Five Easy Steps to Reading a Famous Poem

Famous poems are everywhere. They appear in places no one could expect - slogans on television, common sayings and phrases, and the titles of just about every artistic film or endeavor at the local video store. Because famous poems are so transcendent, we rarely if ever notice they are there and even less often realize who wrote them. Why not ensure the proper steps are taken when reading a famous poem then to better appreciate the author, the poem, and the time spent reading it.

Step #1 - Selecting a Famous Poem

How To Write A Sonnet

Easy as pie, right? It might immediately seem so but finding and selecting a specific famous poem or poet to study can be a bit time consuming. Do you really want to read something that does not interest you? You wouldn't simply buy a book off of a shelf because the woman at the desk told you it was famous. You would want to know what the book is about. The same is true for poetry.

Five Easy Steps to Reading a Famous Poem

Most of the famous poems in history are available for free online and can be searched for by topic. If you are interested in a war story, Homer's Iliad has been enthralling readers for millennia while Shakespeare's sonnets are beautiful love poems. There are numerous resources for finding that ideal poem.

Step #2 - Who Wrote the Famous Poem

Who is the author of your famous poem? The list of potential names is nearly endless. Here are a few of the biggest and brightest stars of the poetry universe to get you started:

Homer

William Shakespeare

Edgar Allen Poe

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Percy Bysshe Shelley

John Keats

William Wordsworth

The list goes on seemingly forever if you let it. The best way to find an incredible, famous poet is to visit the local bookstore or library and ask for recommendations.

Step #3 - Reading the Poem

Read it carefully and slowly. Simply skimming through a famous poem doesn't do it justice and will only leave you wondering, why is this so famous? You could read a magazine if you simply wanted text to skim over quickly. Poetry is meant to be absorbed and to absorb it you must read it slowly and methodically.

Step #4 - Contextualizing Famous Poems

When was the famous poem written? What was happening in the world? What major events were coloring the life of its author? These are the questions you should ask when reading a famous poem. Every poem has a story behind it and knowing that story can make the entire experience that much more engaging.

Step #5 - Finding More Poetry

Once you find a famous poem that you enjoy, that strikes the perfect cord, you will want to find more of the same. Luckily, many of the poets listed above have enormous bodies of work. Most local bookstores feature large anthologies of work from most of them as well as combined anthologies with famous poems organized by subject or publication date. If you want to find more poetry, there are dozens of resources to do so.

Five Easy Steps to Reading a Famous Poem If I were Video Clips. Duration : 2.50 Mins.

I'm a little sick so It might sound nasally If I were good with a needle and thread then I'd sew our state lines together And If I were good with those persuasive words then I'd convince your heart to like mine forever But I'm none of these things so I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best If I were a poet I'd write you a sonnet that would beautifully express what I'm feeling If I were a painter I'd paint you a picture. show you a place we could be in But I'm none of these things so I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best Oh there's something in your eyes that tells me even though I don't have a lot you somehow like what I've got

Tags: 20009

"Think not I am Faithful" by Edna St. Vincent Millay (poetry reading)

Edna, who sometimes preferred to be called Vincent, was enamoured with the concept of "free love". Free Love is a misnomer because the term usually means the most costly kind of love: costly because it inflicts the most harm and provides the least valuable returns. The idea of being in love with love where you can find it rather than entering into a mutually committed exclusive relationship is more attractive to the young, who can easily find a new relationship when they've ruined the old one by being selfish and unfaithful. She is right that vows are worthless (unless they relate to a code of morality, such as wedding vows, but even then they are only as strong as that code.) You can't trust a lover's promises because as soon as they get annoyed with you they will deliberately break them. The only person you can trust is one who has high standards of integrity. You can guess what their standards are from how they have behaved in the past. Whatever happened with their last lover will probably happen with you. This sonnet expresses the idea that she won't need other lovers because she had found a lover who is so changeable and fickle thay they supply her need for variety. Of course, like most love poetry, it's not much more than spurious advertising for pretty falsehood. When poets promise undying fidelity or say that, "love is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is not shaken", they are more concerned about their lover straying - which motivates them to write a ...

"Sonnet 38 First time he kissed me" by Elizabeth Barrett Browing (poetry reading)

Or, how Robert got to first base. Chrism is a holy oil, used for anointing, such as at confirmation. If Lizzie had any sensations elsewhere in her anatomy she doesn't mention them, as of course one couldn't in polite society then. And all those damned buttons: - still, "unbuttoning" is one of the sexiest words in the language. So is "moisture" or "stocking tops" - and how about "district nurse"? I'm sorry, I seem to have wandered off topic. Robert did write Porphyria's Lover which must have made her wonder.... Perhaps they never used proper names for their parts. It also makes one wonder how their conversations in the bedroom went, what euphemisms they employed. "Oh. my love, I am so very proud..." "Oh so you are, in perfect purple state. Know then that you are welcome in every corner of my being, my love, my own" "Oh I ache for you, but confound there buttons. I sometimes think this 19th century clothing is designed to make the crown of love inaccessible, I do wish they'd hurry up and invent zip fasteners" "You're nearly there, my love, just two more layers and fifty buttons to go" "Oh...oh..oh....too late...I seem to have anticipated and spent my passion on your bustle, I'm so sorry..." "Ooh - what a shame I was so looking forward to accommodating you - feel no shame for your ardour, what greater flattery could I receive? and it will wash off. Oh, what a prodigious load of chrism! Did you have oysters for breakfast, dear heart?" "Stay as you are, I shall not be downcast ...

Sonnet 17 "Who will believe my verse in time to come..." by William Shakespeare (poetry reading)

Like Sonnet 18, there is little doubt that this was written to a young man. Similarly, there is no justification for any presumption of homoeroticism (not that there's anything wrong with that, according to Jerry Seinfeld) The notes attached to Sonnet 18 apply here, too. It might be addressed to Shakespeare's patron, William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, who had already had a son who died at birth. I'm no historian and haven't researched this idea, so perhaps somebody who knows more about Shakespeare will set me straight. tinyurl.com He was a couple of years older than Shakespeare and it is usually accepted that the "Fair Youth" of the Sonnets was younger, so Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton is a more likely candidate. Some analysis of this sonnet here: www.shakespeares-sonnets.com A portait said to be William Herbert is shown, painted in about 1625. The picture of Shakespeare is called the Cobbe Portrait, claimed to have been painted while he was alive in about 1610. Who will believe my verse in time to come, If it were filled with your most high deserts? Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts. If I could write the beauty of your eyes, And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say 'This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.' So should my papers, yellowed with their age, Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue, And your true rights be termed a ...