Monday, June 18, 2012

Understanding Poetry

 Listening to poetry is one of the best ways to absorb the natural rhythm of a language as well as its structures. Reading, listening to understanding poetry immerses yourself in an art form that explores cultures everywhere in the world. 


This course is more appropriate for advanced English, but intermediate learners will aslo benefit from it. The Modernist poet TS Eliot wrote that we can often connect with and read poetry in another language before we can do the same with prose. Personally, I found that to be true. I'll look for his essay to post here.

Why read a poem? Why write one? People say poetry as an art form is imperiled in our time, yet everywhere in the world cultures and individuals memorize, recite, and value various forms of poetry. This course will attempt to define this genre of writing, to discuss its particular attributes, to distinguish between good and bad poetry, to explain why so much poetry is difficult, and to isolate the sorts of truths poetry seems best at conveying. Our focus will be on modern poetry, in English and in translation.

Understanding Poetry by Margaret Soltan

3 comments:

  1. Vanessa
    I found to be visit Blogging English and post to it. I don't know why.
    I know it's hard to understand poems. I tried to watch this video. I couldn't understand her lecture.
    I'll try to watch easier one.
    Regards,
    Sadamu

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll look for shorter, easier to follow videos and have a few ideas: 1) Khan Academy and 2) learn to play bridge videos.

    It's easier to understand lectures and video presentations on subjects you already know.

    Another strategy is to watch a video with a script that you can follow. Your reading skills will reinforce listening. ESL Notes is a movies for ESL site with scripts.

    Have you listened audio ESL Lessons on Pandora Internet Radio? I don't really know much about it, but the link came up on search.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PS Learn to Play Bridge videos on YouTube ~ but you can search for more too or short videos on other topics.

      Delete

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