amplifies our linguistic capabilities:

Vocabulary Building: The denseness of poetry means every word is charged with meaning, pushing readers to expand their vocabulary to grasp the nuances of the language.
Understanding of Figurative Language: Poetry’s reliance on figures of speech, like metaphor and simile, helps readers and writers think more abstractly and creatively about language.
Recognition of Syntax and Structure: The form of poetry, with its lines and stanzas, stirs an appreciation for the arrangement of words and the varied ways sentences can be structured.

Furthermore, the rhythmic nature of poetry—its meter, rhyme scheme, and alliteration—helps readers, especially young ones, develop phonemic awareness and the ability to play with sound patterns, critical components of early reading skills.

In the classroom setting, educators often utilize poetry to teach critical analysis as students learn to dissect and interpret the deeper meanings behind seemingly simple stanzas.

Poetry Invoking Empathy and Understanding

Through the power of its words, poetry has the unique ability to put us in someone else’s shoes, allowing readers to experience and feel the world from perspectives other than their own. It’s this deep empathetic connection that makes poetry a force for developing understanding between people.

Consider the following:

A poem often captures the intimate perspective of another person’s life, presenting their joys, sorrows, and challenges in a way that’s vivid and relatable, despite any differences between the poet and the reader.
As readers, we encounter characters, scenarios, and emotions in poems that may be new or unfamiliar, yet they elicit empathy from us—reminding us of the shared humanity that binds us together.
Powerful poetry can often provoke deep introspection among readers, leading to a newfound understanding or appreciation for other life experiences and worldviews.

Empathy induced by poetry can lead to real-world compassion and action. The emotions and perspectives garnered from poetry can inspire individuals to engage with their communities and advocate for others, evidencing the societal impact of this literary form.

Poetry Celebrates the Richness of Language

Each poem is an architect of words, crafting structures that can awe and inspire. From the discovery of new words to the creative use of old ones, poetry serves as both a repository and a laboratory for linguistic expression.

Here’s how poetry enriches the language:

New Words: Poets often create neologisms, inventing new words to capture the nuances of their message better.
Ancient Roots: Poetry can preserve old forms and words that might otherwise be forgotten, acting as a living historical record.
Dialects and Slangs: Poetry often embraces vernacular speech, bringing the rhythms and idioms of spoken language into the literary domain.

Poetry is not just about adhering to linguistic norms but also about challenging and expanding them. It finds ways to communicate that sit outside the conventional, making the act of reading poetry one that continually enriches and refreshes our relationship with language.

Poetry Can Convey Powerful Messages Succinctly

The economy of language in poetry allows it to deliver impactful messages within a compact format. Poetry’s concentration of meaning gives it an inherent strength to convey significant messages quickly and memorably.

Here are three ways poetry achieves this brevity of powerful expression:

Density : Every word in a poem is carefully chosen, each carrying a multitude of meanings and implications.
Images : A single image in a poem can unfold layers of ideas and emotions that might otherwise require paragraphs to explain.
Figurative Language : Metaphors and symbols compress complex concepts into digestible snapshots, inviting readers to delve into deeper layers of understanding.

Whether it’s a rallying cry for justice or a quiet reflection on nature, poetry can encapsulate and radiate the essence of a message with an intensity that often eludes more verbose forms of communication. This ability to strongly and briefly convey messages makes poetry a potent tool for advocacy, education, and personal expression.

Poetry Holding Historical and Cultural Significance

The tapestry of human history is interwoven with the threads of poetry, which has long served as a record of cultural narratives, milestones, and beliefs. Poets have chronicled the stories of their times, encapsulating the zeitgeist of different eras and distilling profound truths from the past.

This relationship between poetry and history is significant because it:

Captures the socio-political climate of various periods through reflective and sometimes critical verses.
Keeps alive the legends, myths, and folklore that define cultural identities.
Upholds the linguistic heritage that might be forgotten in the absence of poetic documentation.

Consider, for example, the ancient epics that recount heroic tales or the sonnets of the Renaissance that reflect the philosophical thought of the period. In both cases, the poetry of the era serves as a window into the worldviews and values that shaped the lives of its people.

Poetry Providing a Platform for Diverse Voices

Across history, poetry has been a refuge for those who find their voices marginalized in society. It offers an accessible and expressive platform for individuals of all backgrounds to share their stories, concerns, and dreams.

The inclusivity of poetry is evident in the following:

The range of poets who come from various socio-economic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.
The variety of themes and topics that poetry can address, from the deeply personal to the universally relatable.
The global nature of poetry transcends borders and connects people across different languages and cultures.

Dedicated spaces such as literary journals, poetry slams, and online communities celebrate the diversity within poetry, encouraging voices from marginalized or underrepresented groups to come forward. By elevating these voices, poetry enriches our understanding of the spectrum of human experience and paves the way for a more empathetic and inclusive society.

Poetry Nurtures Imagination and Creativity

Within the confines of its stanzas and verses, poetry is boundless. It encourages readers and writers alike to imagine and invent, often transporting them to other worlds or offering new perspectives on the familiar.

Three important contributions of poetry to imagination and creativity are:

Escapism : Through vivid descriptions and fantastical metaphors, poetry allows readers to escape into realms only limited by their own imagination.
Expression : For poets, the blank page is a canvas for experimentation, where they can play with words, defying conventions to create unique stylistic and thematic elements.
Discovery : Both readers and writers may discover new insights about themselves and the world they inhabit through the metaphoric and symbolic nature of poetry.

Poetry’s fostering of creativity and imagination is crucial in a world that often values pragmatism over innovation. In poetry, we find a mental playground where the new and the extraordinary can be envisioned and explored freely.

Poetry Encourages Critical Thinking and Analysis

The layered and often enigmatic nature of poetry demands more from readers than simply taking in words. It requires engagement, a probing mind that ponders and questions. This process strengthens critical thinking, an invaluable skill in both academic arenas and everyday decision-making.

Seeing beyond the surface:

Interpretation of poetry varies widely, pushing readers to consider multiple angles and hidden meanings.
The complexity of poetic language engages readers in deciphering and understanding nuanced expressions, encouraging a deeper delve into a text’s subtext.

Formal elements like meter and rhyme offer a structural puzzle, while the content challenges preconceived ideas and prompts debates regarding interpretations, all contributing to the sharpening of analytical skills.

Poetry Taps into the Universal Themes of Life

Poetry often addresses the grand themes of human existence: love, death, suffering, joy, and the search for meaning. Despite the diverse array of poets and poetic traditions across time and space, certain core ideas resonate with people everywhere.

By engaging with these universal themes, poetry provides a sense of shared human experience and continuity.

The exploration of love, in all its forms, is perhaps one of the most common themes in poetry, representing the intensity, complexity, and universality of this emotion.
Poems address the theme of mortality, grappling with the fears, sorrows, and sometimes the acceptance or peace that comes with understanding life’s impermanence.
Through language, poetry captures the paradoxical nature of human life—its trials and triumphs, its mundane moments, and its profound realizations.

In contemplating these themes, poetry allows individuals from various cultures and backgrounds to find common ground, recognizing shared hopes, fears, and desires that underscore the human condition.

Poetry Can Be Therapeutic for Both the Writer and the Reader

The act of writing poetry can serve as a therapeutic exercise, helping individuals navigate their internal landscapes and deal with complex feelings. Similarly, reading poetry can provide solace, offering a kind of companionship in shared experience and emotion.

Writing poetry can be a form of self-help, aiding in the processing and expression of thoughts and emotions that may be difficult to articulate otherwise.
The reflective process of creating poetry allows writers to confront their innermost feelings, often leading to insights and resolutions.
For readers, encountering a poem that echoes their own situation can validate their experiences and emotions, offering a sense of connection and understanding.

Whether utilized as a coping mechanism during personal turmoil or as a daily practice for mental well-being, the therapeutic benefits of poetry for both writers and readers are a testament to its powerful impact on the mind and soul.

Poetry Challenges Readers to See from Different Perspectives

Engaging with poetry is an exercise in perspective-taking. Poets often present scenarios and sentiments that invite readers to consider different viewpoints, step outside the familiarity of their own perceptions, and question their assumptions and beliefs.

Exposure to the myriad of poetic voices and styles is akin to looking through a kaleidoscope of human experience; each turn reveals a new pattern, a new angle on life’s questions and quandaries.
Poems often employ irony, satire, and paradox to challenge conventional wisdom and societal norms, prompting readers to reconsider their perspectives.
By reading poems from different cultures or historical periods, we are drawn into the worldviews and realities distinct from our own, providing a valuable lens through which we can understand the diversity of human thought.

This aspect of poetry not only broadens our intellectual horizons but also nurtures a more empathetic approach towards others, cultivating a society that values multiple viewpoints and the richness they add to our collective understanding.

Poetry Helps in Coping with Trauma and Healing

For many people, poetry is a refuge —a place where the unspeakable can be articulated, and the unbearable can be expressed. The succinct, rhythmic nature of poetry allows complex feelings associated with trauma and pain to be distilled into manageable pieces, making them easier to confront and articulate.

The act of writing poetry about traumatic events can help by placing some of the burdens of those experiences onto the page.
Reading poetry on difficult subjects can provide validation for those with similar experiences, making them feel seen and understood.
Healing through poetry is not just about the release of painful emotions; it is also about reconstructing one’s story and finding meaning amidst chaos.

The intimacy of a poem’s language can thus be a powerful tool for emotional processing and recovery. It allows both poets and readers to explore their own healing journey at a pace that feels right for them, fostering resilience and personal growth in the aftermath of suffering.

Poetry Encourages a Pause for Reflection in a Fast-Paced World

In today’s world, where instant communication and rapid consumption of media are the norms, poetry remains a bastion of reflection and contemplation. Poems require—and reward—slower reading, deeper thinking, and a willingness to pause and engage with the text.

Here’s what poetry’s reflective nature offers:

A momentary respite from the rush of daily life, an invitation to slow down and savor language and thought.
Poems often capture fleeting moments or complex emotions that might be overlooked in a fast-paced environment.
The quiet space that poetry carves out in our lives can act as a catalyst for self-examination and philosophical inquiry.

By demanding a deceleration of pace, poetry allows readers to appreciate the subtleties often missed in the whirlwind of the modern day. It reaffirms the value of reflection as an essential component of a fulfilling and considered life.

Poetry Amplifies Personal and Collective Memory

Poetry has a remarkable ability to capture and preserve the ephemeral moments of life, embedding individual and shared memories within its lines. It often serves as a record of experiences, encapsulating both the personal and the collective, ensuring that memories persist across generations.

Consider poetry’s role in preserving memory:

Poets encapsulate the feelings and images of specific moments, turning them into enduring artifacts that can be revisited.
Throughout history, communities have used poetry to remember important events and figures, anchoring them in the cultural consciousness.
The mnemonic quality of poetry, with its rhythms and rhymes, makes it an effective tool for memorization, aiding the retention of language and ideas.

Through poetry, we not only recall the past but also imbue it with emotion, appreciate its influence on the present, and pass its lessons on to the future.

Poetry Plays a Significant Role in Ceremonies and Traditions

Poetic words provide a soundtrack to life’s milestones, from birth to death, and all the celebrations and acknowledgments in between. Whether it’s a poem read at a wedding, which captures the joy and hope of new beginnings, or a solemn verse recited at a funeral to express loss and remembrance, poetry lends depth and resonance to these pivotal moments.

Expressions of identity and values: Poems often reflect the cultural bedrock of society, reinforcing social bonds during ceremonies.
Poetic verses are selected for their ability to capture the emotion and significance of an occasion , enriching the shared experience.

By encapsulating the emotional core of our communal experiences, poetry strengthens the ties that bind us to one another and to the traditions we hold dear.

Poetry Creates a Sense of Community and Belonging

Whether in local poetry slam venues, book clubs, or online forums, individuals find common ground through the shared love of verse. This unity transcends physical boundaries, with people across the globe connecting over the familiar cadence of a favorite poet or the fresh voice of a new one.

Connection through shared expression: The act of reading or listening to poetry in a group setting can foster a unique bond among participants.
Shared vulnerability: Poetry’s introspective nature often inspires readers and listeners to share their feelings and experiences, leading to profound connections.

The communal aspect of poetry is not only about shared interests but also about mutual support, creating an atmosphere where people feel understood and valued. It is this sense of belonging and acceptance that underscores the vital role poetry plays in nurturing community spirit.

Poetry Allows for the Exploration of Language and Sound

Poetry is a playground for the spoken word, where language is both meaning and music. It differs from everyday speech in its deliberate structure, often deploying rhyme, rhythm, and meter to create patterns that please the ear and underscore meaning.

Poets skillfully weave together sounds to reinforce their themes, making the experience of poetry as much auditory as it is intellectual.

Sound devices in poetry, such as alliteration ( the repetition of consonant sounds ) and assonance ( the repetition of vowel sounds ), add a musical quality to verses.
Onomatopoeia , where words mimic sounds (‘ buzz ,’ ‘ whisper ‘), adds a sensory layer to the reading or listening experience.
The rhythm we encounter in poetry often echoes the natural cadence found in human speech, which can make the experience of reading poetry feel both exotic and familiar.

Through its emphasis on phonetics, poetry invites us to hear language in new ways. It reminds us that there is beauty to be found in the way words sound and interact, adding an extra dimension to the way we communicate.

Poetry as a Reflection of Cultural and Societal Values

Poetry acts as a mirror, reflecting the era and society from which it originates. The cultural values, current events, and dominant ideologies of a time enliven the pages of poetry, providing us with rich insights into the spirits of past and current civilizations. Just as a mirror captures both the light and shadow of an image, poetry encapsulates the complexities and dualities of the world around us.

Cultural Commentary: Poets have long been the unofficial chroniclers of their times, documenting the mood and ethos of society.
Values and Changes: As societal values evolve, so too does poetry, capturing these shifts and offering a candid look at society’s progression or regression.

Hence, poetry is not just an art form but a sociocultural document, a commentary on the human condition that is as important for its beauty as it is for its historical and social relevance.

Poetry Transcends Age and Educational Backgrounds

An inclusive art form, poetry is accessible and meaningful to people regardless of their age or level of education. Children are introduced to the magic of language through simple nursery rhymes that play with sound and rhythm, while older generations find solace and wisdom in the verses of classic and contemporary poets alike.

Table format highlighting the broad appeal of poetry:

Moreover, poetry in education serves as a versatile tool. For younger students, it’s an entry point into the beauty of language, and for older students, a text that demands analysis and interpretation. This accessibility and the ability to speak to diverse experiences make poetry a timeless and universal art form.

Poetry Often Reflects Societal Trends and Changes

Poetry not only mirrors the present but also often anticipates the future, reflecting and reacting to changes within society. It’s a barometer of cultural shifts, voicing the concerns, hopes, and evolving conscience of its time.

It reacts to technological advances, political upheavals, and social transformations, often provoking or responding to public discourse.
Throughout history, poetry has been the avant-garde of literary movements, heralding changes in thought and expression, such as the transition from Romanticism to Modernism.
The content of poetry shifts with societal priorities, from odes to nature in an industrializing world to verses on digital disconnect in the internet age.

By engaging with contemporary issues, poetry remains relevant and dynamic, capturing the pulse of change and reflecting the evolving narrative of society.

Appreciation of the Mundane in Poetry

Poetry has the unique capacity to elevate the ordinary to the realm of fascination. The often unseen beauty in everyday life is vividly captured through poetic language, which draws attention to the wonders hidden in plain sight.

Everyday Magnified: The meticulous description of a flower or the play of light through a window becomes extraordinary under the poet’s gaze.
Invitation To Observe: This magnification encourages readers to pause and consider the richness of their everyday environment.

By shifting focus from the grandiose to the minuscule, poetry fosters a deep appreciation for the world that surrounds us, nurturing a sense of wonder in the process.

Poetry Influences Modern Technology and Media

The digital age has transformed how poetry is created, shared, and consumed. Modern technology has brought poetry closer to people, making it more accessible and allowing it to influence new mediums and forms of expression.

Social media platforms have given rise to viral poetry, hashtags have sparked poetic movements, and the influence of poetry is evident in everything from advertising slogans to song lyrics.

Digital Renaissance: The internet has sparked a new wave of poetry lovers and writers, creating digital communities across borders.
Multimedia Verses: Technology enables poetry to merge with visual and auditory art, leading to innovative multimedia experiences.

