How to Recite Poetry Out Loud

One of the keys things that separates poetry from prose is the attention that is paid to sound. For this reason, reading poetry out loud can bring great pleasures that reading prose out loud cannot. However, it also presents plenty of unique difficulties as well. Despite these difficulties, everyone should try to read poetry aloud, as it reveals new depths of the poem for both speaker and listener.

Instructions

1. Look for sentences. Though they may be hard to find, as poems often use complicated syntax, most poems do have identifiable sentences if you look close enough. Identify the sentences just like you did in elementary school English class (where is subject? where is the predicate?). Reading the poem sentence by sentence will help you comprehend the meaning and the flow of the poem.

2. Pay attention to punctuation. The punctuation will not only help you identify the sentences, but it will also tell you where to pause when reading aloud. You should only pause when there is punctuation. If there is no punctuation at the end of a line (what's known as enjambed line), you should keep reading without a pause. Moreover, the type of punctuation tells you how long to pause. A pause for a comma should be half as long as a pause for a period and a semicolon should be somewhere in between the two.

3. Look up difficult words. If you have a word you are having trouble pronouncing, look it up, practice it a few times and, if necessary, spell it out phonetically in the margins of the page.

4. Identify the speaker(s). Ask yourself who is speaking in the poem, and to whom.

5. Identify the tone. After you identify the speaker(s), decide what tone the poem should be delivered in.