To read a poem is to depart from the familiar, to leave all expectations behind. 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. To understand the multiple meanings of a poem, readers must examine its words and phrasing from the perspectives of rhythm, sound, images, obvious meaning, and implied meaning. 5 Tips For How To Read Poetry: Life Kit Reading poetry doesn't have to be homework. The type of poem it is will give you huge clues to what it’s doing. Those of us who find and read poems become their unknown addresses. To the Reader Setting Out The reader of poetry is a kind of pilgrim setting out. In the Beginning is the Relation How to Read Poetry: The Process Choose a poem. Next, scan the poem for words that aren’t familiar. Circle these words and look them up. This episode has five tips for all you poetry naysayers to find poetry … Interpreting poetry Understanding and interpreting poetry requires readers to connect and interpret ideas and meaning from both the structure, and the linguistic styles and devices used. Poems speak to us in many ways. Poems are like messages in a bottle sent out with little hope of finding a recipient. Readers then need to organize responses to the verse into a logical, point-by-point explanation. Students need to link information from sentence to sentence or across stanzas, and infer relationships between events and characters or causes and consequences. Poetry is a compact language that expresses complex feelings.