The interfusion of poetry and technology demonstrates poetry’s adaptability and its enduring relevance in the continuously evolving landscape of media and communication.

Poetry Preserves the Oral Tradition and Storytelling

In many cultures, poetry began as an oral tradition long before the written word was commonplace. Storytelling, through rhythmic and rhyming verse, was an essential part of preserving history, wisdom, and culture. Today, poetry continues to play a crucial role in this oral tradition, both in terms of performance poetry and in the way it carries forward storytelling’s legacy.

Live Performance: Spoken word events continue the oral tradition, showcasing poetry’s power when performed aloud.
Living Lore: Traditional ballads and epics pass from one generation to the next, not just through books but through the act of recitation.

The spoken aspect of poetry thus not only connects us to our roots but also enlivens literature in the modern day, bridging the gap between ancestral legacies and contemporary narratives.

Final Thoughts

With warmth and an inviting cadence, poetry encourages us to explore the caverns of our own hearts. It reassures us that whatever we discover within—be it joy, sorrow, beauty, or pain—is part of a larger, communal tapestry of human expression. It is this interconnectedness that poetry fosters, reminding us that we are not alone in our journey.

Embrace the solace and strength that poetry offers. And as you turn the pages of your own life’s story, let the verses you’ve encountered remind you to listen to the world’s rhythms and your own—with a renewed sense of wonder and an open heart.

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Bea Mariel Saulo

Moved by words: how poetry helps us express our feelings

Associate Professor in Creative Writing and Literary Studies, Deakin University

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Maria Takolander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Deakin University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Poetry has made something of a comeback in popular culture, thanks to America’s Amanda Gorman, who read her performance poems at a presidential inauguration and this year’s Super Bowl. Gorman has been described as bringing poetry to the masses .

However, when it comes to the mainstream, poetry has long been hiding in plain sight. Gorman’s spoken-word performances, which have been compared to hip hop , drew attention to poetry in music lyrics. But poetry is also visible in movies and on TV.

These media representations are interesting because they show how poetry is popularly understood in connection with feelings. And that popular wisdom chimes with findings in cognitive neuroscience about how language and, by extension, poetry work.

Read more: Ode to the poem: why memorising poetry still matters for human connection

Aside from films or TV series about poets, such as Dickinson or Paterson , poetry makes a cameo in some of our most iconic films, where it is said to represent or intensify a range of emotions. These include love ( Before Sunrise ), mad ambition (Citizen Kane), nostalgic patriotism ( Skyfall ), pride ( Invictus ), nihilism ( Apocalypse Now ) and trauma ( The Piano ).

Poetry, representative of emotion, is also frequently used to symbolise humanity. This is particularly apparent in films about clones.

In the Tom Cruise blockbuster Oblivion, when the clone Jack Harper recites a poem from Thomas Babington Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome this reinforces his legitimacy. In Blade Runner, Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty misquotes William Blake :

Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc.

What emerges from poetry’s onscreen appearances, then, is a popular understanding of it as an expression of human feeling and evidence of genuine humanity.

Cognitive neuroscience

This intuitive understanding of poetry resonates with findings in cognitive neuroscience. Leaving behind theories of the brain that suggest it operates like a computer and theories of language that focus on “ mental grammar ”, many scientists now acknowledge the body and emotion as the foundations of both cognition and speech.

Of particular interest is the role of mirror neurons . These brain cells fire when an action is observed or performed, and they tell us a lot about how we understand the actions of others. They suggest understanding comes from a mirroring or imitation that takes place in the brain but is acted out or felt in the body.

An example is the contagious effect of a smile. When we observe someone smiling, we mirror that action to understand it.

Something similar happens when understanding language. Words contagiously move us. As neuroscientist Christian Keysers explains in The Empathic Brain , if you hear or read the word “lick”, the part of your brain that moves your mouth is activated to aid understanding. The same happens if you hear or read the word “kick”. As a result, we feel the meaning of these words in our bodies.

What about producing words? Speech is fundamentally a motor activity, which evolved from gesture. We are moved to speak, and we literally move — our lips, our tongue, our lungs, our stomach muscles, and often even our hands — to express ourselves.

As infants, we begin learning language in interaction with a caregiver, imitating the shapes of their mouth, and waving our arms and legs in excitement and frustration at the repetitive noises they make, until eventually we are able to imitate their sounds. Those sounds are accompanied by feelings, related most strongly to a desire to communicate beyond the boundaries of ourselves.

Of course, language develops into a more abstract system for communication. It can often remain a struggle, however, to give expression to feelings that are powerfully felt in the body, such as loneliness or grief or trauma. As John Hannah’s character says in Four Weddings and a Funeral , when trying to articulate his feelings about his dead partner, “Unfortunately there I run out of words”.

Rhymes and rhythms

This is where poetry comes in, making use of the rhymes and rhythms that have helped us find speech from infancy, calling attention to the auditory qualities of language to convey meaning through feeling.

If we can’t do it ourselves, we quote someone else’s words, instinctively and ritualistically associating poetry with the expression of emotion.

This link to emotion, as well as child-like speech, undoubtedly goes some way to explaining another popular idea about poetry: that it signals “madness”. Biopics of poets feed this stereotype by overwhelmingly choosing poets with mental illnesses as their subjects — for instance, Sylvia and Pandaemonium , portraits of Sylvia Plath and Samuel Taylor Coleridge respectively.

However, cognitive neuroscience — and popular wisdom — suggest poetry actually exemplifies an important truth about language and human nature.

While poetry is regularly denounced for “not making sense”, our cognition and our language do not arise according to purely rational principles.

We are bodies wrought by feeling. Robin Williams’ character simplifies this truth in Dead Poets Society :

We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.

Amanda Gorman

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Poetry Facts

The Power of Poetry in Speeches

As a poetry lover, I’m sure you understand how influential poetry can be. Throughout history, many great leaders, activists, politicians have brought poetry into their speeches, crafting powerful messages that can (and did) change the world.

In today’s article, we’re going to look at poetry in speeches , why you should use poetry in your next speech, how to go about doing so, and of course, the famous poetic speeches across eras. Let’s dive in!

Why Use Poetry in a Public Speech

Poetry is powerful. That’s why there are many benefits to using poetry in a public speech. What benefits, you ask?

Well, for starter, a poem can really serve as a highlight of a speech, breaking the usual monotony. It adds a fresher element to the speech, and helps to capture the audience’s attention better.

Poetry can also be a very good reference point in your speech. By adding a familiar poem to the audience, the speaker can help the audience understand the subject that he or she is trying to convey better.

A good poem can really add an additional depth to your speech, if you know how to use it right. The audience can’t help but feel a strong influence, and the speaker has a much better chance of leaving an impact.

I think all of us can agree that poetry has an air of literary elegance to it. By adding poetry to your speech, you also bring that elegance and a lot of class into your presentation.

Finally, sometimes, poetry can say a lot more with less. Adding a poem at the right moment of the talk can help you being more concise and establish a deep connection with the audience.

So I hope by now I’ve convinced you that it’s a good idea to try adding poetry into your speech. In the next section, we’re going to talk about how to do it.

How to Use Poetry in A Public Speech

It’s pretty clear that poetry can enhance a speech greatly if done right. But it can be tricky if you’re not a poet nor a student of poetry yourself. Here are something to keep in mind if you want to use poetry in your next speech:

1. Choose the right poem

This should go without saying, but if you’re going to use poetry in your speech, make sure that the poem you choose fit within the context of what you’re trying to say. A poem should help you get your point across and make an impression on the audience, not making them confused or worse, zone out. So do your homework.

2. Have a plan

Most people don’t read poetry on a daily basis. This means that you can’t just bring a poem out of nowhere into your speech. You need to provide some introduction to the poem, why do you chose the poem, what’s the background story, etc. Prepare the audience so that they can listen to the poem from the best position possible.

3. Speak like a poet

Ever seen a spoken-word poet perform on stage? If you haven’t, then you should do it because you will learn a lot from them. Writing poetry is an art, but not many people think the same about delivering a poem to an audience that way. You’ll need to learn how to project from the diaphragm, posturing, pacing, etc. Watch a poet perform and try to practice your delivery as best as you can.

4. Don’t think too much

The last tip is kind of counter intuitive, but after all the preparing and practicing, you should not think when you go and perform. Thinking is great when you’re trying to practice, but once on stage, it will likely hinder your performance. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. After all, that’s how you get better.

5 Famous Poetic Speeches in History

1. i have a dream by martin luther king jr..

This is probably one of the most inspiring speeches of all time. Delivered on the 28th of August, 1963 by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., “I have a dream” was a defining speech of the civil rights movement.

In the speech, King used anaphora, a poetic device in which the author repeats an expression at the beginning of a number of sentences. With a single phrase “I have a dream,” Martin Luther King Jr. joined ranks with the men who shaped modern America.

2. We shall fight on the beaches by Winston Churchill

“We shall fight on the beaches” is one of the three major speeches by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. This speech was delivered to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the 4th of June, 1940, warning about a possible invasion attempt by Nazi Germany.

Churchill is known for spending hours working on every minute of his speech. He wrote every word, and carefully crafting them so that the final draft “looks like a draft of a poem,” according to many critics.

3. Ain’t I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth was a well known anti-slavery speaker and one of the most revolutionary advocates for women’s human rights in the 1800s. The speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” was delivered at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio, addressing the discrimination of woman and African Americans in the post-Civil War era.

It is a poetic speech that many people have adapted it into a poem itself. Here’s the speech, delivered by Nkechi at a TEDx event in 2013.

4. Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

This one is a legit poem as a speech. “Still I Rise” is a poem written by Maya Angelou, an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She is well-known for uplifting fellow African American women through her work.

“Still I Rise” is one of Angelou’s most popular poems, inspiring black women everywhere to keep good faith and striving for equality and peace.

Final thoughts

By now, I’m sure we all can understand how much weight that poetry, or even just a poetic device, can bring into a speech. I hope that you’ve learned something new and useful, maybe even some inspirations to incorporate poetry into the next chance you have to deliver a public speech.

We all begin with a love of poetry. As we grow up, however, that love can fade. Language becomes practical rather than fanciful, and we may start to think of words not as amusing sounds we make but rather as tools we can put to use. While it’s true this practical side of language has great power, it also has its limits. Reading and writing poetry allow us to explore what lies beyond these limits, to remind ourselves that language is not just something we learn; it’s something we actively take part in making. As an educator, I’ve thought a lot over the years about why poetry is important, its special gifts and its singular pleasures. In honor of National Poetry Month, I’d like to share some of these thoughts with you.

1. Poetry is play (I). All poets play with language. The simple question “What rhymes with this?” encourages us to connect words in new ways and discover ideas in places we might not otherwise look. Perhaps T.S. Eliot was at the dinner table wondering what rhymes with “asparagus” when he got the idea for this poem .

2. Poetry is play (II). Poetry also grants us the freedom to add new words to our language much in the way painters add new paintings to museums. Shakespeare, in fact, is thought over the course of his career to have created nearly 2,000 new words. Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” also contains quite a few “nonsense” words, yet it is still one of the most meaningful poems I’ve read.

3. Poetry is music in language. For Lewis Carroll as well as many other poets, the sounds words make are just as important as the meanings they have. In truth, we don’t speak poetry; we sing it, each in our own unique way. While many poems sound musical because they rhyme, they don’t need to. One of my favorite unrhymed poems is Vasko Popa’s “ The Little Box .”

4. Poetry teaches patience. The saying “writing is rewriting” is never more true than when writing poetry. Poets can sometimes take days (or even months!) looking for just the right word to express themselves. Ezra Pound, for instance, took a year to write “ In a Station of the Metro ” even though the poem consists of just 14 words. There’s no right amount of time to write (or read) a poem, and short poetic forms like haiku can help us slow down and pay attention to both the meaning of words and all the different ways they can help us express ourselves.

5. Poetry helps us remember. Before language was written down, Greeks and Egyptians used poetry for more than just enjoyment. Poems communicated philosophy, history, religion, and even science. Memorizing such poems gave the ancients a way to share their thoughts far and wide. Interestingly, when writing did emerge, Plato claimed that this new technology was weakening the minds of the young — they could no longer remember simple facts. While we may not agree with Plato’s claim, we can certainly see how poetry’s rhymes and rhythms can help us remember everything from words and ideas to useful facts. In spite of my smartphone’s calendar, “ Thirty Days hath September… ” is one such poem I still use today.

6. Poetry helps us find our inner voice. We all have many ideas milling around in our heads, and a poem is the perfect place to let them run wild. There’s no right and wrong in the world of poetry, and the only truly important question we need ask when reading or writing a poem is “Does it sound good to me?” Once, however, it wasn’t like this. Emily Dickinson was often criticized for not writing her poems the “correct” way. While Dickinson was a “Nobody” in her time, she is regarded today as one of the greatest poets of the 19th century.

7. Poetry lets us positively share our feelings. Many of us feel angry, frustrated, sad, or fearful from time to time. However, because these feelings are unpleasant, we often keep them locked up inside of us. Writing and reading poetry help us let these feelings out and also better understand them. Surprisingly, if I read a sad poem when I am sad, I often feel better after I’ve finished it. Poems like this one have showed me that feeling a little blue is not always such a bad thing and, just as importantly, that when I do, I am not alone.

8. A love of poetry can take time to develop. We’ve all heard a song for the first time and thought, “Oh, how dreadful!” After hearing that same song for the tenth time, how often have we then discovered that we quite enjoy it after all? Similarly, some poems take a little getting used to, so we shouldn’t become discouraged if at first we don’t get it.

9. Poetry is exploration. Poetry provides windows into the thoughts and feelings of others, not just of today but of the distant past. Throughout history, kings, queens , soldiers, and ordinary people have all written poetry. Reading these poems teaches us more than just what happened a long time ago; it teaches us how people back then felt and thought about both everyday happenings and important historical events.

10. Every month is poetry month. While it is certainly nice to pay special attention to poetry in April, we shouldn’t forget about it for the rest of the year. A love of poetry is something we should carry with us always, through good times and bad, year in, year out, for the rest of our lives.

Vern Kousky is the author and illustrator of the picture book Otto the Owl Who Loved Poetry .

Otto the Owl Who Loved Poetry

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Last updated on Oct 13, 2023

12 Elements of Poetry Every Poet Needs to Know

Much like any other type of literature, poetry can be broken down into various different devices. Rhyme is the most well-known, but there are dozens of elements that can be used to construct a poem. While poets may employ many of these devices subconsciously (having long since added them to their toolkit), most of them will be able to identify these elements and understand how they help their craft.

In this post, let’s explore 12 of the most common poetic devices and what they add to a poem.

1. Rhyme and rhyme scheme

When we think of poetry, rhyme is probably the first poetic device that comes to mind. From the tales of Mother Goose to the works of the greats, it’s one of the defining characteristics of poetry. Modern poets may not use rhyme as often as their predecessors, but it remains an important part of what makes poetry poetry.

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What is rhyme in poetry?

It’s the repetition of syllables or similar sounds, typically at the end of a verse. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes in a poem or, in other words, which lines rhyme with each other.

Some common rhyme schemes you might see are AAAA, ABAB, ABBA, where two matching letters indicate that those lines rhyme with each other. However, there are many more to be found among the different forms and structures of poetry .

There are also many different ways in which two words might rhyme. While everyone can detect a full rhyme (e.g., might and light ), you might also find half rhymes or slant rhymes (e.g., bog and bug ) that sound just enough like one another to work.

There’s also a range of places where you can rhyme within lines or stanzas. End rhyme — the rhyming of the last syllables in two or more lines — is the most common. But there’s also internal rhyme, which occurs when two or more words rhyme within a singular line (e.g., there’s double trouble at the Hubble lab).

Example: “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep” by Robert Frost

Robert Frost’s poem follows a simple ABAB rhyme scheme (italics and bold text added for emphasis).

The people along the sand

All turn and look one way .

They turn their back on the land .

They look at the sea all day .

Of course, a collection of rhymes does not a poem make. While some poems don’t use any rhyme at all, almost every piece of verse has a keen sense of rhythm.

Meter is the basic structure of a line of poetry, whereby stressed and unstressed syllables are used in a predetermined way to create rhythm. In a sense, it’s the heartbeat of a poem.

How is meter created?

When considering a poem’s rhythm, you can break a line of poetry into multiple “feet.” These are individual units within a line that have a specific number of syllables with specific emphasis placed on those syllables.

