How to Read a Poem
In today’s online edition of The Atlantic Mark Yakich has a wonderful essay about reading poetry titled “Reading a Poem: 20 Strategies.” These strategies are really twenty sagely delivered snippets of advice, my favorite of which is:
18. The very best way to read a poem is perhaps to be young, intelligent, and slightly drunk. There is no doubt, however, that reading poems in old age cultivates a desire to have read more poems in youth.
It’s a great essay about all that is different and fulfilling in reading poetry…