How to read poetry

Still a work in progress. Time for lunch.

This morning was cold about the house; we stepped bare-footed on cold plank floors, shivered in thin pajamas in the dark of the interior chill, washed our hands in unheated waters, icy cold from standing in the pipes all night. So after an early bite to nourish and give warmth, we as we do some times on Saturday returned to "the big bed" to read "Morte d'Arthur" by Alfred Tennyson: Annie Franck, Little BG and I.

And so I read, modulating my voice according to the rhythm and changes in action or mood of the narrative poem. We remember from prior experience and others' advice that reading a poem out loud, or reading anything out loud, can often bring out the rhythms, rhymes, alliterations & assonances which give us so very much more enjoyment in the experience.

Poetry, while we connote it with leisure and dreaming, is really work, as I am reminded this week as I busily prepare works to be submitted via the post for publication, possibly, G-d willing I pray to myself as I have finished typing, collating, adding the cover letter, the résumé, and the list of individual poems with notes for each one. It is really work, maybe like office work at times, other times like field work.