Metrical feet are usually only two or three syllables long. One of the most common kinds of feet in English is an iamb , which consists of two syllables: one stressed and one unstressed. For example, you would always stress the first syllable of the word “poem” but never the second. (Only a maniac would pronounce it “ po-EM ” instead of “ PO-em .”)

Each line has a set number of feet. For example, in iambic pentameter, which we often see in Shakespeare’s works, there are five iambs per line — this gives us a total of ten syllables per line (e.g., “ A gainst my love shall be as I am now ”).

A chart laying out the different types of metrical feet

There are many different types of feet and meters that you can mix and match to create rhythm. Some regularly used ones include iambic pentameter, trochaic octameter, and anapestic tetrameter. Below, you'll find examples of the most common types of poetic feet.

Example: “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Who better to demonstrate the uses of meter than Shakespeare himself? His sonnets are arguably the popular examples of iambic pentameter in the English language.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Notice how the number of syllables in each line remains consistent, creating a regular beat that propels the sonnet forward. You might also detect that the flow of the words builds up in the first line, then falls in the second line — a pattern that repeats throughout the piece, creating a sense of ebb and flow. That’s iambic pentameter in action.

In Shakespeare’s plays, he often switches between using iambic pentameter and a more prosaic style. In a very similar way, not all forms of poetry require a standard use of meter.

3. Lineation

Also known as layout, lineation is about how words and sentences are physically arranged on the page. While poetry is often best enjoyed when spoken aloud, it can also be a visual medium — and lineation is a large part of that. How a poet decides to break up a sentence on the page can create pauses that alter its mood, meaning, or rhythm.

With certain forms like concrete poetry, poets may take full advantage of this visual aspect and arrange the lines in such a way that they form an image on the page.

Example: “Crepuscule” by E.E. Cummings

A reddish crescent moon against a black night sky

E.E. Cummings was well-known for experimenting with different elements of poetry, including lineation. In this piece from 1917, he conjured up an image of twilight that jars the reader with its unusual line breaks.

I will wade out

till my thighs are steeped in burn-

ing flowers

I will take the sun in my mouth

and leap into the ripe air

Alive

with closed eyes

to dash against darkness

in the sleeping curves of my

Shall enter fingers of smooth mastery

with chasteness of sea-girls

Will I complete the mystery

of my flesh

I will rise

After a thousand years

And set my teeth in the silver of the moon

Here, Cummings breaks up the verses and arranges them on the page so that certain words and phrases stand out, like “alive.” The pauses these breaks create add a specific rhythm that would be difficult to achieve with regular enjambment.

Pulling back for a second, let’s take a wider look at poetry in general and talk about form. Form is the actual structure of a poem and consists of three parts: rhyme scheme, meter, and lineation.

As previously mentioned, rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes while meter is about the use of stressed and unstressed syllables. Meanwhile, lineation refers to the way line breaks and stanzas are arranged — how many lines there are per stanza, for example. Taken together, the variations of these three elements lead to many types of poetry forms , from odes and ballads to villanelles and limericks.

Each form of poetry has its own specific lineation, rhyme scheme, and meter as part of its structure. A sonnet wouldn’t be a sonnet if it wasn’t written in iambic pentameter, nor would a haiku be a haiku if it didn’t follow the 5-7-5 syllable structure. Form makes a poem recognizable, and poets can use rhythms to elicit a particular emotion or reaction from their readers. Certain structures also lend themselves well to particular topics — the ode and the elegy, for example, praise and eulogize their subjects, respectively.

While all the rules imposed by poetic forms might make poetry seem restrictive, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Many modern poets write in free verse, constructing their own meters and rhyme schemes. Many don’t rhyme at all, relying purely on meter and lineation. Once you know what the rules are, you can break them to make something entirely new.

Example: “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats

Based on his observations of ancient artifacts he saw at the British Museum, John Keats wrote this poem, dispensing with the odes made popular by Horace and Pindar in favor of a form he developed himself. Keats starts describing a particular Grecian urn with a quatrain (four lines with an ABAB rhyme scheme) that leads to a sestet (six lines with a CDECDE rhyme scheme). Each line of Keats’ poem is rendered in iambic pentameter. The following is the poem’s first stanza:

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape

Of deities or mortals, or of both,

In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

While form is a foundational part of poetry, don’t let it be a constraint. Like Keats, you don’t have to stick to tradition and can always make up your own form to suit your needs. If you find certain forms too restrictive or can’t get your rhyme scheme to work, always feel free to experiment.

Now that we have some of the basics down, let's look at some other elements poets take into consideration when creating new works.

5. Point of View

Much like in prose, poems are also told from a specific point of view . In other words, who is the speaker of the poem? Is it the poet themselves, a character, or an omniscient narrator? Is the poem written in first, second, or third person?

Who tells the story is just as important as how it's told. No two people have the same outlook, so a poem’s point of view will affect its overall meaning. If an old woman and a young boy examined the same event, emotion, or theme, they would likely come to a different conclusion.

Example: “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Shelley uses an interesting framing device for this poem, where the bulk is told from the viewpoint of a traveler the narrator once met.

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Rather than telling us about the statue himself, Shelley writes about a story a traveler once told him — or, more likely, a fictional narrator. This story within a story further removes us from this “King of Kings,” reminding us that even the greatest deeds eventually become half-forgotten tales. And this, of course, is the central theme of the poem.

Speaking of themes, you can’t have a poem without one! Whether you’re writing about what you had for breakfast or the love of your life, poetry thrives on deeper meaning. In other words, a poem’s theme is the message it’s trying to get across.

Poetry can be about anything: love, death, war, aging, growing up, nature, justice, and so much more. Any possible human experience you can think of has probably been written about in poetic form — even if that experience is just one’s love for breakfast food.

Example: “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

Not all poems state their meaning so obviously, but this one by Emily Dickinson states its theme in its opening line. Many poets and scholars consider it to be a powerful poem about life due to how Dickinson describes hope in it.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

Dickinson uses an extended metaphor — that of hope as a feather — to underscore her theme. As the poem progresses, we see the many different faces of hope. By the end, we can imagine hope as a creature that is both delicate and robust, confident and constantly besieged. It’s an incredible metaphor that’s hard to shake once you’ve encountered it — and speaking of metaphors….

7. Metaphor

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which two objects or ideas are compared without using “like” or “as” — and relating them directly to each other instead. For example, “hope is a thing with feathers” as opposed to “hope is like a thing with feathers.”

This poetic Swiss Army Knife can be found in just about every corner of the poetry world and can serve many purposes. A good metaphor shows (not tells) an idea without having to explicitly spell it out — plus, it creates imagery and action in the reader’s mind, adding to the mood or atmosphere of a piece. It's also efficient: you could spend pages describing isolation and sadness, or you could find the perfect metaphor like Carson McCullers did for the title of her debut novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Example: “Heart” by Dorianne Laux

A person holding a large neon red heart in front of herself

Speaking of hearts, poets such as Dorianne Laux have imagined the heart as a shapeshifter that morphs to encompass the many emotions a person can experience. Take a look at the following excerpt of her poem, “Heart”:

The heart shifts shape of its own accord—

from bird to ax, from pinwheel

to budded branch. It rolls over in the chest,

a brown bear groggy with winter, skips

like a child at the fair, stopping in the shade

of the fireworks booth, the fat lady's tent,

the corn dog stand. Or the heart

is an empty room where the ghosts of the dead

wait, paging through magazines, licking

their skinless thumbs. One gets up, walks

through a door into a maze of hallways.

Behind one door a roomful of orchids,

behind another, the smell of burned toast.

The rooms go on and on: sewing room

with its squeaky treadle, its bright needles,

room full of file cabinets and torn curtains,

room buzzing with a thousand black flies.

The dizzying amount of imagery in this poem underscores just how changeable a heart, and a person’s emotions, can be. The shift from joyous images of children and birds to the darkness of ghosts and flies allows the reader to experience different moods without ever being told outright what emotions to feel.

A well-used metaphor will often be repeated throughout a poem, and as we’ll soon discover, repetition is a technique that will pop up time and again in many different ways.

8. Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of several words (e.g., Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers ). Remember that this literary device is about the repetition of a specific sound, so watch out — just because two words might start with the same letter doesn't mean they’re alliterative.

A carefully crafted alliterative phrase can affect the beat or rhythm of a poem, slowing its pace down as the reader carefully navigates any tricky repeating consonants.

Example: “The Tyger” by William Blake

Blake’s oft-quoted poem opens with a verse brimming with alliteration (bold type added for emphasis):

T yger T yger, b urning b right,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could f rame thy f earful symmetry?

The repetition here evokes the feeling of a chant, setting the tone for the rest of the piece as the poet regards his subject with the awe and reverence usually reserved for the sublime.

9. Assonance

Remember how we said that rhymes can occur within a line as well as between them? Assonance is a close cousin of those rhymes, where vowel sounds are repeated within a line of poetry. Although it’s often called a rhyme, assonance is more similar to alliteration since it’s about the repetition of a specific sound. The words in a line must be located fairly close together for the repetition of vowels to count as assonance (e.g., The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain ).

Often, assonance is used to invoke a specific mood as specific kinds of vowel sounds can affect how we perceive a poem’s tone. For example, you’ll typically find long vowel sounds in more serious pieces as they slow down the poem, making it more somber.

Example: “The Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe opens the second stanza of “The Bells” with a few lines of assonance, using it to set the tone.

Hear the mellow wedding bells,

Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

Through the balmy air of night

How they ring out their delight!

From the molten-golden notes,

And all in tune,

What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats

On the moon!

Pay attention to the assonance here in the short “e” sounds in “mellow wedding bells.” This gives the beginning of the stanza a light, joyous tone, before shifting to something darker later on in the poem, where you’ll start to see the repetition of longer vowel sounds.

Tone, which is also known as the “mood” of a poem, refers to the poet's attitude toward their subject. Just like human emotions, poems can be happy, sad, regretful, nostalgic, angry, and so much more. How tone is expressed in a poem is varied and depends on the wants of the poet. Elements like rhyme, figurative language, meter, and syntax, just to name a few, can all be used to create a specific tone.

Example: “A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti

Through repetition and the inclusion of pastoral images, Christina Rossetti creates a joyful tone in this love poem .

My heart is like a singing bird

Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;

My heart is like an apple-tree

Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;

My heart is like a rainbow shell

That paddles in a halcyon sea;

My heart is gladder than all these

Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;

Hang it with vair and purple dyes;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

Is come, my love is come to me.

Images of rainbow shells, singing birds, and endless bounties underscore the narrator’s happiness and excitement now that their love has come to them. Specifically, the way nature is invoked — full of action, not just description — makes it feel like something new and wonderful is blossoming, which adds to the sense that the narrator is professing their love from a mountaintop (or somewhere less clichéd).

11. Enjambment

You’ve probably noticed that poetry doesn’t strictly follow the rules of grammar. Sometimes, a sentence will continue past the end of a line without any punctuation marks. This is known

as enjambment.

This changes how we would naturally read a line, allowing the poet to manipulate rhythm. Sometimes, enjambment can be used to create emphasis or drama — cutting off a thought in a strategic place. These pauses and moments of silence might otherwise be difficult to achieve with standard punctuation, so think of enjambment as the poet’s secret semicolon.

Example: “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks

This classic example of enjambment is short but impactful. Gwendolyn Brooks uses it both to create rhythm and emphasize her point.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

The enjambment after each “We” creates a pause that puts emphasis on the first words of the next line, suggesting that the narrator is hesitating or perhaps coming up with the next words on the fly. The pauses also create a syncopated rhythm, giving the piece an unusual musicality.

12. Consonance

Similar to assonance, there is also consonance. But instead of repeating vowel sounds, it’s all about the repetition of consonant sounds within a line of poetry. This can happen at the beginning, middle, or end of the words. Similar to assonance, something can be considered consonance if the repeated syllables are located fairly close to each other.

Much like the other devices we’ve examined here, consonance adds rhythm to a poem and, through the right collection of sounds, can also evoke a specific emotion.

Example: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

The consonance in this section of T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” lends a lyrical quality that matches and accentuates the poem’s whimsical mermaid imagery.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?

I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves

Combing the white hair of the waves blown back

When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea

By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown

Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Note that in the final stanza, the repetition of the aspirated “w” sounds in “white,” “waves,” “wind,” and “water” mimic the rise and fall of ocean waves. And there you have it! Some of the most common elements of poetry.

With the basics down, you can do anything, including writing your own poem . Which is exactly what we'll cover in the next part of this guide.

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Miscellaneous
The Power of Words: Poems About the Importance of Communication

Communication is the essence of human connection. Through words, we express our thoughts, emotions, and desires, forging connections with others that can transcend time and distance. Poetry, with its ability to convey profound messages in a condensed form, often explores the significance of communication in our lives. This article will delve into the beauty and power of poems that highlight the importance of communication in various facets of our existence.

Poem 1: "Words Unspoken"

Poem 2: "the art of listening", poem 3: "voices of change", poem 4: "the language of nature".

Words unspoken, like whispers in the wind, Silently yearning, their message pinned. Lost in the labyrinth of unspoken thoughts, Love, once vibrant, now left to rot.

In this poignant piece, the poet reflects on the consequences of unspoken words. The absence of communication has led to the decay of love, underscoring the importance of expressing our emotions and desires to maintain healthy relationships.

Listen to the world, its secrets untold, In silences and whispers, stories unfold. For communication is not just about speech, But the art of listening, within our reach.

This poem celebrates the often overlooked aspect of communication – listening. It reminds us that true understanding and connection come not only from speaking our minds but also from actively hearing and empathizing with others. By emphasizing the importance of listening, the poet encourages a more inclusive and compassionate approach to communication.

Voices united, a chorus of might, Demanding justice, dispelling the night. Through words that bind, they stand tall, For communication can topple walls.

In this empowering poem, the poet highlights the transformative power of communication in driving social change. By uniting voices and expressing collective desires, communication becomes a force capable of dismantling oppression and creating a more just society.

Nature speaks, a language divine, Through rustling leaves and rivers' whine. In silence, she communicates her grace, A reminder of our connection, in every place.

This poem explores communication beyond human interaction, reminding us of the beauty in nature's language. Through subtle cues and gentle whispers, nature communicates its magnificence, inviting us to listen and appreciate the interconnectedness of all living beings.

The poems discussed in this article serve as a testament to the profound impact of communication in our lives. They remind us that the power of words extends beyond simple conversation, shaping our relationships, igniting change, and fostering a deeper understanding of the world around us. Let these poems inspire you to embrace the importance of communication and use it as a tool for connection, growth, and empathy.

Famous Poems about Memories: Capturing the Essence of Time
Inspirational Poems about Courage

Entradas Relacionadas

Poems That Capture the Blissful Realm of Sleepiness

Famous Poems about Humility

Exploring the Depths of Nightmares: Short Poems that Haunt

Blaming Others: Exploring the Power of Poems

Poems for Staying Healthy: Nurturing Your Mind, Body, and Soul

Rhyming Poems About Natural Disasters: The Power of Words

Julian Girdham

Thinking, Writing, Reading, Teaching

On the Importance of Studying Poetry

Every now and then, to wind my pupils up a little, I ask them what they think is the most ‘important’ subject in school, and to justify their choice. Maths, History, Science, they say, and then, wearily, ‘I suppose we’re supposed to choose English, sir?’.

No, I retort, important though that is. Let’s be more precise: there is nothing more ‘important’ and indeed useful than…

Here, with only a soupçon of hyperbole, is why.

There is no more vital tool for us than language. Language is the foundation of all that we are as individuals, of human progress, of society itself, It is the foundation of all our relationships. Everything you do in life depends on using language at its more precise and most expressive. Therefore, in school, there is nothing more valuable than for you to learn how to use language as well as is possible, and only one subject does this. When you read and study poetry, you are looking at language at its most intense and deliberate. You are paying the closest attention to humanity’s greatest asset (and potentially its most damaging one).

As teenagers now, you are coming to adulthood in a world in which human attention is being relentlessly assaulted. You have fewer ‘places’ than anyone in history where you can concentrate and be with yourself. Largely through electronic media you are being overwhelmed by language from so many directions - from social media, manipulative politicians, and now artificial intelligence. Having the tools to consider what is true is so important for the life ahead of you, and being hyper-aware of how language works is the tool you need most.

