MAKALAH TENTANG HOW TO READ THE POEM

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background

Reading poetry well is part attitude and part technique. Curiosity is a useful attitude, especially when it’s free of preconceived ideas about what poetry is or should be. Effective technique directs your curiosity into asking questions, drawing you into a conversation with the poem.

In Great Books programs, the goal of careful reading is often to take up a question of meaning, an interpretive question that has more than one answer. Since the form of a poem is part of its meaning (for example, features such as repetition and rhyme may amplify or extend the meaning of a word or idea, adding emphasis, texture, or dimension), we believe that questions about form and technique, about the observable features of a poem, provide an effective point of entry for interpretation. To ask some of these questions, you’ll need to develop a good ear for the musical qualities of language, particularly how sound and rhythm relate to meaning. This approach is one of many ways into a poem.

Poems speak to us in many ways. Though their forms may not always be direct or narrative, keep in mind that a real person formed the moment of the poem, and it’s wise to seek an understanding of that moment. Sometimes the job of the poem is to come closer to saying what cannot be said in other forms of writing, to suggest an experience, idea, or feeling that you can know but not entirely express in any direct or literal way. The techniques of word and line arrangement, sound and rhythm, add to—and in some cases, multiply—the meaning of words to go beyond the literal, giving you an impression of an idea or feeling, an experience that you can’t quite put into words but that you know is real.

B. Problem Statment

1. What is the reading ?

2. What is the poem ?

3. How to the reading a poem ?

C. Distinations

1. Reader know definition of reading.

2. Reader know definition of poem.

3. Reader can explain how to read the poem.

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

A. Definition

1. Definition Reading

Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous practice, development, and refinement.

Readers use a variety of reading strategies to assist with decoding (to translate symbols into sounds or visual representations of speech) and comprehension. Readers may use morpheme, semantics, syntax and context clues to identify the meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words they have read into their existing framework of knowledge or schema (schemata theory).

2. Definition Poetry

a. A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.

b. A composition in verse rather than in prose.

c. A literary composition written with an intensity or beauty of language more characteristic of poetry than of prose.

d. A creation, object, or experience having beauty suggestive of poetry.

B. How to The Reading The Poem

The primary purpose of this book is to develop your ability to understand and appreciate poetry. Here some preliminary suggestions :

1. Read the poem more than once. A good pem will no more yield its full meaning on single reading that will a beethoven sympony on a single hearing. Two readings may be necessery simply to let you get your hearings. And if the poem is a work of art, it will repay repeated and prolonged examinatio. One does not listen to a good piece of music once and forget it ; one does not look at a good painting once and throw it away. A poem is not like a newspaper , to be hastily read and cast into the wastebasket. It is to be hung on the wall of one’s mind.

2. Keep a dictionaryby you and use it. It s futile to try to understand poetry without troubling to learn the meanings of the words of which is composed. One might as well attempt to play tennis without a ball. One of your primary purposes while in college should be to build a good vocabulary, and the study of poetry gives you an exelent opportunity. A few other reference books will also be invaluable. Particularly desireble are a good book on mythology and a bibble.

3. Read so as to hear the sounds of the words in your mind. Poetry is written to be heard : its meanings are conveyed through sound as well as trough print. Every word therefore importent. The best way to read a poem is just the opposite of the best way to read a newspaper. One reads a newspaper as rapidly as he can one should read a poem as slowly as he can. When you cannot read a poem aloud, lip-read it : form the words with your tongue and mouth though you do not utter them. With ordinary material , lip reading is a bad habit ; with poetry it is a good habit.

4. Always pay careful attention to what the poem is saying. Though one should be consious of the sound of the poem, he should never be so exclusively conscious of them that he pays no attention to what the poem means. For some readers reading a poem is like getting on board a rhythmical roller coaster. The car stars, and off they go , up and down paying no attention to the landscape flashing past them, arriving at the and the poem breatless, with no idea of what it has been about. This is the wrong way to read a poem . one should make the utmost effort to follow the through continuously and to grasp the full implications and suggestions. Because, a poem says so much , several readings may be necessary, but on the very first reading one should determine which noun goes with which verb.

5. Practice reading poems aloud. When you find one you especially like, make your roomate or a friend listen to it. Try to read it to him in such a way that the will like it too.

a. Read it affectionately, but not affecdly. The two extremes oral readers often fall into are equally deadly. One is to read as if one were reading a tax report or a railroad timetable, unexpressively, in a monotone. The other is to elocute , with artificial flourishes and vocal historionics. It is not necessery the put emotions into reading the poem.the emotions is already there. It only wants a fair chance to get out. It will expresitself if the poem is read naturally and sensitively.

b. Of the two extremes, reading too fast offers greater danger than reading to slow.

c. Read the poem so that the rhythmical pattern is felt but not exaggerated . Remember that poetry is written in sentence , just as prose is, and that punctuation is a signal as to how it should be read. Give all gramatical pauses their full due. Do not distort the natural pronunciation of words or a normal accentuation of the sentence to fit into what you have decided is its metrical pattern.

CHAPTER III

CLOSING

A. Conclution

1. Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning (reading comprehension). It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas.

2. A verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.

3. The primary purpose of this book is to develop your ability to understand and appreciate poetry. Here some preliminary suggestions :

- Read the poem more than once

- Keep a dictionary by you and use it

- Read so as to hear the sounds of the words in your mind

- Always pay careful attention to what the poem is saying

- Practice reading poems aloud

B. Suggestion

And do not forget we also give advice with the completion of this paper is we hope thet the lecturer who taught us that continue to guide us, and we are also very much hope to lecturer and friend in order to provide input to further improve and refine this paper.