Poetry also deals with the most significant things in all our lives - falling in love, grief, nature, belief, identity. What other school subject approaches such significance? You may have noticed that at hinge moments in life people tend to reach for poetry: see the impact of John Hannah’s reading of W.H.Auden’s ‘Funeral Blues’ in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral (the grieving character starts with moving simplicity: ‘This is what I want to say’). In public statements at vital moments politicians often quote poetry to give their utterances more gravitas but also because poetry really does speak to people like nothing else. In Ireland, this usually means Seamus Heaney and W.B. Yeats. On Good Friday 2020 Taoiseach Leo Varadkar addressed the nervous nation about the seriousness of the COVID-19 situation and said this, referring first to the Northern Ireland conflict:

During the worst year of those Troubles the poet Seamus Heaney spoke about what was happening and predicted that ‘if we winter this one out, we can summer anywhere’ ... In one of his best collections of poems, Heaney celebrated the human chain of help that can bring about an almost miraculous recovery. As Heaney wrote, we were ‘all the more together for having had to turn and walk away’.

And early in the pandemic people were comforted by Derek Mahon’s poem ‘Everything is Going to Be All Right’ ( here, Anthony Wilson in his wonderful collection Lifesaving Poems writes about it as a man who has had cancer, and who is facing other personal tragedies).

In the hurly-burly of the world we all need space, and spaces. When you are a teenager perhaps you need these all the more, as you try to come to terms with what you are and what you can be. Being outdoors is essential, away from screens: ideally schools provide you with opportunities to play sport and to spend time in the natural world. In any case, they can certainly provide such intellectual ‘space’ indoors. Studying a poem in class is an act of attention in a world of inattention (think of Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘The Fish’ which enacts such attention): just the words on a page, a teacher, a group of peers, attending together to the deepest things of life via the medium of the best words in the best order , as Samuel Taylor Coleridge defined poetry. You will be developing what Maryanne Wolf calls ‘ cognitive patience .’ And when you are old and grey and full of sleep , and nodding by the fire, lines of poetry you read at school will come back to you, long after you have forgotten everything else from your studies.

Two examples from the last lines of well-known poems by Heaney:

‘A four-foot box, a foot for every year’ (‘Mid-Term Break’)

‘Next thing he spoke and I nearly said I loved him.’ (‘A Call’).

Pure simplicity: the power of those plain words box and nearly . Attending to and relishing such power is the value of the best discussions in class, when you can discover what truthful language can do. In the words of Julia Bell in her book Radical Attention :

Sometimes the best way to glimpse meaning is to start small, to pay attention to detail, and give your deliberate attention to what is in front of you. To try and notice what happens. You make time. To choose to look.

And if you do choose to look, where should you look? Ask your English teacher, who is bound to have good books to recommend. The poets I have named so far all come from the school curriculum in Ireland. You might also now have the opportunity to study the work of the challenging and provocative American poet Tracy K. Smith, and I will mention as well the poetry of John Donne, Shakespeare’s contemporary, which is often studied in the Leaving Certificate. But what value could an English clergyman from an utterly different culture 400 years ago have for a teenager now? Well, last year in her thrilling Super-Infinite: the transformations of John Donne ( my book of 2022 ) Katherine Rundell showed us:

It was very deliberately that he wrote poems that take all your sustained focus to untangle them. The pleasure of reading a Donne poem is akin to that of cracking a locked safe, and he meant it to be so. He demanded hugely of us, and the demands of his poetry are a mirror to that demanding. The poetry stands to ask: why should everything be easy, rhythmical, pleasant? … The difficulty of Donne’s work had in it a stark moral imperative: pay attention. It was what Donne most demanded of his audience: attention. It was, he knew, the world’s most mercurial resource.

To turn to poets writing currently, as a sample I can recommend Victoria Kennefick’s Eat or We Both Starve , Molly Twomey’s Raised Among Vultures , Anthony Joseph’s Sonnets for Albert , Roger Robinson’s A Portable Paradise , James Harpur’s The Examined Life . What are these books about? Everything that matters - love, death, fathers, daughters, the body, being a woman, being a man, time, childhood, change. What you will experience will be the best-shaped thoughts of natural, rather than artificial, intelligence.

What could possibly be more important?

The argument for the most ‘important’ subject in school being … poetry.

Katherine Rundell’s Super-Infinite: the transformations of John Donne is a thrilling revisiting of poems that may be 400 years old, but are still fizzingly alive.

Julia Bell’s pocket-sized essay, Radical Attention examines the ways our attention has become a commodity and how an industry has developed out of our distractions.

The tagline for this site is Thinking, Writing, Reading, Teaching, and you may have spotted that Shakespeare features regularly. So it’s exciting to come across a book which combines all five elements.

Attention (3): the power of reading aloud

One of the deepest pleasures in life: being a child snuggled up to a parent, listening to a story. And also being a parent holding your child, telling that story (such as, for instance, Sam McBratney’s gentle series Guess How Much I Love You ). It is simply The ineffable magic in the mingling of a voice, a narrative, loving attention, and physical closeness.

Attention (2): Maryanne Wolf and cognitive patience

Reader, Come Home: the reading brain in a digital world (2018) is an elegant and insightful analysis of how deep reading is under threat, and of how this particular form of attention is being eroded by the digital universe in which we now live. For an English teacher, the book is essential reading. For me, it is one of the most important books of our recent years.

This is the preface to a series of short essays about ‘Attention’ in our world, including our schools. To start off: a still life of asparagus spears, by the artist Adriaen Coorte, from 1697.

What Poetry Teaches Us About the Power of Persuasion

Logic and grammar are important. But for students to truly own the English language, they need to read and write poems.

A few years ago, I was working for a science teacher professional development program. My job was to go into schools and watch how high school science teachers were integrating the program's curriculum and content into their lessons. Not many people knew that I was a poet, not a science teacher. In fact, everyone around me asked me science questions. Like "What is the normal sugar level for someone with diabetes?" Or "Why do metals behave differently at different size scales?" These were not questions I could answer easily, but I did my best. I hid my poet self relatively well.

I didn't expect to find any poets there, but I did.

It first started when one student in one of the underperforming schools (a school with national test scores in the bottom 25 percent in its state) gave me a CD he'd recorded of himself reading his poems. I said thanks and asked him about it. He told me he was aspiring to be a hip hop star. I told him I loved hip hop, so he invited me to one of his performances. When I took the CD home and listened to it, I heard a stark and powerful poetry. His eloquence surprised me a bit, because the student never talked in class and was always late. It would have been hard to know he had this much language at his disposal, because he didn't use it in class.

All students can write, if we let them. The key, I think, is poetry.

As a poet myself, I have a love/hate relationship with schools. For the most part, schools have been a place for me to learn and grow. They've given me the chance to find readers of poetry and to connect with the poets of the past. I have found almost all my poetic brethren (dead poets who speak to me through their work) within a classroom setting.

However, because I am a poet, I am always searching for ways to change language. Schools are often a place for a certain sort of rigid language instruction, which can make them hostile environments for poets. Grammar and persuasive argument are essential skills for any student. But if someone is telling you that there is a set and finite way to construct a sentence -- and you're a poet -- you will naturally get a little annoyed. And you will be justified in feeling this way, because it's simply not true.

Nothing is more important to the future of humanity than the freedom to make new ideas. I would argue that the act of writing poetry is important for the creation of those new ideas. In her essay "Poetry and Grammar," the great American poet Gertrude Stein wrote:

That is the reason that slang exists it is to change the nouns which have been names for so long. I say again. Verbs and adverbs and articles and conjunctions and prepositions are lively because they all do something and as long as anything does something it keeps alive.

Supporting poetry in our schools is essential because it engages students' thinking and it keeps language alive. Over the past 14 years, I have worked as a teacher in a variety of educational settings. I have found that all students can write. And one of the surest ways to awaken their love for language is poetry.

The 60 students waiting patiently to get into one creative writing section at an elite private college where I taught loved writing poetry. The 2 year olds I used to teach over a decade ago in a wealthy day care loved poetry, too. Even in their pre-writing state, they recited poem after poem for me, and I wrote each one down for them to then illustrate. At an underserved elementary school, I read Merwin, Sexton, and Whitman poems out loud, and the 5 year olds in in the class loved to bounce around the rhythms and the sing-songy rhymes, along with the slanted ones. It was the music of poetry that they loved. The music of poetry is a delight for the mind.

Every outstanding essay involves meticulous word choice and sheer aesthetic prowess. Poetry teaches students how to do this.

A lot of people argue that poetry is "difficult" or that it has no real value for children's future. That's just not true. If you think poetry isn't important to your students, you are not listening to them. You are not noticing the headphones in their ears, blasting poetry to soothe their walk to class. You are not thinking of them in their rooms at night, writing down their experiences. It may be that you are defining poetry too dogmatically.

In a book entitled The Having of Wonderful Ideas: And Other Essays on Teaching and Learning , Eleanor Duckworth explains that the most important thing a teacher can do is to give his or her students the space to have a new idea and feel good about having it. She argues that this is the key to intellectual development. I would argue that there's no more natural space for a teacher to value a student's idea than in a poem. Because in a poem, a student not only has the freedom to express a new idea, but to do so in novel language he or she has just created. More so than any other type of writing, a poem takes into account the indispensable dimension of well-chosen words.

Learning about poetry (how to read it, write it, and appreciate it) is an integral part of teaching students about all forms of writing. A poem is not just a place to present a student's grammatical knowledge (in fact, it is often the space to subvert it!). Poetry, more than any other form of writing, trains students to take into account the style of language. This close looking and listening is crucial to writing well in any manner. It would be hard to say that any outstanding essay does not involve meticulous word choice or the ability to persuade a reader through sheer aesthetic prowess. Poetry teaches students how to do this.

In the "Importance of Poetry in Children's Learning," Michael Benton argues that poetry is key to children's learning about language because poems read differently than other forms of writing. Even though contemporary poetry rarely adheres to traditional poetic forms, all poetry (contemporary or otherwise) pays close attention to the sound and form of words. When students develop a deep familiarity with the craft of language in a poetry class, they learn how to express their new ideas in sentences and phrases full of their own style.

There are practical ways to do this in a 2012 classroom. When I teach classes on the argumentative essay, one of my favorite books to bring in is Jay-Z's Decoded . It is a gift for teachers, because Jay-Z provides very clear, close readings of his own poems. (This is something few poets throughout history have provided.) I have had many successful lessons in which I have played his song "99 Problems" for students and then showed them how he breaks down its construction in Decoded . Once students can see that Jay-Z wrote each line with such purpose, crafted many complex ideas into powerful verse, it paves the way for meaningful discussions about how to create any argument in language. Students can see that their ideas are important, and that style helps their impact come through.

Kenneth Koch, the author of Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry , was a revolutionary educator who brought poetry to thousands of public school children in New York City. He famously argued that the best poetry refuses to "condescend" to the minds of children. If we care about how well our students write, we should not condescend and limit their exploration of language, either. We should make sure students have the space in schools to learn that they can write, and develop a lifelong passion for words. Poetry is the way to do this.

Getting Your ‘Wordsworth’: Poetry in Public Speaking

Anushka kala.

Speech Writing

Expression is the heart and soul of good oration. To express is to impress, and thus, by using the powerful tool of poetry in public speaking, one will impactfully resonate with their audience.

To be able to inculcate poetry in one’s speech is both, an art, and a skill. Its effective use can elegantly sway public opinion by gently yet emphatically conveying one’s point across.

The benefits of using verse in speech are innumerable. These include the following:

The Power of Poetry in Public Speaking:

1. breaking the monotony:.

The fact of the matter is that the human mind is a wanderer—ever so restless. One can never get it to focus on a particular subject for a long period of time unless there’s a break in this monotony.

Poetry adds a fresher element to your speech by breaking the pre-existing flow and resulting in the addition of a newer dimension . This automatically captures and sustains your audience’s attention

2. Familiar-Unfamiliar:

Familiar poetic references create an impact

The use of familiar poetic references , kindles familiar memories and associations thereby strengthening the connection between the spoken word and its listeners.

Whether it’s through schooling or reading for pleasure, we’ve all come across, gotten acquainted with, and perhaps even quoted some of history’s greatest poems.

By adding a familiar poem–be it a simple, ‘roses are red, violets are blue’ or an iconic ‘miles to go before I sleep’, a listener can delve into the subject matter even further and understand what the speaker is trying to convey, better.

3. Leaving Your Mark:

how poetry leaves an impact on listeners

Poetry forms an effective arsenal in one’s presentation. It adds clarity, emphasis, and depth to the spoken word, thus creating an impactful performance.

Additionally, the use of such poetic devices results in the establishment of a strong influence that directly settles in the minds of the listeners.

Stay with us and scroll down below for our detailed explanation of the types and usage of poetic devices .

4. A ‘Fun’tastic Element:

Poetry can add an air of literary elegance through wit and tongue-in-cheek humour. This also adds a lot of class to one’s presentation.

Wit involves intelligently recognising, perceiving, and conveying ideas that result in hilarity and pleasure.

These definitely add to the element of surprise and are constantly used as methods to retain one’s audience’s attention.

Shakespeare was known to have loved his jokes. Take his sonnets, for instance, which are replete with dollops of wit, humour, and sarcasm:

You can read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 135 to experience this.

5. Fill in the Gaps:

“Even in a few lines, a poem outlines a perceptual world. A reader or listener fills in the gaps, adding another dimension.” Christine Stewart

In 2015, author, poet, essayist, and teacher, Christine Stewart delivered a stunning and resonating TED Talk which would definitely send a shiver down your spine.

She highlights how poetry can actually be used to create a new perspective as well as use the poem as a ‘springboard for reflection.’

Here both, the listener, and the speaker delve into analysing and evaluating various perspectives to get a complete understanding of the subject.

Related Article: How to Harness the Power of Pausing in Public Speaking

6. Succinct Presentation:

poetry helps you present information in a refined manner

Poetry helps you in being concise.

It helps one ‘package’ one’s thoughts and material in a crisp, refined, and composed manner without it being too heavy for the listeners.

Thus, with poetry, you not only establish a deep connection with the imagination of your listeners but also present it succinctly, leaving a greater impact.

Though one may feel ‘poetically challenged’ as most of us aren’t erudite scholars, utilizing the power of verse isn’t as difficult when one tries to do parallels between one’s honest intent of speech and similar poetically expressed thoughts in published work.

Here are a few pointers to help get the hang of this technique:

Procuring Poetic Prowess in Your Presentation:

1. reading between the lines:.

Thoroughly and accurately interpreting poetry is often considered to be a difficult task due to the very structure and nature of poetry.

This is because poetry involves the compression of heaps of information, depicted in just a few words, replete with metaphors and other literary devices , thus requiring a lot of attention to detail and prerequisite knowledge with respect to structure, form, devices, meters, rhythm, and language.

Before we recite the lines of any poem in our speech, we must understand the crux of the matter. What you see is not what you get, especially when it comes to poetry.

Every word so mentioned has to be broken down and analysed before incorporating it into your speech.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice! :

practice is the key to effective delivery of poetry in your speech

No skill in the world could ever be mastered without practice. The key to its effective and efficient delivery is that of confidence.

This confidence comes from practicing these lines several times, out loud. It is important to completely understand the musicality of the flow of the poem. This understanding builds with practice.

Understanding your material and delivering it correctly and confidently is what makes you an effective public speaker.

3. Read & Repeat :

memorising your poem is necessary for effective delivery while public speaking

The conveyance of a message in poetry relies heavily on the sequence of the words so chosen.

Thus, a crucial aspect to keep in mind is being extremely well-versed with the poem you recite. Every character needs to be memorized and retained–including the commas, periods, and pauses. These are equally important.

It is also essential to memorize the rhythm and flow of the poem. This needs to be carefully understood and practiced. Thus, attention needs to be paid to all these aspects.

4. Go With Your Flow:

rhythm, measures and meters in poetry are important

In poetry, the concept of rhythm, measures, and meters are highly prominent, as compared to say, a normal conversation.

This is because the emphasis is to be given to certain words to bring out the true emotions and expressions that one is trying to convey.

This is where stressed and unstressed syllables come to play. They form the backbone of the establishment of the poetic rhythm.

To further understand this concept, do check this out:

5. Modulate to Innovate:

voice modulation is a technique that needs to be honed for effective public speaking.

Masterful public speakers are consummate actors. They are astute in controlling and harmonizing every quiver in their voice with their facial emotions.

Delivery of poetry is incomplete without modulation of your voice. Every tone and sound is to be planned and orchestrated, which comes from an in-depth understanding of the topic.

It is this technique that immediately attracts and captures the attention of the audience towards you and thus, needs to be honed well.

The tone of the poem depicts and reflects the attitude of the poet. Thus, this ultimately becomes make or break when it comes to determining if your content will be effective and impactful enough for your listeners.

Related Article: All You Need to Know About Voice Modulation & Tonality for Public Speaking

Understanding Poetry: Poetic Devices to Enhance Your Next Speech

Poetic devices form the core of any poem. They are tools that are employed in a poem to add meaning, emotion, structure, and rhythm to it.

These are the most crucial ingredients required for the recipe of a successful poem and add heaps of texture and flavour to it.

The more we study and identify poems, the better we’ll be able to understand and incorporate these poetic devices.

The usage of poetic devices lets you engage with your listeners, and ensure that they remain engrossed throughout your speech.

Examples of Poetic Devices used in Pop Culture:

Films, TV shows, and other categories of pop culture heavily rely on the employment of poetic devices to captivate their audiences.

For example, the rhetoric device of anadiplosis (repetition of the last word of a sentence as the beginning of the following one) is evident when legendary Jedi Master, Yoda (in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace [Episode I] , 1999) says:

The movie, 'Star Wars' features various poetic devices in its script

“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

You can also notice the use of alliteration ( repetition of same-sounding letters or words ) in ‘V For Vendetta’ (2005), one of my favourite movies of all time, written by The Wachowskis.

This celebrated monologue was delivered by the title character, V, as his introduction, portrayed by British actor, Hugo Weaving.

The movie, 'V for Vendetta', uses the poetic device of alliteration in its legendary monologue

“Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi now vacant, vanished.

However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

The only verdict is vengeance—a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.”

What adds to the legacy of this movie is its unequalled writing, jam-packed with the use of poetic devices. This is how one employs these devices to put a spell on their audience.

Examples of Poetic Devices used in Speeches:

Asyndeton deliberately excludes the usage of conjunctions in a sentence to emphasise on its meaning.

“…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln

Tricolon represents three words, clauses, or phrases placed adjacently.

“Be sincere, be brief, be seated.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt’s advice for public speakers

A metaphor gives one the liberty to describe an object/ subject with another unrelated one; where no relationship exists between the two.

The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans. – John F. Kennedy

Here’s a list of some more commonly used poetic devices with examples:

1. Assonance :

This poetic device involves the continuous occurrence of the vowel sound to create an internal rhyme.

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55 :

Of princes , shall outlive this powerful rhyme;

But you shall shine more bright in these contents…

2. Imagery:

Involves a detailed description of subjects which paints a picture through our imagination.

William Wordsworth’s Daffodils {visual imagery}

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Rain in Summer {olfactory imagery}

They silently inhale

the clover-scented gale,

And the vapors that arise

From the well-watered and smoking soil

3. Onomatopoeia:

Onomatopoeia involves the structural derivation of a word from the sound it describes.

For example, the words Boom, Meow, Oink– all phonetically resemble the sound they describe.

Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Bells

Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

What a tale their terror tells

Of Despair!

How they clang, and clash, and roar!

What a horror they outpour

On the bosom of the palpitating air!

Yet the ear it fully knows,

By the twanging,

And the clanging,

How the danger ebbs and flows;

Yet the ear distinctly tells,

In the jangling,

And the wrangling.

4. Refrain:

Refrain refers to a single or a group of lines that are repeated throughout the course of the poem.

Octavio Paz’s Wind, Water, Stone

Water hollows stone,

wind scatters water,

stone stops the wind.

Water, wind, stone.

Wind carves stone,

stone’s a cup of water,

water escapes and is wind.

Stone, wind, water.

5. Personification:

This poetic device adds character and life (human form) to otherwise, inanimate objects.

Sylvia Plath’s Mirror

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.

Whatever I see I swallow immediately

Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.

I am not cruel, only truthful ‚

The eye of a little god, four-cornered.

Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.

It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long

I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.

Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Thus, poetic devices can be used to add character to your next speech. Be mindful of using them appropriately in the correct context, so as to not confuse your listeners.

Most importantly, study and identify the poetic devices in your material so that you can coherently convey its meaning. These techniques will unquestionably charm your audience.

Introducing Poetry in Your Speech: Set the Tone, but Don’t Make it Known

The introduction is pivotal, especially in this scenario. Consider it as a make-or-break. The success of your poem depends on how grand its build-up has been.

An ideal introduction lays the background of the poem, without revealing its main message, which should be done so, gradually by the speaker.

Take it from us, this may seem simple in theory but is actually quite a task when actually executing. But, don’t worry, we have your back.

A good introduction comes from an excellent interpretation of the poem you’re introducing. Think of it as a secret you are to keep, which you slowly reveal as you get more acquainted and connected with your audience.

It’s a journey you’re taking them on, and a good introduction just ensures the fastening of their seatbelts; not the revelation of their destination.

Your approach depends on the subject and your audience. There’s no universal, sure-shot method of introducing your speech in a foolproof manner.

In fact, many speakers delve directly into their poems without an introduction and so, in some cases, no introductions serve as an introduction in itself .

Or, you can just stick to keeping it simple and unraveling complexities bit-by-bit, through your poem.

Your introduction isn’t the interpretation, but an invitation to experience innovation .

Keep this in mind, and you’re gold. It doesn’t matter what your approach is.

Related Article: 5 Ways to End Your Speech With Maximum Impact

Opening Poetry Lines That Will Help You Make A Lasting Impression

Related Article: 15 Powerful Speech Opening Lines & How to Create Your Own

creating an impression on the audience with good opening lines in a speech

We’ve heard this over and over again– The first impression is the last impression ; therefore, having a great opening line is an absolute necessity.

And what better way to do so, by starting strong and quoting lines from some of history’s greatest poems.

Here are some of my personal favourites:

1. Allen Ginsberg’s Howl:

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix”

2. Robert Herrick’s To The Virgins, to Make Most of Tim e:

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”

3. John Keats’ Endymion:

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”

4. Emily Dickinson’s Because I Could Not Stop For Death:

“Because I could not stop for Death—

He kindly stopped for me—”

5. T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock:

“Let us go, then, you and I

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table.”

6. Alfred Noble’s The Highwayman :

“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone

Silence the pianos, and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.”

To help you understand the power of poetry even clearer, here are some of the greatest speeches in the world, delivered by revolutionaries who are remembered and celebrated majorly because of the resonating impact of their speeches.

Learning from the Greats:

1. dr. martin luther king jr..

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech used poetic devices that added to its legacy.

Perhaps, one of the greatest and most legendary speeches of all time, “I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. is a shining example of how poetry can bring about such an impact.

Delivered on the 28th of August, 1963, to end racism in the United States of America, “I Have A Dream” is in all probability, one of the most quoted speeches in the world, even today.

Take a look:

The most striking feature of this speech is the use of the poetic device of anaphora, which is the repetition of the same line at the beginning of a sentence.

The first 8 lines of this speech begin with “I Have A Dream”

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”

Related: Why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Speech Was Pure Poetry

2. Winston Churchill:

Winston Churchill's 'We Shall Fight on the Beaches' used poetic devices to create an impact.

“We Shall Fight On The Beaches” by Britain’s then Prime Minister, Winston Churchill was delivered to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 4 June 1940.

Churchill too uses the poetic device of anaphora to create an impact. This is visible here:

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,

We shall fight on the seas and oceans,

We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our

Island whatever the cost may be,

We shall fight on the beaches,

We shall fight on the landing grounds,

We shall fight in the fields and in the streets,

We shall fight in the hills;

We shall never surrender.

Notice the beginning of every line with “We Shall”

It is a known fact that Churchill was considered as a “poet in the guise of a politician” , which is precisely why his speeches serve as an ideal example of how poetry can add a different dimension to public speaking.

Related Article: Churchill’s Poetic Speeches of World War II

3. John F. Kennedy:

John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech used poetic devices to create a lasting impact.

On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was elected as the 35th President of the United States of America, where he delivered his iconic inaugural speech, often quoted, even today.

The rhetorical device of chiasmus being used is the most striking feature when it comes to decoding this speech.

A chiasmus divides a sentence into two parts where the second phrase is a mirror image of the first one, meaning wise.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” is a prime example of this device. Both phrases mean the same but are placed in a manner, to put further emphasise on its meaning.

Final Thoughts

The beauty of poetry is something we’ve all witnessed, experienced, and felt, at least once in our lives. The unrestricted nature of poetry is what attracts us most to it. Thus, incorporating it in our speeches transforms our material into a different ball game altogether.

It takes practice, it takes effort. We must keep in mind that in a bid to win over one’s audience by using poetry, one may also end up losing them if this skill isn’t incorporated precisely and masterfully.

In an attempt to sound more credible and well-read, one may resort to using ‘fancy’ words which may be beyond the understanding of the general public and/or poorly interpreted lines, which may result in one’s downfall–thus, being a double-edged sword.

Ultimately, when used correctly, adding poetry to your material will enhance it and create a wonderful impression. It gives you your words’ worth.

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Iowa Reading Research Center

The Benefits of Poetry Reading

“Poetry begins in trivial metaphors, pretty metaphors, ‘grace’ metaphors, and goes on to the profoundest thinking that we have” (Frost, p. 77-78). This is a quote from Robert Frost’s “Education by Poetry” speech that he gave in 1930, (later published in the Amherst Graduates Quarterly the following year). The poet staunchly believed that reading and writing poetry foster thought and imagination. Even though Frost addressed this notion over ninety years ago, this idea still holds true as readers of poetry continue to analyze literary devices and word choice to uncover the intent of a poem. As poetry evolves with the times through its messages and language structure, students today can approach poetry to explore and further their own understanding of society and themselves. This exploration is seen in novels written in verse —a collection of poems that progress together as an entire story.

In novels written in verse, an entire story arc is conveyed through a collection of poems. Analogous to chapters in a novel, the poems range in length in accordance with the pacing of the story. The integration of the young adult narrative into poetry creates reads that are fast-paced with deliberate and creative word choice, portraying emotional growth that is relatable to students. Books written in verse can be added to the classroom library for independent reading or included in a reading unit. For recommendations, check out our Novels in Verse Reading List (Grades 5-12) .

Focus on Language

“A critical value of poetry in reading instruction is that it focuses the reader’s attention on the language used” (Nichols et al., 2018, p. 391). When we focus on language as we read, we are paying attention to things like word choice, sentence structure, and literary devices. The role of language is one of the factors that differentiates poetry from prose. Language in poetry is part of the story. It is on equal grounds with the story itself. Poetry reading allows students to interact with rhyme schemes, language structures, and word choice. (It is important to note that poetry doesn’t have to rhyme; free verse, in fact, is a genre of poetry that does not have any rhyme scheme or meter. It can provide space for students to explore a range of poetic writing styles). Due to the artistic freedom that poetry reflects, the language structures are unique to each collection, requiring readers to reflect on the language structure and word choice used. Often, the word count is constrained by meter or rhythm, prompting the poet to choose their language very carefully while still maintaining the essence of the poem’s intended message. These carefully chosen words depict very specific emotions and scenes.

Support Student Motivation and Interest

Reading depends largely on motivation, which relies on one’s dedication to furthering their learning. As Cambria and Guthrie (2010) describe, “The reason to read in this case is the students’ belief that reading is important” (p. 18). One way to promote motivation and dedication to reading is to provide students with a range of books to choose from that cover topics that are relevant to students and connect to their interests (Kamil, 2008). Additionally, students may be motivated to read novels in verse because of their fast pace and relatable YA voice. The unique relatability of novels in verse is an application of Rudine Sims Bishop’s assertion that books can be “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors.” When books are windows, they let readers look into a world that is different from their own, like opening a window and looking out. When books serve as mirrors, they are reflective of the readers themselves—the reader feels that the story is relatable. Lastly, books can be seen as sliding glass doors when they immerse the reader in the world the author has created. Being able to see themselves or empathize with a character in a novel can promote the dedication that a student needs. Finding the genre or writing style that interests students may transform reading into an intrinsic dedication — a desire to read for enjoyment beyond the assigned readings in the classroom.

Discuss Vocabulary

The core elements of reading can be reinforced through poetry instruction as well. One of the core elements of reading identified by the National Reading Panel is vocabulary. It is also one of the strands of the Scarborough Rope model of reading that contributes to language comprehension. Students can develop their vocabulary skills through poetry analysis. Lessons with a focus on precise language, synonyms, and antonyms can provide students with clarity on the effectiveness of vocabulary. A lesson on word choice outlines when a word should or should not be used and how context can shift the meaning of the word.

For example, for a secondary classroom that is reading The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, the teacher can lead a lesson on word choice and how the words in the poem work individually and together to describe Xiomara’s perspective and the emotional journey that she experiences throughout the novel. The stanza when Xiomara finds her voice to speak against her mother can be analyzed at the word level:

“Burn it! Burn it.

This is where the poems are,” I say,

thumping a fist against my chest.

“Will you burn me, too?” (Acevedo, 2018, p. 308)

From this excerpt, the class can hold a discussion as to how the word “burn” holds the betrayal and independence that Xiomara experiences—the empowerment the teen gets from finally speaking her mind. This heart-wrenching scene draws upon literal and literary meanings in order to showcase its message; her mother literally burned her poems, which are Xiomara’s soul laid bare, so Xiomara feels as though she is figuratively being burned alive. Explicit discussion of literal and figurative meanings will develop students’ comprehension of the selection of poems and/or excerpts being covered.

Consider Literary Devices and Metaphors

Another core component of reading is verbal reasoning, which is the ability to understand figurative language like metaphors, similes, and idioms. Teachers can support students’ development of verbal reasoning by pairing poetry instruction with close reading. Due to the concise narrative that poetry holds, students can zero in on specific stanzas to consider literary devices and metaphors. For example, for a class reading A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman, students will be diving into a novel that revolves around injury recovery and dance. Through the imagery and emotional awakening for the characters and the readers, students can be taught to read the poems with a focus on unpacking the metaphors on the page. For example, when Veda suddenly realizes the consequences of her injury, this metaphor strikes a chord: “ My heart feels like it’s at absolute zero”(Venkatraman, 2014). In science, absolute zero is the lowest temperature possible, meaning that particles stop moving. In the literary sense, it could be interpreted to mean that the anger and fear knocked out her optimism and made her numb to the possibility of joy–immobilizing her completely. By unpacking literary devices, readers can gain a broader understanding of the power of word choice. As Nichols et al. (2018) note, “Poetry lends itself to critical thinking, analysis, and the study of literary techniques and devices”(p. 393). Similarly, the Iowa Core Literacy standards require students to “Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings”(RL.7.4). Participating in a close reading of a poetic text can broaden readers’ understandings of literal and underlying messages.

Given the benefits of teaching poetry, we have created a recommended list of novels in verse to share with students.

Novels in Verse Reading List (Grades 5-12)

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (grades 9-12)

Xiomara’s mother has a strict outlook on how she should behave and speak. Feeling silenced and misunderstood, Xiomara writes poems about everything she wishes she could say but knows that she can’t, from her love of writing poetry to faith, friendships, and boys.

House Arrest by K.A. Holt (grades 5-8)

Timothy is a twelve-year-old boy who gets caught stealing a wallet and is put under a year of house arrest. The court orders him to write a journal. Through his journal entries, readers discover that Timothy decided to steal because he was desperate to help his family and his sick baby brother. During this year, Timothy is under constant pressure and just wants his mom to be happy and his baby brother to be healthy.

Lifeboat 12 by Susan Hood (grades 5-8)

Based on a true story, Ken is one of the many children who were supposed to be sent to safety from England to Canada during World War II. However, the ship he was traveling on gets torpedoed, and the children on lifeboat 12 are trying to make it to neutral territory.

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (grades 5-8)

Hà and her family immigrate from Vietnam to the United States during the 1970s. Hà faces challenges that she steadily overcomes: learning English, navigating the culture of the American South, and making friends.

The Magical Imperfect by Chris Baron (grades 5-7)

This book is a story about friendship, community, Filipino culture, Jewish heritage, and mental health. Etan works at a grocery store and is sent on deliveries to a house in the woods where Malia lives. Due to her severe eczema, Malia can’t be out in the sun and has been bullied for her skin condition. Etan and Malia become friends and try to help each other become more confident and pursue their passions even if not everyone is supportive.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (grades 7-12)

Camino lives in the Dominican. Yahaira lives in New York. Their lives suddenly intersect when their father passes away in a plane crash. The two girls discover that they are sisters, though each girl had been kept a secret by their father. Once the two meet, they find out more about who their father was and discover that maybe he wasn’t as perfect as they thought he was.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (grades 6-12)

This story is based on Woodson’s own life. She describes what it was like growing up in the 1960s in the South where Jim Crow laws were in place. She writes about her experiences moving from state to state and explains how moving impacted her through the different stages of her life.

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (grades 5-7)

Lonnie Collins Motions (nickname Locomotion) has been put in the foster system and separated from his younger sister. Full of anger, Lonnie acts out. A teacher introduces poetry as an outlet for his emotions, and it’s exactly what Lonnie needs.

A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman (grades 6-12)

Veda is a dance prodigy in India, and her entire life has revolved around it. When an accident leaves her with a prosthetic leg, Veda can’t accept a life without dance. She goes back to the basics and pursues dancing with all her might.

The beauty of poetry is that it doesn’t have to have a singular meaning. The reader doesn’t have to come to the same conclusion as the poet intended. The poet provides the story, the structure, and the vocabulary. It is up to the reader to take these components and find what the metaphors mean to them. The expansion of poetry into novels written in verse opens doors for readers to explore word choice and literary devices in a way that only poetry can provide. Through reading and discussing poetry, students can reflect on the value of language usage, as well as how it impacts their views on the world and themselves.

Supplemental Materials for Teachers

Acevedo, E. (2018). The poet X . HarperTeen.

Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6 (3). https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf

Cambria, J., & Guthrie, J. (2010). Motivating and engaging students in reading. The NERA Journal , 46 (1) . https://webcapp.ccsu.edu/u/faculty/TurnerJ/NERA-V46-N1-2010.pdf#page=22

Frost, Robert. (1931) Education by poetry: A meditative monologue. Amherst Graduates Quarterly, 78 (2), 75,85.

Kamil, M. L., Borman, G. D., Dole, J., Kral, C. C., Salinger, T., & Torgesen, J. (2008). Improving adolescent literacy: Effective classroom and intervention practices: A practice guide (NCEE 2008-4027). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc

Nichols, W. D., Rasinski, T. V., Rupley, W. H., Kellogg, R. A., & Paige, D. D. (2018). Why poetry for reading instruction? Because it works! International Literacy Association , 72 (3), 389-397. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1734

Venkatraman, P. (2014). A time to dance. Nancy Paulsen Books.

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All You Need Is a Book: Our Favorite Children’s Literature

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “he (or she) was just being poetic .” It’s a phrase you wouldn’t be surprised to hear after someone utters some flowery description of a sunrise or a snowstorm. It describes a use of language that is perhaps pretty but also empty, something meaninglessly ornate. It’s an unfortunate use of the word. Authentic poetic language is very different.

We will call “poetic language” that language which is most closely associated with poetry. It is also called “figurative language.” It is opposed to so-called “literal” language. Understood in the context of actual poetry, poetic language is not nice-sounding words that have no real meaning. Poetic language is the fullest possible language. Poets pack the absolute maximum of meaning (in every sense of the word) into every part of the poem. This does sometimes make poems hard to understand, and that may mislead a hasty reader to think there is nothing to understand. In other words, one of the reasons poetry sometimes seems empty is that it is so full.

It’s important to understand first that poems are not made entirely of what is properly called “poetic” language. Poems don’t use only figurative and never literal language. As we’ve said already: the language of poetry is not essentially different from the language of everyday life. That means two things: it means that everything we do when we use language outside of poems, we also do in poems. It also means that everything we do in poems, we also do in everyday language. All of the “devices” that we properly associate with poetic language are also used regularly in everyday language, spoken or written, and not just by people who have a vast or specialized education or a particular facility with language. “Poetic language” is used by everyone, including you and your three-year old brother. It’s not overstating the case to say that poetry is a part of language itself and that poems are merely the most concentrated expressions of language’s inherent poetry. Poets are more conscious of the poetry already in language and more deliberate in their use of it. Poems heighten or intensify certain ordinary ways of using language. We might say that poems put the emphasis on different aspects of language—including the language we call figurative. But they still don’t do anything that we don’t already do every day when we speak.

Yet poems don’t usually feel like everyday language. Everyday language is usually easy to understand. And poems often are not. Everyday language tends to say exactly what it means—or at least tries to. Poems don’t seem to do that. We come back again to a question we addressed in Chapter One: Why don’t poems just say what they mean? We began to answer this question when we said that poems are not merely trying to say something. They are also trying to do (or be) something. But that answer is incomplete. We did not explain how poems use language to do things. We will begin to answer that question here. We know that poems use sound (such as rhyme), and rhythm and lines. We’ll talk about these other things in later chapters. Here we will be thinking about how poems use figurative language to create meaning and experiences.

Literal and Figurative Language

As we said, so-called figurative language is usually opposed to what is called literal language. Literal language is language that says exactly and directly what it means; it is language without figures. Figurative language, then, as it is usually understood, is language that takes a kind of roundabout path to its meaning. It uses various devices to get you where it wants you to go. That might lead you to believe that figurative language is harder to understand than literal language, and that we should use literal language whenever possible. But that’s not quite true. In everyday usage, figurative language is usually used to help us understand what a literal statement cannot. Its most important job is to make difficult things easier to understand. It is also used this way in poetry.

For example, I might say to a child, “A country is like a school with a president instead of a principal.” Here I’m using the figure of speech known as analogy to bring a new concept to a listener.

Figurative language is also used to give more weight or authority to a statement. I’m using figurative language if I say, “According to the White House” instead of “According to the president.” This figure is known as metonymy, the substitution of one thing for something closely associated with it.

If I say, “That was the funniest thing in the whole universe,” or “Hitler wasn’t very nice to the Jews,” I’m using yet other kinds of figurative language and again getting more out of the words than a literal statement could. The first statement is an example of hyperbole (also called exaggeration). The second is the opposite, litotes (or understatement).

We use many kinds of figurative language every day because we want to do more than just state facts. We use this sort of language all the time, usually without knowing we are doing so. The good news is that you do understand figurative language; you understand it so naturally that you probably do not even notice that you are interpreting such figures as irony , metaphor , simile , hyperbole, litotes, personification, apostrophe, metonymy, or synecdoche . So the first problem is just learning to recognize and name things you are already unconsciously familiar with. The second is to understand how these figures are being used in particular poems. Poems are likely to use figurative language more often and in more nuanced ways than we use it in everyday language.

That’s the bad news. Poems don’t always use metaphor to make hard things easier to understand, for example. Poems may use metaphor to make seemingly-simple things no longer simple. Remember, poems want you not just to understand but to experience the world in new ways. But we are so accustomed to seeing things however we see them that the work of a poet is quite difficult. We resist without even knowing we are resisting. And we may often fail to see figurative language in a poem for what it is. And even the most experienced readers of poems argue sometimes about what counts as a metaphor or a symbol in a poem and about what a particular figure means. This is something to love about poetry. You get to enter and participate in an ongoing conversation. But to do that, you need to ground yourself in the figures. You need to be able to name and point to them.

You might wonder how it is that experienced readers of poems can argue about what counts as a particular figure in a particular poem. This is because the very ideas of “literal” and “figurative” are not as clear as we might like to think they are.

Again, according to the standard definitions, figurative language is language that states its meaning indirectly. It represents one thing by means of another thing. The “president” is called “The White House”; the ocean is called a “pond.” At the same time, literal language is language that states its meaning directly. The president is called the president, and the ocean is called the ocean.

But that already creates a problem. In one sense, all language is figurative. The distinction between “literal” and “figurative” language does not easily correspond to the facts. Unless the word “ocean” is something you could be tempted to swim on, we have to admit that the word “ocean” is something used to represent an object, and is therefore not literally literal. The word “ocean” is not the ocean. It stands for or represents the idea of the ocean. And representing one thing by another thing is, by definition, what figurative language does.

When we are talking about “literal” language we are merely separating off from all language that part which seems to be the most direct or transparent, which is to say the most commonly or habitually used representation of a given idea. (If I say, “What is that?” and point to the ocean, most people will say, “the ocean.” So we call that literal.)

(It doesn’t help matters that “literal” used in a figurative sense has now been included in the dictionary as an official definition of the word: “This chapter literally bored me to death,” for example. Usually, a dictionary definition of a word is another way of thinking of its literal (in the non-figurative sense) meaning.)

So, there is no such thing as an absolutely non-figurative language. This means that you can never absolutely guarantee that any statement, no matter how literal it seems, is not also figurative. Take this simple sentence: “He fell down the stairs.” You’ll probably want to say, “that’s obviously literal.” But is it? For it to be literal it has to describe an event that actually happened. Outside of a known context there’s no way to decide whether the sentence is literal or figurative or both (yes, a sentence can be both at the same time). The sentence “He fell down the stairs” could describe what it felt like for him to have his heart broken, or it may describe the effects of getting a demotion at work: “He went to the boss thinking he was going to get a promotion. He thought he was going up in the company. Instead, he fell down the stairs.”

Compare some other common figurative expressions that at first glance sound literal: “he was on fire,” “he bought the farm,” “he got burned,” and “he lost his way.”

So the difference between literal and figurative language has nothing to do with the words themselves. It has to do entirely with the way the words are used or understood in a specific context. The same sentence which in one context, or read one way, would be literal, in another context or read another way would be figurative. Because one of the most natural things to do with words is use them to represent (to represent either “things” or “concepts”), it will never be absolutely possible to prevent any words from being taken figuratively even if they were not meant that way (this is true in everyday language as well as poetry, but it doesn’t usually cause any confusion in everyday language).

The poet Marianne Moore, a great baseball fan, once described a new young poet by saying, “He looks good—on paper.” The effect of the sentence depends up on the reader’s understanding that poems are literally written on paper and that, figuratively speaking, “he looks good on paper” means “the information we have on him tells us he should be good, but we still have to see him perform.”

The boundary between literal and figurative isn’t always clear.

We also need to say a few words about the distinction we made above, that literal language is “more direct” than figurative. This may not be true either. So-called “literal” statements can only be considered more direct in regard to the most superficial meaning of the word “meaning,” that is, only in regard to the referential content of a statement. But recall what we have been saying all along: that “zeroing in on a meaning” is never more than one possibility of language. And it’s never the sole purpose of a poem. Figurative language is therefore not necessarily “roundabout.” Figurative language is often more direct than “literal” language. This is because in a poem the thing we are directing our attention at is an emotion or an experience rather than a meaning. If I say “Tom Brady was ‘on fire,’” I’m getting closer to the emotional truth of the event than if I say “Tom Brady played exceptionally well last night.” I am also getting closer to the truth of the experience of watching him this way than I would be if I listed his accomplishments. I’m giving an indication of what it was like to watch him play, what it may have been like for him to play. And if that’s what I want to do, the figurative language does it better—more directly.

Everything is guided by purpose, by what the poem is doing .

Compare these three examples:

1) She felt sad.

2) She felt as though she’d just lost her best friend.

3) She turned away and looked out the window. The world outside became blurry.

Let us say that example 1) is literal, i.e. that it refers to an actual woman or girl who really feels sad. In that case the statement is referentially true, but it carries little emotional content; example 2) would then be figurative. You will notice that it also captures somewhat more of the case. If true, it is more accurate than example 1) because its figure reproduces more of the emotional quality of the sadness than any purely literal statement could. But because the figure is a cliché, it still manages less emotional content than a careful writer probably desires. Example 3) is the most emotionally effective. It is the most effective because it is both literal and figurative. Turning away and looking out the window are actions that suggest more meaning than the actions alone convey. And the world did not really become blurry. Really, she started to cry.

We can say then that we need both figurative and literal language because they do different jobs. A writer, whether she is a writer of prose or poetry, fiction or nonfiction, will choose the method of expression according to the job that needs to be done.

Now that we have an understanding of what poetic, or figurative language is, let’s define more precisely the most common examples so that you can practice identifying them when you come across them. They are: metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, litotes, irony, apostrophe, symbol, personification (there are dozens more, and part of an education back in the Renaissance would have been learning about and practicing all these different figures).

Here are some definitions and examples:

Metaphor— a figure of speech in which one thing (which usually is easy to understand) stands for another thing (which is often more abstract). You’ll see that the metaphor works a little differently in each of the three examples below. In the first case, the metaphor has an obvious, simple relationship to what it refers to. In Bradstreet’s “The Poet to Her Book,” the title tells us that the poet is talking to her book. We quickly infer upon reading the poem that the book is compared metaphorically to a child.

If you do not read carefully, you may think Bradstreet is writing to a literal child. But as soon as this mistake is pointed out to you, you realize that she is, of course, pretending that her book is a child. The metaphor works because a book like a child is created by someone (a parent/author) whom it resembles and who cares for it and whose reputation depends on it.

On the other hand, a metaphor may have a less clear relationship between its two parts (its image and referent , more formally known as its vehicle and its tenor ). In Blake’s “The Tyger,” we know that the tiger is not quite a literal tiger. But it’s not entirely figurative either. The figure depends for its meaning on the “tigerness” of real tigers. But what exactly the tiger refers to or stands for is never made crystal clear.

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

You might also notice that within the overall metaphor of the tiger, there are other metaphors such as “burning bright.” “Burning bright” compares our metaphorical tiger to a fire.” But why is the tiger burning? When you read the poem, you will see that this tiger was made with a hammer and chain in a furnace. The metaphor makes a tiger the creation of a blacksmith (the blacksmith being a metaphor for God). This is not how “literal” tigers are made. Why has Blake chosen these metaphors? What effect do they have on our reading or understanding of the poem? Such questions can be answered—and they can be answered either well or poorly. But the answers will not be as simple or final in this poem as the answer to the question of the child/book figure in Bradstreet’s poem.

Still other metaphors may be impossible to pin down precisely. Both of the figures mentioned so far evoke emotion or feeling as well as meaning. But it is possible to take a figure so far into the emotional that it loses all sense of the intellectual meaning, as some claim T.S. Eliot does in this image from a poem we may read in a future week:

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains, Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys, Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap, And seeing that it as a soft October night, Curled once around the house, and fell asleep.

It’s clear that the poet is comparing fog to a cat (this is an implied metaphor because the cat is invoked without ever being named). The “catness” of fog is however far less obvious than the fearful power of blacksmith/God is to a tiger or the mother to child relationship of an author for her book. Moreover, this fog-cat metaphor is stretched out to such an absurd length that it begins to lose sense. We learn very much less about fog by comparing it to a cat than we learn about books by comparing them to children or about God by comparing Him to a blacksmith.

But the difficulties we may have with the cat-fog metaphor doesn’t mean that the poet has failed. In the context of the poem, it is clear that the metaphor is meant to reveal more about the state of mind of the title character than about the catness of fog.

We’ve barely begun to discuss the intricacies of metaphor. But that will be enough for now. We could spend the whole book on the subject. Many books have been written trying to understand all there is to understand about metaphor. We’ll go through the rest more quickly.

Simile. Simile is very much like a metaphor, but it uses an explicit comparative word, usually “like” or “as,” to compare one thing to another. So instead of saying “My book is my child,” You say, “My book is like a child.”

Metonymy and Synecdoche . Metonymy is the substitution of a name of an object closely associated with the word you have in mind for that word: “White House” for president. “Crown” for king. “The sweat of the brow” for “hard labor.” “Broadway” for the theater district in New York.

Synecdoche is similar to metonymy; it is the substitution of a name of some part of a thing for the whole thing: You say “trunk” for tree in a sentence such as “We have fourteen trunks on our property,” or “wheels” for “car,” in the expression, “a nice set of wheels.” With synecdoche you can also do the opposite and choose a whole to name a part. You can call a police officer “the law,” for example, as in “The law is coming to give me a speeding ticket.”

Hyperbole . We mentioned this above. It is exaggeration. “This book weighs a ton.”

Litotes . This too we mentioned above: understatement. Of home run slugger Barry Bonds, “He’s not the weakest person who ever played the game.”

Irony : saying one thing but meaning another, generally the opposite. Saying of an ugly painting, “Oh, isn’t that pretty .” In irony we perceive that the words deliberately fail to coincide with their usual meaning.

Apostrophe : In an apostrophe, we speak to an inanimate object or an absent person. “Western wind, when will thou blow?” I’m talking to the wind.

Symbol : The use of a verbal object or quality of an object to stand for an abstract idea. The black hats worn by bad guys in Westerns and the white hats worn by Good Guys are symbolic of evil and good. Notice that they are not metaphors, but they could be metonymy, since we somewhat arbitrarily associate white with good and black with evil.

Personification : Ascribing the qualities of a human being to an inanimate object or an abstraction. “The waves sang to the moon.” (There’s a fancier word for this as well: anthropomorphism . It’s a fun word to throw around at parties.)

Two more notes: First, these are dictionary kinds of definitions. A poet’s use of figures of speech may not be as straightforward as these definitions may lead you to believe. Second, a given example of figurative language may qualify as more than one type of language. A symbol can be metonymic and ironic all at the same time. I may want to use a sword to symbolize the sexual prowess of a knight, but since a sword is also associated with knights, it may also be said to be a metonymy. I may say “the sword did battle with the harem.” If the sword turns out to be fake, rubber perhaps, and flops down when it is pulled it from its scabbard, the symbol of a rubber sword becomes ironic. Poets often use such complex figures.

Ted Talk: James Geary, Metaphorically Speaking

Video Lecture: Figurative Language

Assigned Poems

Shakespeare Sonnets # 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” # 73 “That time of year thou mayest in me behold,” and #130 “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”
Gioia, “Money”
Plath, “Metaphors”
Ciardi, “Most Like an Arch This Marriage”
Stevenson, “The Demolition”
Donne, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”
Donne, “The Flea”
Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”
Raine, “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home”
Shelley, “Ode to the West Wind” (example of apostrophe)
Jeffers, “Hands” (example of personification and apostrophe)
Burns, “Oh, my love is like a red, red rose” (example of simile)

Some Poems Suggested by Lindsay and Bergstrom (not required):

William Blake, “The Lamb” (Links to an external site.)

“The Tyger” (Links to an external site.)

Dylan Thomas, “Fern Hill” (Links to an external site.)

Sarah Lindsay, “Without Warning” (Links to an external site.)

Jane Hirshfield, “Green Striped Melons” (Links to an external site.)

Alice Fogel, “Morning Glory” (Links to an external site.)

Wesley McNair, “What Became” (Links to an external site.)

Cynthia Huntington, “Multiple Sclerosis” (Links to an external site.)

Maxine Kumin, “After Love” (Links to an external site.)

Robert Bly, “Seeing the Eclipse in Maine”

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6 Tips for Using Poetry in a Speech

The term “public speaking” may be defined as relaying information to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. People may choose to give a speech in order to transmit information, motivate people to act, or simply to tell a story. A good orator should be able to change the emotions of their listener and not just inform them. Hey, we get it. Writing a speech on top of actually performing it in public can be super scary and intimidating, but it gets easier once you think of a speech as an epic spoken word poem. Check out our tip guide for getting over some of those spoken word nerves. Most speeches actually use the same literary devices you already use in tons of your poetry. Think of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” (why hello there, chiasmus). Now, don’t you feel better? By using the boss poet skills you already have, you can create a speech with descriptive and moving language that really entices your listeners. Keep on reading to find out how to write a speech that grabs your listeners and holds their attention.

Why Do I Have to Write This Thing Anyway? Think about the atmosphere of the occasion at which you’ll present your speech. This will affect the style and tone of your words, just like in a poem (example: a political poem would use a much more serious tone than a poem about a funny memory between you and your best friend). Also pay attention to your audience. For example, a wedding is an event that occurs frequently but no two weddings are exactly alike. This is because different guests with varying personalities attend each one. So, if you were to write a wedding speech, you’d tailor it to match the specific personalities of the couple as well as the guests. Use your poet’s intuition to choose which literacy devices you think everyone will best respond to.
Use Metaphors and Similes. Ah, oldies but goodies. A metaphor is a stylistic device that assigns the characteristics of one thing to another. For example, in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, when Martin Luther King described Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation as, "a great beacon light of hope for millions of Negro slaves," he used a metaphor to imply that the Emancipation Proclamation had the attributes of a shining beacon light. A simile is a literary device that compares two unlike things using the words “like” or “as.” If King had said the Emancipation Proclamation was " like a great beacon light of hope," he would have been using a simile. Metaphors and similes are elegant ways of saying something-- and listeners respond well to this type of fancy language that’s also easy to understand.
Describe, Describe, Describe! Appeal to your listeners' senses by using concrete, vividly descriptive language. Let’s look at this in action. In a famous nineteenth-century murder case, the senator and powerful orator Daniel Webster recreated the murder scene in the minds of the jurors with expressive descriptions: "The room is uncommonly open to the admission of light. The face of the innocent sleeper is turned from the murderer, and the beams of the moon, resting on the gray locks of his aged temple, show him where to strike. The fatal blow is given!" By honing your ability to create intense imagery, you can entice your listeners to use all five of their senses and make your speech that much more impressive .
This Isn’t an Essay for School-- Go Ahead and Repeat Yourself . Repetition is when a word or phrase is used more than once. In a speech, repetition forces the attention of your audience, quickens the pace of your words, and creates an insistent rhythm. Consider this famous example uttered by Winston Churchill during World War Two: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills." Bet’cha the next thought in your head is “we shall…” See, it totally works! Repetition helps to drill key words and ideas into your listeners’ minds so that they remember the most important sections of your speech.
Practice your Delivery and Be CONFIDENT . If you’re confident when speaking and passionate about your speech topic, it will definitely come across as powerful in your delivery. Read your speech quietly aloud to yourself, listening for its musicality or beat. Then, start over again but a little louder. Each time you read your speech out loud, increase your volume. It might sound silly screaming your speech, but it’ll definitely help with your confidence and once it’s time to perform it for real, speaking at a normal yet assertive register will be a piece of cake. Familiarize yourself with the core ideas and images in your speech. The more you understand the speech, the more likely your audience will understand it and respond to the points you are trying to get across. The more strongly you identify with your work the easier it will be for your audience to follow.
Power Poetry . Now that you’re more familiar with how to write a speech using poetic elements, it’s time to test it out. The ability to read your written work aloud is a gift of immense value because it expresses with grace and clarity thoughts and feelings that are often difficult to find appropriate words for in ordinary prose. Share your poetic speech with Power Poetry and better yet, record yourself so that you can see how much your hard work paid off!

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Church where Bread of Heaven writer is buried spared from auction

Sale of St Michael’s Church shelved after campaign to save ‘culturally important’ landmark to creator of Welsh hymn

Campaigners have won their fight to stop the sale of an historic church where one of Britain's most famous hymn writers is buried

Campaigners have won their fight to stop the sale of a historic church where the author of the original Welsh lyrics to Bread of Heaven is buried.

Poet and hymn writer Ann Griffiths penned the Welsh language words to the choir favourite Cwm Rhondda, popularly known in English as Bread of Heaven.

She was baptised, married, and buried in the picturesque St Michael’s Church in Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa, Powys, following her death after childbirth aged just 29 in 1805.

The church closed its doors in 2020 after it fell into disrepair and religious leaders said they could not afford to fix it . But campaigners were outraged when the “culturally important” church was listed for auction – and given a guide price of just £30,000.

Ann Griffiths penned the Welsh language words to the choir favourite Cwm Rhondda – known as Bread of Heaven in English.

A petition to save the church was launched and gathered more than 1,800 signatures in one day, leading church bosses to postpone the sale.

Musician Lleuwen Steffan began the petition to save the church, saying: “We are still riding on the wave of the poetic expression of her faith.

“She was baptised here, and married here. It goes to auction in a week. It is a place of great historical importance. But Welsh History is disregarded.

“Ann Griffiths wrote a total of just 30 hymns and as clichés go it really is quality rather than quantity. Her hymns are imprinted in our collective memory.”

Ann’s poems and hymns have been set to music and an adaptation of one, Yr Arglwydd Iesu (The Lord Jesus) was read at the enthronement of former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams. The Church in Wales said the sale had been postponed for a year.

The original listing by estate agents said: “Comprising a substantial unlisted former place of worship, situated in a prominent location within the Conservation Area of the small semi-rural village of Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa.

“Traditionally built, to a particular style, in dressed local stone walls under a slate clad roof. This substantial building offers scope for a variety of alternative uses (subject to planning consent).”

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I would like to thank the Peterson Institute, and its President, Adam Posen, for giving me the opportunity today to share some thoughts about a topic of vital importance to U.S. financial stability – the orderly resolution of Global Systemically Important Banks – or GSIBs as they are called.

Prior to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, it was generally assumed in the United States and in other major jurisdictions of the world that GSIBs were unlikely to fail. The diversified business models of these firms combined with their diversified geographical operations supported the perception that there was little need to devote regulatory attention or resources to their potential failure.

The massive public support provided to these institutions in the United States and elsewhere to prevent their failure during the 2008 crisis shattered that perception. They could indeed fail. As a result, in the United States, Title II of the Dodd-Frank Act, enacted in 2010, provided the FDIC with dramatically expanded authorities to manage the orderly failure of a U.S. GSIB, or for that matter any financial company whose failure was deemed to pose a risk to U.S. financial stability. Similar authorities were provided to financial regulators in other major jurisdictions of the world.

Since that time, the FDIC has been working diligently to develop the capability to use the expanded authorities provided for GSIB resolution under the Dodd-Frank Act. Today the FDIC is releasing a paper – Overview of Resolution Under Title II of the Dodd-Frank Act – which describes the progress we have made and provides the most comprehensive explanation to date of how the FDIC expects to utilize those authorities.

I would like to use the opportunity of this speech to explain at a high level the contents of the paper. We believe it is of critical importance to the success of our efforts that the financial markets, policymakers, and the public have the clearest explanation possible of how the FDIC expects to manage the orderly resolution of a GSIB. That is the goal of the paper and my comments today.

As I indicated, the ability of the FDIC and other U.S. regulatory authorities to manage the orderly resolution of large complex financial institutions remains foundational to U.S. financial stability. While recognizing the progress that has been made toward enabling such a resolution, we also recognize that the resolution of a GSIB has not yet been undertaken. When it becomes necessary to do so, carrying out such a resolution will come with a unique set of challenges and risks. However, an orderly resolution is far more preferable to the alternatives, particularly the alternative of resorting to taxpayer support to prop-up a failed institution or to bail-out investors and creditors.

With this paper the FDIC is reaffirming that, should the need arise, we are prepared to apply the resolution framework that the FDIC and other regulatory authorities in the U.S. and globally have worked so hard to develop.

In that regard, we believe this paper is particularly timely in light of the decision by Swiss authorities last year not to place Credit Suisse into a resolution process, which the Swiss had developed consistent with the international standard adopted by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) after the 2008 crisis – The Key Attributes for Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial Institutions. Instead the Swiss chose to facilitate an open institution acquisition of Credit Suisse with public support. This was done despite the view, as detailed in an FSB report released last year, that the cross-border resolution framework was sound and that a resolution was ready to be implemented by the Swiss authorities. 1

In my remarks today, I will provide an overview of the resolution planning and policy developments supporting an orderly resolution of a GSIB under Title II, including the utilization of the Title I resolution plans or living wills, the development of the single-point-of entry strategy, rulemakings that have been implemented, and progress on international cooperation.

Of particular note, I will discuss in greater detail than has been provided previously the key operational steps for a U.S. GSIB Title II resolution – launching the resolution, stabilizing the operations of the failed firm, and exiting from resolution.

This discussion can get a bit technical, so please bear with me because it is important.

Resolution Planning and Policy Developments Supporting Title II

Let me begin by reviewing resolution planning and policy developments supporting a Title II GSIB resolution.

First, as required by the Dodd-Frank Act, multiple cycles of Title I resolution plans, often called living wills, have been and continue to be a very valuable part of our preparations for resolution. These plans require the largest U.S. bank holding companies to demonstrate how they could be resolved under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code without severe adverse effects on U.S. financial stability and without taxpayer support. As part of the Title I process, the U.S. GSIBs have enhanced their resolvability in various ways including by:

identifying options for shrinking and divesting their businesses in resolution to reduce their systemic footprint;
streamlining their organizational and funding structures;
developing capabilities to estimate material subsidiaries’ liquidity and capital needs in resolution;
building governance frameworks with specific triggers to promote timely action when a firm begins to encounter stress;
planning for operational continuity in resolution; and
improving transparency to markets and investors with public versions of their resolution plans and securities markets disclosures.

While the strength of these plans and capabilities varies across firms, Title I provides a valuable process for ongoing supervisory review and improvements. Each iteration of these plans helps to strengthen the resolvability of these large, complex banking organizations and to keep our planning up to date with the firms’ current business model and market developments. In short, the work that firms put into these plans is vital to making an orderly resolution more feasible.

Turning to Title II resolution, the FDIC’s development of the Single Point of Entry (SPOE) resolution strategy, which we announced in 2013, was a critical step forward in the FDIC’s thinking about how to address the challenges of resolving large, complex financial institutions, and remains foundational to our planning. 2 In an SPOE resolution, only one legal entity, the parent holding company is placed into resolution.

The ownership interests in the underlying subsidiaries are transferred from the failed parent company to a new Bridge Financial Company under the control of the FDIC. Under the SPOE strategy, material subsidiaries remain open and operating while we proceed through an orderly resolution. This protects depositors, preserves value, and promotes financial stability. In an SPOE resolution, the failed holding company’s shareholders and unsecured creditors are not transferred to the Bridge Financial Company, become claimants against the receivership, and will ultimately absorb the losses of the firm. There would be no taxpayer support, and the board and senior executives of the failed firm would be removed.

To help operationalize an SPOE resolution, in 2017 the Federal Reserve and other authorities finalized a number of rules that help make SPOE work.

The Federal Reserve’s rule on minimum Total Loss Absorbing Capacity (TLAC) and long term debt (LTD) ensures sufficient private sector capacity is available to absorb the losses and recapitalize the institution in resolution;
The “clean holding company rule” limits the liabilities of GSIB holding companies that are not long term debt, which helps reduce complications and competing claims of the holding company creditors in resolution; and
Requirements for GSIBs to provide for stays on counterparty actions for Qualified Financial Contracts (QFCs), such as derivatives and repos, mean that QFCs can be easily transferred to a Bridge Financial Company or other new owner and not disrupt core financial markets.

Finally, because operations of GSIBs are global, the FDIC has invested enormous effort to promote international cooperation with our key counterpart jurisdictions. Our work together has resulted in robust mechanisms to:

pre-position resources to support the recapitalization of subsidiaries in an SPOE resolution;
meet regularly with home and host authorities to discuss firm-specific resolution plans in Crisis Management Groups; and
continue to engage with cross-border counterparts at all levels to test our operational preparedness. These engagements include biennial principal-level resolution planning exercises with our UK and European Banking Union counterparts.

Together, these planning and policy developments support the FDIC’s preparedness to undertake a Title II resolution.

Operational Steps for a U.S. GSIB Title II resolution

A Title II GSIB resolution will be a challenging process under any circumstance, with a number of steps that need to be taken quickly and in close coordination with a range of stakeholders. Generally, we plan for three stages of resolution: launching the resolution, stabilizing the failed firm's operations, and exiting the resolution. Let me provide some more detail on our preparations and expectations for each of these stages.

Launching the resolution

When a GSIB approaches failure, the FDIC and other authorities would take up that specific case to decide, under those circumstances, whether, when, and how the Title II framework would be used. The multi-agency process and statutory factors guiding this decision are clearly laid out in Title II of the Dodd-Frank Act. This process is often referred to as the “three keys process,” because it requires recommendations from two federal agencies – the Federal Reserve and the FDIC in the case of most GSIBs – followed by a determination by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the President, to commence a Title II receivership. 3

Part of the decision making is a determination that using Title II would mitigate the adverse effects of the firm’s failure and resolution in bankruptcy. Unlike a resolution under the Bankruptcy Code, a Title II resolution is managed by the FDIC as receiver. It provides for the Orderly Liquidation Fund (OLF ) at the U.S. Treasury as a line of credit to the FDIC to serve as a temporary backstop source of liquidity. Any utilization of the OLF will be repaid with the assets of the failed firm with no taxpayer exposure.

Access to the OLF requires an Orderly Liquidation Plan agreed upon with the Secretary of the Treasury that lays out the expected resolution strategy. As described above, the FDIC expects that the Orderly Liquidation Plan would be based on an SPOE strategy , which the FDIC considers the most suitable resolution strategy in a range of potential scenarios involving resolution of a U.S. GSIB. The SPOE strategy would mitigate financial stability risk, keep key subsidiaries open and operating, and continue critical operations.

Launching the actual entry into resolution involves a number of steps that happen concurrently. For a GSIB resolution using an SPOE strategy, the parent holding company of the failed GSIB is placed into receivership. The FDIC, as receiver, would establish a Bridge Financial Company under its control, and determine the leadership and governance; transfer the operating subsidiaries to the Bridge Financial Company; and commence the claims process.

Importantly, at the point of entry, the board of directors of the failed GSIB and senior executives who were responsible for the failure would not be retained by the Bridge Financial Company. The Dodd-Frank Act also provides authority for compensation clawbacks for senior executives who are considered to be substantially responsible for the company’s failure. As mentioned previously, the failed firm’s shareholders and creditors will ultimately absorb the losses of the firm, with no taxpayer exposure.

The FDIC has prepared for these steps in advance. We have drafted legal documents to establish the bridge company and its governance structure, built a program that maintains a roster of qualified and vetted executives to run the Bridge Financial Company, and retained contractors to scale up work on communications, employee retention, and claims administration. Throughout this process, the FDIC aims for a balanced approach to bridge governance and oversight, with the FDIC retaining control over key strategic decisions and ensuring compliance with the Orderly Liquidation Plan and repayment of the OLF while the new Bridge Financial Company’s leadership manages the day-to-day operations.

Stabilizing the operations of the firm

The second stage of resolution – stabilization of the operations – begins as soon as the firm enters resolution. A key advantage of the SPOE resolution strategy is that by keeping material subsidiaries open and operating , it enables the firm’s material operations to continue. The newly formed Bridge Financial Company would be backed by OLF liquidity or guarantees to the extent needed, and have a strong balance sheet with ample capital because the failed firm’s liabilities were left behind in the receivership to absorb losses, while the assets were transferred to the Bridge Financial Company.

This puts the Bridge Financial Company in a strong position to use its internal resources to take any actions that may be needed immediately upon entry into resolution to recapitalize material domestic and foreign subsidiaries, provide liquidity support, and maintain continuity of operations.

These actions will be supported by a comprehensive communications effort coordinated among the FDIC, other U.S. and international authorities, and the Bridge Financial Company. This effort will be designed to provide clarity and understanding of the resolution to a range of critical stakeholders —including staff of the Bridge Financial Company and its subsidiaries, customers, counterparties, various public authorities, and the wider public.

Let me be clear: While SPOE means the original holding company would fail, with the consequences of failure, the new Bridge Financial Company and its material subsidiaries will be open and operating. Market participants should be confident that these subsidiaries will continue providing critical services and functions to the market and fulfill contractual obligations to employees, counterparties, and customers.

Exiting from resolution

Once the operating subsidiaries are stabilized, the FDIC and Bridge Financial Company management expect to focus on developing and implementing the restructuring and wind down plan . Leveraging the GSIB’s Title I plan, the FDIC will have analyzed prior to the failure possible restructuring, divestiture, and wind-down actions to occur in resolution and incorporated its own expectations into the resolution strategy for the firm. The type and extent of restructuring will depend on the nature of its business, the causes of failure, and the economic and market conditions at the time. For example, an appropriate restructuring plan could include selling subsidiaries or specific business lines; winding down or liquidating specific portfolios, business lines, or subsidiaries in an orderly manner; or breaking up certain operating subsidiaries for sale or spin-off.

Any restructuring will aim to maintain value, continue or transition critical operations, address the causes of failure, and ensure that the entity or entities emerging from the Bridge Financial Company can be effectively resolved under the Bankruptcy Code (or other ordinarily applicable regime) in an orderly fashion. Ongoing restructuring and divestiture requirements could also continue after exit from resolution by virtue of conditions placed on acquirers or mandated by other supervisory or regulatory requirements.

The FDIC expects to exit resolution in a timely fashion, with the failed GSIB’s shareholders and creditors, rather than the taxpayers, absorbing the losses of the failed firm. The FDIC expects that the most likely mechanism for exiting resolution will be a securities-for-claims exchange . In this approach, new debt and equity securities in the successor company (or companies) are distributed to former creditors to satisfy the claims against the receivership. Once the securities are distributed, the Bridge Financial Company is terminated and the successor company or companies will be owned by the former claimants.

While the timeline may vary depending on the scenario, completion of all the steps needed for the securities-for-claims exchange—making claims determinations, estimating valuation of any successor company (or companies), and issuing and distributing new securities to claimants —will be arranged during the bridge period, which is likely to take at least nine months.

This will allow sufficient time for the FDIC and the Bridge Financial Company to issue the audited financial statements, prospectuses, and necessary disclosures in order for the successor company (or companies) to comply with the requirements of federal securities laws.

Again, our goal is that when a GSIB exits resolution, it no longer presents a systemic threat to the U.S. financial system and can be resolved under the ordinarily applicable resolution regime.

Let me conclude by acknowledging that a U.S. GSIB failure will be extraordinarily challenging under any circumstances. Needless to say, we have yet to execute an orderly resolution of a U.S. GSIB. Until we do so successfully, there will be questions as to whether it can be done.

The purpose in issuing the paper today is to explain as clearly and in as much detail as possible how the FDIC expects to carry out that critical resolution responsibility. We believe we have the authorities, resources, and capabilities to do the job if it becomes necessary. We hope the paper generates interest in this issue. We stand ready to engage with all interested parties to address questions and build further understanding of the FDIC’s plans and preparedness for executing our Title II Dodd-Frank Act resolution responsibilities for GSIBs.

See Financial Stability Board “ 2023 Bank Failures: Preliminary lessons learnt for resolution ” October 2023.

FDIC’s 2013 SPOE Request for Comment – Resolution of Systemically Important Financial Institutions: The Single Point of Entry Strategy, 78 FR 76614, http: govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2013-12-18/pdf/2013-30057.pdf

The three keys process in DFA is similar to the voting process for approving the systemic risk exception in the FDIA which the agencies have invoked on a rapid timeframe including in the first quarter of 2023.

At White House, Japanese prime minister will trumpet strength of U.S. alliance

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was just 6 years old in 1963 when he and his family moved from Tokyo to New York, an entire hemisphere and endless cultural differences away.

The boy from ethnically homogenous Japan was struck by the diversity and generosity of his classmates while attending public school in Queens for three years, an impression that Kishida still recalls fondly six decades later.

Kishida can expect the same warmth during a state visit this week when he returns to the United States not just as the prime minister of his country, but also as the one who has led the U.S.-Japan alliance to its strongest point.

“The world is now facing a historical turning point with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East, and the security environment in East Asia,” he said in a one-on-one interview with The Washington Post at his official residence in Tokyo ahead of the visit. “It is important to demonstrate to the world the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance and how strong it is in today’s uncertain international society.”

President Biden will host Kishida at the White House on Wednesday for a state dinner. On Thursday, Kishida is scheduled to deliver a speech at a joint meeting of Congress. Both will be the first for a Japanese prime minister in nine years.

The trip will underscore the two countries’ growing partnership, bound by concerns of an increasingly tumultuous security environment in East Asia. The two leaders are expected to discuss new areas of cooperation, including closer coordination between the U.S. forces in Japan and the Japanese military, and joint development and production of military and defense equipment.

Beyond security, the leaders plan to talk about cooperation in space, artificial intelligence, global supply chains and more. Kishida also will tour new Toyota and Honda plants in North Carolina to highlight Japan’s economic importance as the largest foreign investor in the United States.

“During the visit, I would also like to emphasize that the Japan-U.S. alliance is not a relationship that is formed solely between the leaders of the two countries, but also between the Congress, between governments, and many private companies, local governments, and so on,” Kishida said.

That emphasis is sure to revive controversy over Japanese company Nippon Steel’s planned acquisition of U.S. Steel, which has sparked an outcry from lawmakers from both parties and from the powerful United Steelworkers union.

The Japanese steelmaker has pledged not to cut jobs, but the deal nonetheless has become a flash point in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state where U.S. Steel is headquartered. Kishida said he does not plan to discuss the deal with Biden.

Other points of friction are likely to include the impasse in Congress over the $60 billion U.S. aid package for Ukraine, which has frustrated American allies, and Japan’s need to strengthen its cybersecurity capabilities, which U.S. officials think are a weak link in the alliance. And officials from both countries will look to lock in plans in case of an unpredictable U.S. president’s return .

Japan is now at the center of U.S. strategy to counter China through what American officials call a “latticework” of groupings between like-minded nations.

The latest step in cementing this strategy will arrive Thursday with the first trilateral summit of Biden, Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. As China ramps up aggression in the South China Sea, rising maritime tensions have prompted Manila to draw closer to Tokyo and Washington. The three leaders are expected to announce new measures, including in maritime and economic security.

But this week’s pomp will mainly celebrate Kishida and the dramatic shifts Tokyo has made under his leadership to shed longtime postwar pacifist constraints.

In the past two years, Japan has taken previously unthinkable steps to bolster its defense capabilities , including increasing its defense budget to 2 percent of gross domestic product over five years, making it the third-largest in the world, and acquiring “ counterstrike ” capabilities to hit enemy bases with long-range missiles.

These moves demonstrate Japan’s growing desire to defend itself and better help enforce the global order. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kishida has repeatedly warned that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow.” The invasion triggered deep alarm in Japan that without a strong response, it could embolden China to attack Taiwan and lead to war in the Asia-Pacific region.

If Russia prevails, “it would show that force can actually bring benefits, even when breaking international law. If so, what would happen to East Asia? We must not allow any country to receive the wrong message,” Kishida said.

The prime minister recalled his visit in 2023 to Ukraine , where he spoke with victims in Bucha, the site of a civilian massacre by Russian troops, and said he was “outraged by the cruelty.”

“My visits to Kyiv and Bucha last March had a very significant impact on me,” Kishida said. “Actually touching the harsh and tragic reality of the war through the visit made me more determined in pursuing … lasting peace in Ukraine as soon as possible.”

Placid demeanor belies dramatic changes

The man who has led Japan through these dramatic changes is anything but dramatic. The mild-mannered leader almost never strays from prewritten talking points and has followed a traditional political career.

As a child living in Tokyo, Kishida spent every summer in Hiroshima, his family’s hometown. He would listen to stories from his grandmother and other survivors about the unfathomable horrors of nuclear devastation.

Kishida, 66, considers helping as foreign minister to broker Barack Obama’s 2016 visit to Hiroshima , the first by a sitting U.S. president, one of his most memorable achievements. Now, Kishida has hosted Group of Seven world leaders there twice , drawing attention to his oft-stated dream of a “ world without nuclear weapons .”

“Many leaders understand this [need for nuclear disarmament] in their heads, but to be able to take serious and concrete action, I think it is important for them to actually see the tragic and harsh reality with their own eyes and feel it in their hearts themselves,” he said.

Kishida’s familial path into politics is a common one in Japan; he followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, who were both lawmakers.

He cut his teeth helping with his father’s election campaigns. Although he has had by far the highest title in three generations of Kishida men in politics, he credits his father with teaching him the fundamental values of public service.

After his father died in 1992, Kishida won his seat in Hiroshima, moving up the ranks before becoming prime minister in October 2021.

Diplomacy has been one of the few bright points of Kishida’s tenure that has been unscathed by scandals. Domestically, Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has been mired in problems, including a massive political fundraising scandal that threatens his future as prime minister. Support for Kishida and his cabinet has been historically low.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe laid the groundwork for Japan’s assertive foreign and defense policy, in hopes that Japan would play a bigger role on the global stage. But it is Kishida who put that plan into action, partly because he is not as divisive as Abe, many analysts say.

“He’s picked up on some of the important elements of the Abe revolution and advanced them in subtle and effective ways. He’s been able to do what Abe wasn’t able to do,” said Daniel Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs. “He’s got dovish politics and aura, but what that really means is that he’s trusted in ways that Abe never was. … That’s a huge asset, and he’s utilized it with real agility.”

One of the most dramatic moments of his term so far was the July 2022 assassination of Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. A year later, a man tried to attack Kishida . Both times, the politicians were on the campaign trail. And both times, Kishida insisted on immediately resuming campaign activities, saying the democratic process would not be deterred by violent attacks.

One area that U.S. officials are likely to laud during the visit is Kishida’s work with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to break a 12-year diplomatic stalemate and work together to cooperate with Washington to counter threats in the region. Yoon’s overtures have led to a resumption of “ shuttle diplomacy ” as both men try to show they are serious about setting aside thorny historical issues from Japan’s colonization of Korea in the first half of the 20th century.

Historical issues have bedeviled the two countries’ periods of rapprochement. It could happen again, with changes in domestic politics in both countries. In fact, the Kishida-Biden summit will be on the same day as the National Assembly elections in South Korea, which could render Yoon a lame duck well before his term ends in 2027.

But Kishida said that he learned as foreign minister that personal relationships make a huge difference in diplomacy, and that he hopes his relationship with Yoon will help the two countries build trust over time. The two men met seven times last year and have reportedly connected over their love for baseball and mutually high alcohol tolerance. Yoon has “never wavered in his promises or decisions, at least in my experience,” he said.

“Ultimately, it comes down to the relationship between the top officials who make the decisions on diplomacy,” Kishida said.

Julia Mio Inuma contributed to this report.

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Why Poetry Matters: The Significance Of Poems In Our Lives

Key Takeaways

Poetry as an Expression of Human Emotions and Experiences

The Unique Power of Poetic Language

The Beauty of Metaphors and Symbolism

The Rhythm and Sound of Poetry

The Economy of Language in Poetry

Poetry as a Tool for Self-Reflection and Self-Expression

Connecting with Emotions

Finding Meaning in Life Experiences

Overcoming Challenges Through Poetry

Poetry as a Universal Language

The Timelessness of Poetry

The Cross-Cultural Appeal of Poetry

Poetry as a Tool for Understanding Different Perspectives

The Relevance of Poetry in Contemporary Society

The Role of Poetry in Social Justice Movements

The Connection between Poetry and Mental Health

The Future of Poetry in the Digital Age

Recommended Reading...

Why Is Poetry Important? (25 Reasons)

Poetry as a Vehicle for Emotional Expression

Poetry Fosters Deeper Connections Among People

Poetry Enhances Literacy and Language Skills

Poetry Invoking Empathy and Understanding

Poetry Celebrates the Richness of Language

Poetry Can Convey Powerful Messages Succinctly

Poetry Holding Historical and Cultural Significance

Poetry Providing a Platform for Diverse Voices

Poetry Nurtures Imagination and Creativity

Poetry Encourages Critical Thinking and Analysis

Poetry Taps into the Universal Themes of Life

Poetry Can Be Therapeutic for Both the Writer and the Reader

Poetry Challenges Readers to See from Different Perspectives

Poetry Helps in Coping with Trauma and Healing

Poetry Encourages a Pause for Reflection in a Fast-Paced World

Poetry Amplifies Personal and Collective Memory

Poetry Plays a Significant Role in Ceremonies and Traditions

Poetry Creates a Sense of Community and Belonging

Poetry Allows for the Exploration of Language and Sound

Poetry as a Reflection of Cultural and Societal Values

Poetry Transcends Age and Educational Backgrounds

Poetry Often Reflects Societal Trends and Changes

Appreciation of the Mundane in Poetry

Poetry Influences Modern Technology and Media

Poetry Preserves the Oral Tradition and Storytelling

Final Thoughts

Moved by words: how poetry helps us express our feelings

Disclosure statement

Rhymes and rhythms

Want to write?

The Power of Poetry in Speeches

Why Use Poetry in a Public Speech

How to Use Poetry in A Public Speech

1. Choose the right poem

2. Have a plan

3. Speak like a poet

4. Don’t think too much

5 Famous Poetic Speeches in History

2. We shall fight on the beaches by Winston Churchill

3. Ain’t I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth

4. Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Final thoughts

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10 Points on the Power of Poetry

Otto the Owl Who Loved Poetry

12 Elements of Poetry Every Poet Needs to Know

1. Rhyme and rhyme scheme

What is rhyme in poetry?

Example: “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep” by Robert Frost

How is meter created?

Example: “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

3. Lineation

Example: “Crepuscule” by E.E. Cummings

Example: “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats

5. Point of View

Example: “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Example: “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

7. Metaphor

Example: “Heart” by Dorianne Laux